Libélula
Kene had been dreaming of creating a retreat centre for many years. After losing his dad to cancer, he became increasingly interested in health, nutrition and natural approaches to wellbeing, and in understanding the connection between the body and mind. His own experiences with addiction and recovery also changed the way he looked at life. Through his relationships with Indigenous people and his experiences with plant medicine, he became interested in the ways people have approached healing, community and connection for generations.
Over time, the idea of creating a place where people could step away from everyday life, reconnect with themselves and have the space to look at things differently became something he kept coming back to.
Maisie had always been drawn to nature. Animals, plants, growing food, foraging and finding more sustainable ways of living had been part of her life for as long as she could remember.
In 2018, during a difficult period, she travelled alone to Costa Rica. She volunteered in a national park and was completely absorbed by the wildlife and the landscape. She loved the feeling of being surrounded by so much life, and although she went back to England, that trip stayed with her.
Around the same time, she was discovering the idea of life as medicine: food, movement, yoga, meditation and time in nature. Costa Rica became the place where she could imagine building a life one day.
Kene and Maisie eventually met through a mutual friend, when Kene was looking for help with photography, social media and websites for some of his natural-product businesses. What started as a friendship slowly became a relationship.
At the time, Kene was already developing a small retreat project in Portugal, and Maisie became involved too. They lived there together for a while, growing the project and learning more about what they wanted to create. It was an important part of their journey, but Maisie still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing.
Costa Rica kept calling.
LibélulaA Sanctuary for Metamorphosis.In 2023, they decided to go there together for the first time. They weren’t actually looking for a retreat centre. They were looking for a holiday home.
During the search, an estate agent asked Kene what his dream property would look like. He described a large piece of land, deep in nature, with running water, waterfalls, forest, mountains and privacy. Somewhere far enough away from development to feel completely immersed in the natural world.
He also mentioned that, one day, it could become the retreat centre he had imagined for so long.
The estate agent told them she had exactly that place.
The first time they went to see it, it was raining heavily. Maisie didn’t immediately understand what Kene saw in it, but they went back for another viewing. Later, they stayed in the main house while it was being rented on Airbnb, and that was when they really started to fall in love with the place.
There was rainforest everywhere, with rivers running through the land, waterfalls hidden among the trees and wildlife constantly moving around them. From most parts of the land, there were no other buildings in sight. It felt incredibly private and completely removed from the outside world. The perfect place for a retreat centre.
It was also more expensive than they had planned for.
Their first offer was rejected, and for a while they assumed the opportunity had simply passed. Then the seller came back with a price lower than the original offer. Suddenly, the possibility was there again.
For Kene, making it happen meant letting go of what he had built in England. Before his dad passed, he had worked alongside him in their successful car repair workshop. He also spent years building a property portfolio through real estate. Now, everything had to be sold to put it all into the dream.
So we decided to trust, and make it happen.
The name Libélula came from our journey too.
Libélula means dragonfly in Spanish and Portuguese, and dragonflies had become an important symbol for Kene during his healing and plant medicine experiences. Over time, that symbolism became part of our shared story too.
The dragonfly felt like the right symbol for what we were creating. Its whole life is a process of transformation, beginning underwater and spending a large part of its existence as a nymph before eventually emerging, shedding its old form and becoming something completely different.
That idea of metamorphosis felt very close to what we hoped Libélula could offer people, and to the journey we had been on ourselves. A place where people could step away from their usual lives, have some space to reflect and reconnect, and perhaps leave feeling different from when they arrived.
It also felt right for the journey of Libélula itself. We know this place will keep changing and evolving, and we want to keep learning how to care for the natural world around us rather than simply building on top of it.
That is where A Sanctuary for Metamorphosis came from.
There have been plenty of other strange little connections along the way too. Maisie and Kene grew up only a few roads apart in England without ever knowing each other. Years before they met, Maisie used to walk her dog past Kene’s house every single night.
Looking back, it feels strange to think how close their lives had been without them ever knowing each other. Somehow, after all those years, their paths finally crossed, and everything that had been separate in their lives started to come together.
Today, Libélula is much more than a retreat centre. It has become the life we have built together.
It is our home, surrounded by dogs, cats, chickens, gardens, rainforest, rivers and wildlife. There is always something happening here - something to build or fix, something to plant, something new to learn or some animal that needs looking after. Along the way, we have also rescued ten animals and given them a home here.
The land itself is at the heart of everything. When we first fell in love with this place, it wasn’t because of what could be built on it, but because of what was already here - the rainforest, waterfalls, rivers, wildlife and plants. We wanted to build around that rather than change it.
Everything we’ve built so far has been in open spaces that already existed, without cutting down trees to make room for buildings. We’ve used local natural materials and local people wherever possible, and we’re planting trees and plants that can eventually provide materials for future repairs and projects, including palms for leaf roofs and teak for future buildings.
The upper pool
We feel more like guardians of this piece of rainforest than owners of it. It’s our home, but it’s also home to everything that was here long before us, and that shapes the way we care for it.
We also want Libélula to give something back to the people and communities around us. We employ local people and support Costa Rican families through the work here, with the intention of creating more opportunities around food growing, practical skills, education and access to resources as the project grows.
Our relationships with Indigenous communities are important to us too. We’ve learned a lot from the people we’ve met along the way, and we don’t want to arrive somewhere assuming we know what people need. We’d rather listen first, build genuine relationships and find ways of supporting that are actually useful and respectful.
20%of our profits goes towards charitable, environmental and community projects.
Every retreat also has a place for someone who genuinely needs the opportunity but wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it, and in the future we hope to offer more retreats entirely through donation. So far, this has included providing sustainable menstrual products to Indigenous women and girls, including the Nokikoi and Yawanawa communities in Brazil, as well as supporting an orphanage in Mexico.
Plant medicine has been an important part of both our journeys and has a place within the story of Libélula, but it has never been the whole vision. The centre is also a place for yoga, meditation, breathwork, bodywork, women’s and men’s retreats, workshops, courses, cultural experiences and simply spending time immersed in nature.
For us, wellbeing is much bigger than any one practice. It’s the food we eat, the way we move and rest, the people around us, the environment we live in and the time we spend outside. It’s about the way we relate to ourselves, to each other and to the world around us. It’s about remembering that life itself can be medicine.
That’s really what we hope Libélula can offer: a place where the natural surroundings are a big part of the experience, where people can slow down, reconnect and spend some time immersed in nature.
We know Libélula will be forever transforming. There are still gardens to grow, trees to plant, things to build, places to restore and plenty that we haven’t even thought of yet.
What started as a dream of creating a place where people could step away from everyday life has grown into our home, a retreat centre and a piece of rainforest we feel incredibly privileged to care for. We don’t know exactly what Libélula will look like years from now, and that’s part of the excitement. We’re looking forward to seeing what it becomes while continuing to learn from the land, the people who come here and the communities around us.
For now, we’re just very grateful that the dream that started in two completely different places eventually brought us here.
And we’re only just getting started.
