News from Tamarindo

Here it is! The first Bloom Microventures Costa Rica blog entry. It has been a busy yet exciting past few weeks. A lot of progress has been made since our arrival in Tamarindo. The team is now almost completely on the ground, Lain, Malte and me (Elena), are already on the site. Felix will be on his way in early January. We have a centric home-office that Lain and Malte found, right in front of the bus stop too, a place we have spent many hours at waiting and taking buses to the different communities. Tamarindo is small, in fact, Malte refuses to call it a town (not sure what his criteria are) but I will agree in that it’s small. It is a town where people come to surf but of course we have had little time to venture into the waves.

In front of Eugenio's house

Currently we are exploring the surroundings, scouting for the communities with the least resources. Once we locate them, we visit the village and talk to the locals in search of the entrepreneurs. We have found all types of occupations, from making necklaces to selling frozen jello, which is a great business idea with the heat in this region! So far we have visited among others Villareal, Guaitil, San Vicente and Huacas, some parts of which are extremely poor. One of the first entrepreneurs we met in Guaitil was Eugenio, who lived without electricity or water in a small shack.

Lain talking to an 88-year old entrepreneur

The possibilities for development seem endless, and people’s excitement when we explain what Bloom Microventures intends to do is making us want to be operational immediately. But we are taking this time to make sure we pick the sites that are in most need and where we can help the most.

Other than that, Lain and Malte have become expert hunters of cockroaches around the house. I am sure this new skill set will be helpful in the future!

This blog will be updated often with our adventures as we set up Bloom Microventures in Costa Rica! So mark it as a favourite and join us in our journey. And since this is an interactive blog… please send us questions, comments and ideas!

Elena