A "Quinta" in Ecuador is a block of land usually in a rural area and large enough
to build a house and have gardens, an orchard, grazing areas for animals. A typical
size for a quinta would be around 1 hectare (1 hectare = 2.5 acres).
Larger blocks of land such as the property itself are called "Fincas"
The word "lote" (translation of the English word "lot") is used for a smaller piece
of land such as the like in an urban subdivision.
We will use the word "quinta" or "parcel" ("parcela" in Spanish) from now on and
not the word "lot".
7 quintas in total have beem purchased and developed on the
Rio Uchima property. Their sizes vary between 1 acre and 4 acres (1/2 ha to 1.7 ha) approximately.
To further preserve the natural beauty, we encourage features such as living fences
(it is easy to do here using Yucca trees for example). Grazing animals such as donkeys
and horses can move freely on the common land between properties which is what they
have been doing for years. The common land has many attractive features: forests,
walking trails, springs, large mountaintop grazing areas, views.... for every homeowner
to enjoy.
We tried to reduce interferences between the quintas to a minimum. This was achieved in different ways:
- by spreading the quintas out over the usable space on the 70 hectare property
- by having buffer zones of common land between the quintas so that most lots do not
have a boundary with any other lot.
- by restricting the location of the building site on some of the quintas
- by taking advantage of the natural features to hide one building site from another.
The property has many forests, ridges and gullies and no artificial way of preserving
privacy (walls, fences) is necessary on any of the quintas.
Another aim is to facilitate and encourage the use of the common land by making
sure that the existing trails do not cross private land. For example, there is an
easy walking trail starting from the road leading to a spring and then carrying
on all the way to the western boundary of the property.
The services include a quality unsealed private road all the way from the river
to the top, water (the best water on earth) and power (reasonable use according
to some guidelines to be published, e.g. not for heating or electric stoves or other
high energy electric equipment). We will look into the feasibility of hydro electricity.
We are also very interested in alternative ideas with regards to electricity. Fast
Internet will be available at a cost.
At the date of this writing (August 2015), 4 families have built their homes and permenently live on the land (Q1, Q4, Q6, Q9B) Note that this is not a “community”. The
families can interact as much or as little as they decide, we have no involvement
in people's lives except in setting some basic rules as far as using the private
and public space (e.g. no motor racing, no hunting on the property, no further subdivision
of the private land, a height restriction on some building spaces, some rules about
cutting down trees or taking rocks from the river ...). It seems that the very nature
of the property and project attracts likeminded people who will naturally get along
and desire these rules to be in place. We visualise this to become a great nurturing
place and a development (with a small "d") to be proud of in the middle of Ecuadorian
families established in San Pedro/Sacapo.
In contrast to the larger developments in the area, this is not a gated property
with security guards and targeted at wealthy individuals. Having said that, to access
the property it is necessary to cross the Uchima river using a gated private bridge.
The river offers a natural deterrent against intruders.
We intend to keep the development of good quality but minimalistic and leave as
much of the natural surroundings as possible untouched. We also strive at providing
a place for the families to blend in with the wonderful local communities of San
Pedro and Sacapo.
Let's now look at the subdivision map and each quinta in more details.