Stage-One Tulum

Mission: We put our heart into raising life from the ashes of another's past. We put our backs into making the experience as holistic and real as possible. We put our hope in other people's love for Tulum and the Future. We invite you to come and grow with us!

From www.ic.org/directory/stage-one-tulum/:

Birth of the Stage-One Concept

With long-term hopes of becoming a 200 unit mixed lodging that offers activities and is supported by its own autonomous village comprised of resident and non-resident members;

The initial build out zone is tucked 330 meters west of the federal highway near the front of the land parcel. The land offers 230 acres of lush flora and active fauna with a rough and varied geography including a small wetland area and an unimproved cenote at the base of a large cave mouth near the back of the property. The land stands largely unexplored.The Stage-one concept is located on a family owned parcel of land at the southern border of Tulum County, Quintana Roo Mexico.

The land was acquired over 18 years ago along with a slither of beach land and other jungle lots. Very different market conditions existed then than what exist today. Lands in the Tulum area at that time were mostly “ejido property” that couldn't be owned outright and did not guarantee that the property could ever be “owned” as most people would consider property ownership.

None of these obstacles ever deterred the man who risked aggressively to obtain and maintain possession of the lands. We call him The Founder as that's what he is. He essentially founded every project that will ever be executed on the lands that he fought for and labored on for a decade.

The Founder went right to work; rustling up a truck and three able hands and immediately began creating Cabanas La Zebra. Within two years he had raised 4 cabins and Small Kitchen Palapa out of jungle lumber and grass for the roofs. The road then was so bad from Tulum to sian ka an that potholes 8 meters in diameter and 70cm deep would form in rainy season to drown vehicles like our little red Volkswagen bug and many others. We would have to wade in and force it out to a dryer patch of road and let the thing set for a while to dry. Days were filled with the delays of everyday paradise and seclusion.

A few years after taking on partners in 2003, The Founder liquidated his share in La Zebra and other Hotel Zone Lands. From that point he became more and more focused on creating a network of ecological communal villages in the jungles near Tulum, Oaxaca and Calakmul.

By 2008 he had developed a manual, build-out plans, created a board of directors and had reclaimed over 1300 tons of structural and architectural materials from historical demolitions in the US. He was preparing to import the material into Mexico for use in the construction of his hallmark undertaking that he rightly named “The Preserved Life Project.” While gearing up for the importation process, the founder established a small homestead on the far west border of some jungle land behind Tulum that consisted of two palapas and a shower tower with a hand dug well.

One week after completing homestead #1, The Founder died tragically in an automobile accident while visiting the material holding yard in the US. Life has a way of throwing us curve balls when we think we have reached a season of perpetual assent. The Founder's life had become ashes; family and friends were left uncomforted and confused, Homestead #1 was lost in the woods along with the founder's dreams.

Only 4 months after the tragedy, news came over the wire that the lands had reached a middle-way status in their legal battle to a point where the federal government recognized that the property had the possibility of ownership or the issuance of a formal title deed. An important milestone had been reached but the task was far from finished.

In 2015 after 17 years of legal struggle and just under a million dollars, the lands were issued their title deed with respective registrations and became legal, marketable property. Land Tax Valuations of titled land located in the southern most point of Mexico's most important tourism zone provided the successors with a new set of actions to decide on and undertake. The feeling of a massive victory to end a battle that raged for nearly two decades was over in an instant. WE had a choice:

1.Sell the land to the owner of the rest of the land in our vicinity, recover expenses and close the chapter.
2. Make the land meet critical mass so that it can sustain compliance and maintenance cost without additional external injections. We do this by sharing the property with other people.

After a careful consideration of the task and adventure at hand, we chose both! So stage-One Camping was born in late 2016, we started cutting our way into the thick jungle from the highway until we made it to the first hill. We created our work camp there and slowly progressed to the initial build-out area. The Founder's Homestead #1 was located in January 2017 and the site is now known as “The Founder's Ruins.'

A service of the Data Commons Co-op. The project has been supported by Equal Exchange, the Cooperative Charitable Trust, the USDA, and many others - thank you! Tech volunteers over the years include: Benjamin Bradley with support from GAIA Host. Ben Mauer with support from Quilted. Paul Fitzpatrick. Ronin Tech Collective, Brattleboro Tech Collective, Sligo Computer Services. Jason Lemieux. Default map tiles courtesy of MapQuest. Default map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA.