The 'Papa Smurf' of the Harmony Hotel
He is what many would call “old school”. Not because he is 51, but because he has been working these gardens long before The Harmony Hotel even existed. Originally, The Harmony Hotel was called The Tai Pei Hotel but everything changed about six years ago. Tai Pei was sold and everyone who worked there had left apart from one man, Constantino Morales Rosales. He had already worked at Tai Pei six years prior and the beautiful gardens that surround Harmony are all his work! It seems that during the take over, Constantino was somewhat “part of the deal” and I believe he is one of the greatest investments the new owners of Harmony could have made. I’ve been told he is the “Papa Smurf” of The Harmony Hotel.
From a small village in the hills outside of Nicoya, Constantino grew up as a farmer’s son. His father farmed cattle and pig. Constantino however, became more of an agriculturalist and he developed a real passion for horticulture. Twelve years ago a local politician and friend of the family organised a job for Constantino. It was during hard times and the farm was becoming unreliable, so to generate more money Constantino started working as a security guard at Tai Pei. When the owner of the Tai Pei discovered Constantino’s gift for gardening, Constantino became in charge of his own beautiful tropical garden. Now twelve years later, it is inspirational to see what this man has accomplished. But gardening isn’t the only gift Constantino has brought to Harmony.
With Harmony came a new management team. And the new management team was Cayuga! Cayuga are a team of experts focused on re-educating local communities in sustainability in the hospitality industry. It was important for Cayuga to introduce a new way of thinking. Local staff was being employed. Education was becoming a daily activity. Recycling was introduced and Constantino was very impressed with the way Cayuga was taking control.
This gave Constantino ideas of his own. He was seeing the amount of plastic straws being thrown away at the bar, in the restaurant and by the pool. Every drink had a straw! Then he remembered a particularly narrow bamboo that was growing on his father’s farm. He wondered if he could use the bamboo instead of straws. This would mean consuming a lot less plastic and producing less waste. So from there he set out on his new venture.
After various attempts and three months of hard work he finally discovered the best way of producing his straws. The straws are hand made! The bamboo must be cut at a particular time of the month when the straws hold the most moisture. They are sterilized in chlorine water, then in boiling water and then they are left out in the sun to dry. The final process is filing the ends of any unwanted splinters.
Constantino started with ten straws, introducing his idea to the team at Cayuga. Today that number has grown to twenty thousand straws being purchased by various hotels every month. And when Mr Rosales received his certificate from the Ministry of Health approving his idea for commercial production, he wasted no time. Last week he sent his first international sale to a hotel in Paris! He is now planning the build of a small workshop and will be planting more bamboo to meet future demand.
So this is another great example of Harmony’s effort to encourage local initiatives. They helped Constantino become successful and this is the perfect example of what sustainability really is.
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