Family History by Daisy Seelye

Las Vueltas means the turns and it is the name of the place we the Seelye families live and work and share our life with visitors who wish to stay and learn with us

The turn seems appropriate to describe how we began this project some thirty years ago when Papa (Ruddy Seelye) and Mama (Maxine Smith) started a family and decided to home school.

Chased out of Michigan by the cold, we traveled to Florida and having heard about Costa Rica from friends decided to visit for a few months in a tropical country. In those days it was cheaper to take a flight to Panama and catch the bus from there to San Jose.

So February 4th, 1978 we arrived. Papa, Mama, Martha and me. I was three years old, Martha one, and Mama was five months pregnant with Andy.

The first thing that caught Papa and Mamas attention was the kindness of the people, right from the start, The Costa Ricans willingness to help and try to understand them, although their Spanish was almost nonexistent. Fresh off the bus an unknown woman gave them some money to use a pay phone.

Then the bus came back to return a baby bottle that had been left behind. One could say they lost their hearts that day and to this day very little has changed.

In the next twelve years our family grew and looked for a place to settle. It was not easy; we lived all over, from the low tropics to the high lands looking for a community of like-minded people. Finally we decided we were our own community of eight and settled on the Vueltas mountaintop. During this time we were working very hard buying the farm we live on now. Our maternal grandmother declared, “A farm is the best way to teach and raise a family” so she paid it off. Having our own land that was accessible to the highway allowed us to start investing time and money in to the project. We lived there for the 17 years or so protecting the forest, learning all we could, raising a family, growing up in a very pure environment, taking care of animals. We are on top of the mountain so we also watch the water sources. And we always had lots of visitors come and stay. Sometimes I joke that we became a lodge out of self-defense. Once I remember having 18 people sleeping on our floor! We learned to take care of people. Lots of people! Feeding and guiding them around the farm, showing them how to milk the cows and the cheese making, riding horses, hauling fire wood, bird watching, long hikes and much much more. But we were not making any money from it. They were all “friends”.

Martha and I having gotten married and raising our own families were not living on the farm. Andy being the next in line started working to earn a living leaving Satya, Wendy and Jayne to run the farm along with Mama and Papa.

Being completely bilingual and good with people, tourism was his best choice so he became guide, later teaching Satya and Martha. In 2000, after a few years of working as a guide Andy saw the potential of our farm and along with Jayne started the project we work at now. They set in the hydroelectric system using a pelton wheel and a dynamo to generate electricity. Andy, Satya and Wendy started building the lodge. The goal was to have a working lodge by 2005. It had a few set backs, one of them being the illness and death of Papa. He never quite saw the project take off. But his dream of teaching people to live more ecofriendly will live on with us.

In the last couple of years Wendy and Satya have married and moved out. And Mama and our aunt Suzanne moved in. My husband Leo and I also joined the project. It is all in the family still and Martha and Satya often help us financially. We show people it is doable to live off the grid as much as possible. We are not as self-sufficient as we would like, but we do buy as much as we can locally. We share our life with all who pass through and in doing so learn and teach every day. I think that part of our success is that we enjoy our life and almost every one who comes though it, and it shows.

It is hard to think of what we do as work but more as sharing ideas, jokes, songs, stories, recipes, anecdotes, and dreams. We also love dancing, long or short hikes, good books, sharing our mountain, bird watching, cooking good food, and so much more.

Our beds are warm, our food good, the view spectacular. Our is lodge rustic/homey, our showers hot, water plentiful, the staff (us) friendly. We try to make you feel at home, comfortable and relaxed while drinking tea or coffee in front of the fire, or hiking the millennium tree trail or milking the cow.

We have only started the project and have a long way to go, every day is packed with things to do and see.

There is a Chinese saying that applies to us “A man’s house is not done until he dies” and that is us.