One big happy family.
 

What happens when you put an Ecuadorian carpenter together with a biologist from the United States?  Tamiaju! Eladio and Toni met here in Cosanga, we were both over 30 at the time so there wasn’t a whole lot of fafing around.  We got straight to the point and eleven months later were married in a small simple ceremony in our front yard with Johnny (who had finally gotten over the idea of it) looking on.

Tamiaju started when Toni’s parents wanted to come for a month-long visit.  You see, even though they don’t speak the same language Toni’s dad John and Eladio have an intense bromance.  So, with the only tool Eladio had, a chainsaw, he built the first cabin, the MAD (Mom and Dad) house. When Toni’s parents weren’t here we put it up on Airbnb and started dreaming bigger.

There was a bit of serendipity involved when Toni’s friend Zo came down and offered her a job in Alaska over the summer of 2017.  The idea was, one summer, build some cabins a kitchen dining area and voila we have a business that works with an intact forest, providing us and hopefully our neighbors with income.  Fast forward 6 summers and one cold, dark, winter in Alaska and, uh, voila? 

We decided to buy some forest in March of 2020.  I think some people might remember that time was a little wild but somehow, we made it through.  Now we are conserving 5 hectares of great forest.