Discover how Patrick’s journey from Canada to Central America led to the development of sustainable communities that promote self-sufficiency and economic freedom. Learn about the unique features of these expat communities, from solar power to Bitcoin acceptance, and find out how they provide a haven for like-minded individuals seeking a more fulfilling lifestyle. Explore the future of education in these communities and how they prioritize practical skills for residents. For more information, visit their website: www.ecovillages.life or send an email to ilc@ecovillages.life.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introduction
3:42 Living Free and Sustainably by Patrick Hiebert
23:46 How to Avoid Rules from the Country
25:19 How Far is Veritas Village from Coronado
27:11 When is Veritas Village be Ready
29:00 Do People Need to be a Residence of Panama to Live in Veritas Village
36:04 Is the Accumulation of Sun and Wind Power Enough to Supply the Village
39:53 International School in the Village
49:05 How to Contact Ecovillages.life
Emily: Hello, everyone. It’s me, Emily Bron, owner of the International Lifestyle Consulting. And today, as promised, I have pleasure meeting and speaking with Canadian expat, Patrick Hiebert. Patrick is very interesting person. Patrick actually relocated from Canada to Central America years ago.
And since then, he was involved in several interesting, for me and our followers projects. Currently, Patrick is a founder and CEO of Ecovillages Life Marvin NFT Marketplace and some other projects in Central America. And it’s my pleasure today to meet with Patrick again. And hear about Ecovillage’s life.
Actually about what he and his team are doing in Central America, in different countries. In order for freedom sustainable lifestyle eco living. Tiny homes and many other, I would say buzzwords flowing around. But what is the difference between Patrick and other people? Other people are speaking a lot.
Patrick is doing. He is working his talk. So, again, my pleasure to meet you, Patrick. And please tell me us about your life and recent current projects in Central America.
Patrick: Thank you very much, Emily, for having me on your show. I appreciate it. It’s always nice to speak with you. You and I had a great conversation the other day, and that was a lot of fun seeing a lot of similarities in the in the way we think about freedom and sustainability and what’s going on around the world.
So. I have a little bit of a presentation for you. If you would like, it talks a little bit about our background and ecovillages and what we’re doing and. Might be the easiest way to, to do those introductions if you want me to go ahead and, and do that.
Emily: Yes. I believe in presentation format. It would be better for all of us to actually get information and digest it later on because it’s a lot of things to be explained here.
And thanks for providing us this presentation. And I am open and actually looking forward to learn more just to let you and others know that I’m following this movement I mean, eco living development of existing and launching of new communities for expats in Mexico, in Latin America, in actually Central American countries for years already.
And I know and is connected with different developers, developers who are working in this. Particular direction but tiny homes living, eco living, and this company is part of my biggest interest as of now. So please share with us what is eco lifestyle about, and what are you doing in Central America now?
Patrick: All right. Thanks Emily. We’re going to talk a little bit about Living in a freedom and sustainability oriented concept in in Latin America, and I’ll try to go through the slides pretty quickly because I know you’re probably going to have some questions from folks and, and we’ll go through that as as we can.
So, as you mentioned, we have a company called Ecovillages. life. I’m one of the founders and CEO of the company. We’ve been designing and developing freedom and sustainability oriented communities. For well, a couple of decades already in different aspects. My background is actually in software and I was lucky enough to sell a software company in the late 90s.
And traveled a bit with my young family at the time and really fell in love with the Central American area. And, that, that’s kind of what got, got me started thinking, well, I’m going to create communities for people like myself who want to get away from some of the things and like, for instance, my case, like being Canadian, high taxes, different things like that.
But, it’s over time, it’s really become more about, about freedom and sustainability. And we’ll talk a little bit about that as we go through the slides.
So, as I mentioned, Ecovillages creates freedom and sustainability oriented communities, and we’ll talk a bit about what that means. Try to make them as homes as affordable as possible, and we like to live in tropical locations, so we’re in the, we’re in the Latin American culture area here now, and I’m currently in Panama today, and in fact, after this presentation, I’m going to go to our Veritas Village community, and we can talk a little bit about that one as well.
So, how did we end up here? Well, after I sold the software company, my son and I, my daughters were a little older and they were outta the home already, but my son and I decided we were gonna live on a boat and we sailed around the area around Vancouver Island in Canada, and we really learned to be self-sufficient and we really enjoyed it.
We obviously caught fish and, eight sea asparagus and things like that to do as much as we could to see how long we could go for how many weeks, for instance, we could go with. Without relying on store bought groceries, it was more of a fun thing and a challenge, but we really enjoyed it and it’s we always had a kind of a spare case of pork and beans in the back of the boat.
So, if we got we had a bad day of self sustainability, we could always break those out. But. But in general, I, really, really wanted to take that concept to land and thought, okay, well, when you’re going to generate your own power when you’re on a boat, you can’t have a long extension cord out into the ocean.
So you’re generating your own power. You can tend to conserve power because you’re generating it yourself, usually solar or wind or tidal and water and desalinating water or salt water. So to make it potable water and all those sorts of things that we really, enjoyed, being self sustaining, not having any reliance on reliance on anybody else or any government or any companies.
And so we wanted to take that idea to land and we created the first off grid community in, and decided to, in Nicaragua. Nicaragua is one of my favorite countries down here. And in fact, Nicaragua kind of proved to be one of the most freedom oriented countries during COVID. And I’m glad I picked that.
Nicaragua was the first country I had a second citizen or residency in. And so we, over time, we honed in on the different designs and, and, made the homes more self sufficient. This is still luxury living, you still have your flat screen TVs and, fridges and freezers and everything.
We’re not talking about living in a yurt off grid or whatever. We’re talking about, high end luxury homes, just that they’re not reliant on others. And then, a lot of that was based around people that kind of retirement age looking for what, what, where can I go to, to find community like this?
And then when COVID hit, it kind of was awakening for a lot of people. I’m pretty open about the fact that I consider myself libertarian. I’m not into big government. I don’t like authoritarian governments. I don’t like a lot of high taxing and all the things that come along with that and censorship and rules.
So, we, we really realized that we needed to create a place, like you said earlier, a lot of people talking about this, but we wanted to act on it and we wanted to create a place that was really based on what our, I’ll talk a little bit in a minute about our first certification, but our solution to the whole situation, especially after COVID was to focus on creating freedom oriented and sustainability oriented communities.
So our first certification is. It stands for Freedom, Independence, Resiliency, Sustainability, and Transparency. And I won’t go into all the details on each one of those, but you kind of get the gist. We’re focused on ways to make our communities more freedom oriented. And what does that really mean? Well, humans need some basic things to survive.
First of all, they need water, need food, need shelter, some form of energy. And then maybe not to survive, but if you want to enjoy life, you have to have some things to do. So there’s the enjoyment factor as well. Well, in our communities, for instance, the Veritas Village, and I’m going to in a few minutes here.
We have a couple of deep water mountain fed spring wells with excellent quality water, not connected to the municipality water. We’re totally independent on that. Food. We have common orchards, community orchards and gardens. We have a tilapia pond. We have a stream that runs through the community hydroponic gardens farmers market area stables for small livestock.
So everything you really need to be. Independent and self sustaining, but also the properties of the home sites within the community are large, where people can have their own gardens and orchards and all those sorts of things as well. So we were a completely different developer. We go in and in this particular property, we know we’re keeping 99% of the trees and building around everything and, and really keeping it a beautiful forest and jungle area.
That’s really near the beach. Very beautiful property with amazing views of the ocean, and we’re not like the other developers that come in and just do kind of a scorched earth approach and just everything’s leveled off and trees are all gone. And then they just put in cookie cutter homes. So, we want a nice place to live in addition to being, self sufficient.
And then, we tend to find communities or build communities and find the land nearby existing. Communities that have grocery stores and movie theaters and hardware stores and, beaches and lagoons. And, we have some beautiful areas around our communities as well, but if, if it’s ever necessary, you don’t need all those things.
You can be sustainable inside the community itself.
So what that does on top of everything is it gives you increased financial freedom because the reduced cost of living is immense. Obviously, we have on site water. That’s part of the HOA, the homeowners association. Your energy can be completely free.
For instance, our welcome center at Veritas is 100% off grid. It’s still a great place as a really nice pool, and it’s a great place to hang out. But it also has, no connection to the power grid. Uses the on site amazing mountain spring water and all those things with no bills, right?
So it’s kind of nice. As I mentioned, we have the community food production and, there’s other things that give you a low cost of living in Latin American countries as well. Most of them have a territorial tax system, which means that if you’re, for instance, if you’re an online digital nomad type, you’re doing You’re an architect or something, and you’re designing homes in the US from Panama, for instance. Well, Panama doesn’t tax that, because your business is offshore, basically. Your customers and your revenue is generated outside of Panama. So, now you’re having a tax free business as well, and tax free income. And even the property taxes and everything down here are just a fraction of what you find in Europe or North America.
And so it’s much less expensive to live down here. Of course, most people need the internet to do their jobs or just want to stay connected in general. And we, we use Starlink. So again, not connected to any cables coming in from a local company or anything. So we’re pretty independent there as well.
And, there’s lots of, as I mentioned, there’s the beaches and there’s a beautiful mountain lagoon, very close to Veritas, for instance, the community or our Nicaraguan properties. Have, lots of things to do. Granada is the oldest city in all of the Americas and beautiful colonial. buildings and, and street with lots of restaurants and things like that.
So there’s always things to do nearby as well.
Independence again, I’ll try not to spend too much time on this, but I look at these communities as an extension of your home. If you didn’t like the mask mandates or vaccine mandates where you were living before, but you basically had to stay in your home.
Well, the community becomes an extension of your home and we’re many, many acres of community. So if you want to walk around without a mask and. And those sorts of things and, and enjoy the community. Any of those sorts of things. If the community decides that they’re not applying to this community, then they, then they don’t, and the, and the community becomes an extension of your home.
And that’s, to me, we’re seeing, President of the US talk about mask mandates again. Well, I don’t want to wear a mask again. I studied in genetics and did a lot of stuff with viruses in university back a long time ago. But, I knew from day one, the virus is much smaller than the holes in the mask.
It’s like throwing sand at a person. At a mesh fence, but so to me, it was kind of a complete waste of time, but I’m not going to do that again. Right. So, to me, I just go to one of our communities and I don’t have to. So that’s the way I look at it. And it’s just, it’s also freeing with the community of like minded people.
I’m not saying everybody’s exactly the same or don’t disagree, you got lots of disagreements, but we’re kind of like old school way of disagreeing, which is you can agree to disagree and that’s okay. You can still be friends, still be neighbors. You don’t get canceled. You don’t get censored. And, it’s just like things used to be where I grew up in a farming community in central Canada.
I mean, there was plenty of times that I didn’t agree with my friends, but we didn’t say, Oh, well, you’re on that political spectrum and I’m on this one. So we can’t be friends.
Again, I talked already a bit about the community food. We have the livestock, the orchards and gardens, tilapia, all those things.
It’s just really nice to be independent. You don’t have to rely on that if you don’t want. There’s beautiful grocery stores nearby. But of course, if you want to or you need to at some point, it’s there.
I’m excited about the expat international school that’s going to be on our next community here too.
One thing I think is personal belief, but I’m not crazy about the way public schools, especially in North America are teaching kids these days, they don’t really come out, the universities especially, don’t really come out with much practical skill. And I laugh because, people don’t, kids graduating from high school or university don’t even know how to make a budget.
It certainly can’t change a tire. I mean, these schools that we’re putting on the communities are going to have all the traditional curriculum of math and sciences and those sorts of things, but also you’re on a beautiful property that’s, wilderness, jungle and forest with streams running through it and imagine what the kids can learn all sorts of things just by seeing nature and being a part of it. So I’m excited about that and I think it’s going to be very cool for the kids that go to school and in the communities.
Something you never talk about is politics and religion, right? But I’m just making the point that you have a freedom to practice whichever type of religion you like, or, if you’re more into holistic health care versus, Western traditional health care.
That’s totally up to you. We’re just creating an environment where people can be themselves and accept it. And you can still go to the welcome center, go to the pool, go play pickleball with your friend. And again, it doesn’t matter who they are. This is not about, political division.
the whole point of it is to get away from that.
And economic freedom. Our communities accept Bitcoin on the businesses within them will accept Bitcoin, do accept Bitcoin, and to me, that’s one of the few ways we can get away from currencies that are, in the long run, likely going to collapse now with bricks coming out, how long can the US dollar remain kind of a stable, powerful currency? You’re seeing some Middle Eastern countries saying they’re not going to be trading oil in US dollars anymore and those sorts of things and it’s really need and in my mind, there’s a great need for an independent currency.
And currently, I think the best one out there is Bitcoin. And so we really want to promote that. And we actually sell homes and properties and accept Bitcoin. And again, in the businesses in the communities will and do as well.
One of the unique things I think we’re also doing on that kind of blockchain front is the use of a DAO, which is a decentralized autonomous organization.
Most people aren’t very familiar with that, but really, well, let me step back a minute. One of the biggest problems communities have in general is where the real lack of freedom is. is in the HOA, the Homeowners Association. Most developers, we’re not like that, but all, every other developer I know wants control over the community.
So they’ll wait till the 90% of the home sites are sold before they’re going to let the Homeowners Association decide anything about the community. And we’re the opposite. Right under the gate, I want the Homeowners Association to make the decisions. I’ve seen in the communities we do you get a number of people together and they’ll make good decisions.
They’re not going to make any worse decisions than I would as the developer. And there’s nobody to blame, right? Nobody likes an HOA president. You elect a president. They’re not a super, a superpower. So they can’t please everybody all the time. So inevitably people get annoyed at the HOA president.
And so the DAO is really a system of voting on the blockchain, so it’s secure and transparent. And what that does is, every decision made by the community is fair and transparent. And it’s exactly what the majority of the community wants. So, to me, that is a big freedom. You’re not moving into a community where you don’t have any say, or you have to trust the developer is going to make decisions that you like, because they generally don’t.
So, this, to me, is one of the unique things of our community as well.
Again, I mentioned there’s got to be things to do to make it entertaining. We have work, you know woodshops for, that sort of thing, a music studio, all sorts of amphitheater and obviously the usual swimming pools, tennis courts, pickleball courts, but interesting things to do in the community too, because, you really need not just to be sustainable, but to enjoy life as well.
And so basically we’re, we’re trying to help people protect themselves from what’s going on in the world right now. And I, being Canadian, people may agree or disagree with me, but I feel like I see signs of Canada becoming much more authoritarian. I’m glad I moved out when I did. I let my residency in Canada go.
I still am a Canadian citizen. For Canadians, it’s a great thing because you can let your residency go and become a Panamanian, Nicaraguan, Belizean resident, and have the best of both worlds because in Canada, your taxes follow your residency. For Americans, unfortunately, it’s a little bit more difficult because taxes follow their citizenship, which means that they have to give up their passport.
But for Canadians and most, Europeans and other countries, most countries the taxes follow their residency, so you can give up your Canadian residency. There’s a formal process for that and become a resident of one of these countries down here and what thousands of people are doing right now are getting their plan B residencies in countries like your favorite.
I think Emily is Mexico. I have mine in Panama, Nicaragua, work permits and beliefs and that sort of thing. So I like to have multiple plan B’s, I guess a plan B, C and D. And so if anything isn’t going great in the country that I’m in, I can go to the other country and I’m a resident and I can live there without, having just a tourist visa that I have to leave at some point.
So we currently are promoting the four communities that we’re heavily involved with and developing right now. Veritas Village in Panama here is the one that we’re currently accepting reservations for people to have a first right of refusal for a lot selection. It’s a beautiful spot just outside of Coronado, if anybody’s familiar with Coronado in Panama.
It’s a very highly sought after expat area. Thousands of expats from all over the world that live there. So there’s lots of things to do. Beautiful beaches and all the things that you expect in a tropical environment. But a lot of things for people to do a lot of people to meet, a lot of times when people move down to communities like this, they’re like, well, am I going to have any friends?
It’s like, trust me, you’re gonna have more friends than you want, probably because I know for my wife and I were constantly actually having to say, no to doing things because, you could keep your social calendar completely full with just doing things with other people that are in, like minded or in the same, did the same move that you did.
Aruna is in Belize on Ambergris Cay. It’s a beautiful Caribbean island and, Belize is becoming more and more popular. It’s very accessible from the US, from, Miami, Atlanta. There are different direct flights. Again, we have a canal community, so you can boat. Right up to the side of your home, basically, and you’re in the beautiful turquoise waters of the Caribbean with the white sand and everything.
It’s quite amazing and Playa Pacifica is a community that we have a number of homes going up in Nicaragua. Right now. Like I said, our 1st community was called Milagro Verde that we did almost 2 decades ago. Now that was in Nicaragua. Nicaragua was, 1 country out there pretty much in the world that basically said.
We’re not doing what everybody else is doing when covid hit. We’re not shutting down our economy. We’re not doing lockdowns, we’re not having mandates. So live as you want to live. And I really was happy that one of my residencies was Nicaragua at the time. And Honduras, we have a beautiful community called the Reef there.
And that’s also on the Caribbean, right on the beach looking out at the kind of world famous diving island of Roatan. And so that’s a very pretty spot and very affordable homes. We have homes starting at just over $100,000. That includes your home and your lot and you’re right beside the beach.
For compared to what the prices are doing in North America and Europe and Australia right now. It’s pretty inexpensive. A lot of people come down here and we’ll get two, two smaller homes or bigger homes. Everything from tiny homes up to massive luxury mansions. So, there’s a mix on our communities, and it works really well.
People, still gather. It doesn’t matter what walk of life they’re from. They find lots of common ground.
So that’s basically it. If you want to reach out to us, there’s an email address, ilc@ecovillages.life that will go to Emily and ourselves as well.
Emily: Thank you very much. I, I learned a lot. Even I, I knew about the villages and concept, but it’s really put kind of all on shelves for me. And I will include your presentation actually in this video to website to provide people more information about your community, actually to start a conversation about it.
But with all this I get a couple of questions. Okay. And when you were speaking about like freedom from lockdowns and all this obviously things we are looking forward now in, say Panama or Nicaragua or any other country, even you have a community, but it’s a jurisdiction of, Panama, this or other country, like how you can avoid, say the rules if say country, you know announced the lockdown how you can avoid it.
Patrick: Well, one of the things is that, the entire community is in private land, right? Everybody owns their own land. And just like you in your own home, they’re not going to come knocking on your door to tell you to wear a mask inside your, inside your house. Well, who knows? Some places they might, but not down here.
But I mean, that’s the other nice thing about the Latin American culture. Is yeah, they put in the rules, but nobody’s really enforcing any of it. I mean, if even in Nicaragua that didn’t enforce anything, there was grocery stores, for instance, that said, No, if you want to come in here, you have to wear a mask.
So you have the choice. It’s like, Well, I’m not going to support your business. Then I’m not going to that grocery store. Right. So that, that was, one, but here, if you’re living in a self sustaining community and you stay within the community, then the community rules, there’s no one in the country.
That’s going to come into the community and tell you what you have to do inside your own private land. It’s just not a cultural thing here.
Emily: Excellent. It’s not cultural and it’s if it’s supported by, local government, at least, because sometimes it depends on local government. It’s excellent.
I understand how remote, say, Veritas village from other city from Coronado.
Patrick: It’s about a 10 minute drive. 10 kilometers, nine, nine kilometers. Was that five or six miles from from Coronado up towards the mountains? We purposely chose the location because not as only is it comfortable for humans It’s the temperature but it’s comfortable for animals and plants too So you can grow anything there if you’re too close to the beach Then you get salt spray and you get that super heat And you can’t grow as much variety, but so we’re, comfortably remote.
It feels very remote. You can, you’re, you’re on a plateau in the mountain and you’re looking over everything and you can see Coronado. You can see, there and Coronado is about an hour, a little over an hour drive from Panama City. So it’s still convenient enough. I like it because I can go, in the morning, get a lot of things done and then come back and still have part of the day.
Whereas, we were looking at Boquete and other areas that I felt just, it was just too far. I mean, it’s a beautiful place and people love it. And I understand that, but it’s a five or six hour drive from the city. And then either that or you fly to Davide, which is another airport that, so now you have to get on another plane and everything.
So I really like the Coronado area, the El Valle, Anton Valley area, for that reason that it’s so, it’s beautiful. It’s very much like the Boquete area, cooler temperatures. You can get away without air conditioning at night, because the temperatures drop low enough. And, but it’s beautiful.
I mean, it’s claim to fame is springtime all the time, right? So it’s really good for growing vegetables and fruits and everything.
Emily: I’m very excited. I’m looking forward to, to visit and maybe to live in the, in your community.
Tell me please, when it’ll be ready, I understand you’re building in stages, like how?
Patrick: Normally we build in phases and a community might have 300, 400 home sites, and we’d say, okay, we’re going to release 40 at a time. And, because you want to build community, right?
You want to have neighbors. You don’t want them spread out so far apart that they don’t even know the other people are there. So, but with Veritas, the one that we’re working on right now, we’re just in the hopefully the end stages of permitting. There’s a lot of environmental permitting in some of these countries, Panama and Costa Rica, especially.
And so once we’ve got that down in, hopefully this fall, fall of 2023 somewhere in the October, November range, then we can start construction of homes right away after that. And homes take six months to a year to build. So now going back to the phases, normally we do in phases, but this community has been so popular that we have a waiting list basically.
And so we’re going to be releasing, it’s only 90 home sites in total which by community standards isn’t that large, but part of that is because we’ve kept, over 50% of it probably for, orchards, gardens, green spaces, all the things for, stables, places for growing things, right?
And then, some of the home sites are over an acre in size, up to almost two acres. And that’s, because some people like to have what we call lifestyle farms. You and I would probably call them hobby, hobby farms back in the day, that they want to have more of that self sustaining independent life on their own in addition to the community and some people just want a small home and be part of the community.
So there’s a very range of of home sites to choose from.
Emily: And I like variety of lifestyles because different people have different preferences and
Tell me please, people need to be residents in order actually to live. To buy, you can, but in order to live in this community. Residents of Panama?
Patrick: Well, you can, you can buy and in any of the communities you can buy and stay there. I used to long time ago. I used to stay in these types of communities without being a resident, but depends on which country like Panama, you get 3 to 6 months of a tourist visa, and then you have to leave and come back again.
So, I tended to get the residencies a while back because I just didn’t have to leave that. Right. So Nicaragua, they usually give you a 90 day tourist visa. So 3 months. And then, most people will go. Just drive to Costa Rica for 72 hours with like little vacation and then come back up to Nicaragua and it renews their passport stamp.
But after a while that can get old and it depends on what your reason. Nowadays, the reasons for a residency is much different. People want a residency because it, I knew some people during COVID. I won’t mention the countries that, but they had bought these or bought or built beautiful beach homes in, in certain countries.
And they thought they were going to be able to go there when things like COVID hit, but they weren’t residents. And so they couldn’t go, right? They weren’t allowed into those countries. So they had, million dollar homes on the beach that just sat there empty for the whole time that COVID was going on.
So if your intent is to live in one of these communities, I would recommend you get residency, but you don’t have to. There’s a lot of people that will be what I call digital nomads. And home prices in to me and in the US and Canada are so incredibly high right now compared to down here.
So I was talking with my son the other day, and we were trying to he lives in Vancouver Island, and we’re trying to find a home under a million dollars. That would not be something you would tear down and to people down here. That’s just unheard of, right? So if you had a $800,000 house in Canada, and you came down here, you could buy three or four homes.
And so what some people do is maybe they buy two or three, one in our reef community on the Caribbean side, one in Nicaragua on the Pacific Ocean side, and one in Veritas in the, in the, in the high country and maybe spend four months in each one and rent the other two out. So you have that income that kind of supports your lifestyle going between it and you get to change, change your environment once in a while.
So that in that case, he wouldn’t even really need to be a resident because. You’d be hopping between countries, but again, if something like lockdowns happen, you really want to have the residency.
Emily: Yeah, I always speaking about residency as a plan B, as a precaution, and you need to be kind of legal, specifically if you have home.
Like you need to be legal on the ground, not the tourist. There is my approach, and I’m speaking about Plan B as well.
But speaking about Panama in particular community, people would have title, like, on the land and the home, or if it’s
Patrick: community, you know.
No, It’s exactly the way it is in North America.
Full deeded title to your property, you’re part of a community and there is a homeowners association and the homeowners association, has the ability to, to, to create, rules, I guess, but that’s like I said, in using the Dow, that it has to be voted in by everybody that is a resident in the community.
So, we start community off with a very light HOA. And then, wherever the residents take it from there is up to them, but we try to create as few rules as possible and kind of follow the libertarian concept of like, do no harm, respect your neighbors and just, kind of like, like I said, like it kind of used to be where, you, you knew your neighbors, right?
And then you, barbecues with them and things like that. And, and, that’s, that’s becoming less and less of a common thing, but in these communities, And it’s interesting because somebody asked me the other day is, I mean, you’ve got a community with these massive mansions and you’ve got community of people living in tiny homes in the same community.
And I said, yeah, and it works really well to get together, have a glass of wine, watch the sunset and everybody gets along. It doesn’t matter what they necessarily have in their bank account. They have, like minds tend to gather together regardless of, of their financial status or whatever it is.
So I mean, it works really well. We have so many friends from all different walks of life in the communities. And it’s, I always say it’s kind of like walking into Cheers. If you remember that old TV show where it’s like, Hey, Norm, you go in and people just become your friends. And, and like I said, one of the top concerns people have when they’re moving down to communities like this is am I going to know anybody or meet anybody?
And it’s, It’s exactly the opposite. You’re going to meet way more people than you thought,
Emily: The social aspect is very important That’s why actually I started my personal research about expat communities communities of this type Long ago because I understood being immigrant several times in my life.
How important, especially at the beginning, actually later in life, to be surrounded by community, by like minded people, it’s just a dream. Because we are social creature, and we need people for support, for entertainment, for laughing together, for doing things together. And it’s, unfortunately, what kind of evaporating. It’s what I noticed in Canada to my big surprise and it’s great that there are places of freedom and Actually, sustainable lifestyle, and now I’m speaking, I know this word, this kind of became cliche, but I believe, and I know that you’re building from best kind of local materials, that you using solar panels, you using All this tools and opportunities, which actually cannot be done in Canada up north because we don’t have a lot of sun.
Patrick: Yeah. Well, I was doing it in Canada when I lived in Vancouver area, I was doing it, but you needed a system that was 10 times larger and the payback was, if you’re lucky in 25 years, it would pay itself back here it’s three or four years and you’ve recouped all the costs because. Electricity is fairly expensive down here, but it’s free if you produce it yourself and we call ourselves eco sensible.
We’re not eco fanatic, right? I mean, our company’s name is eco villages and I get that, but we’re, we’re very practical about it. And it’s because it’s, to me, it has to have a financial benefit as well as everything else, right? You can only, live so long on feeling good about what you’re doing, right?
You need, for me, I have a solar and wind system in the home in Veritas because I don’t like paying power bills. That’s the number one reason. So, it cuts my cost of power way down. I can leave my air conditioner on and know that it’s not costing me anything.
Emily: It’s enough actually the accumulation like sun and wind power enough to really to supply to all the required electricity?
Patrick: Yeah, I mean, as long as you’re smart about it and the systems are so much better today than they were 5, 10 years ago. I started doing this in the 90s and it was difficult to say the least, but now they’re so, so much better.
We use smart approaches to, right? Like our, our stove is gas. Our clothes dryer is gas. Hot water, hot water heaters, gas. Those three things are your biggest draw on electricity in a home. And if you can eliminate them and make them gas, well now you don’t have to produce that much power.
Now, the only thing that’s really taking a lot of power is the air conditioning. And, that keeps getting more and more efficient every year as well. After this, I’m, my wife and I are going up to Veritas. We’re staying there for the next couple nights. And, if it’s warm, we’ll be air conditioning the bedrooms.
And, and it’s totally 100% off grid.
Emily: Oh, some people already living like you,
Patrick: you have a welcome center there as we’re getting things, but I, I can live there.
Emily: Okay, I see. Sure. Sure. You should leave there and kind of oversee what’s going on.
Patrick: It’s a fun time now because we’re setting up the orchards and gardens and we actually have some, one of the reasons I’m going there this afternoon is because we have an incubator full of eggs and chickens that are hatching.
And so I got to get there and get them all set up in their new chicken coop. So, so that we can, in the future, those will be laying eggs and all that sort of stuff for breakfast. And, and so, it’s just, it’s kind of, to me, it’s just fun because it’s the way I grew up, my, my parents had a, a piece of land in a small town.
It was a farming community, but we all did our own gardening. Of course, this was in Canada, right? So we had what, four, maybe five months of growing. Season, you have a lot of stuff to grow in that little bit of time, and then you have to can it and put it in the pantry and everything and make it last the whole year.
And the beauty of down here is your year round growing season grows just about everything and a lot of things that I couldn’t have grown in Canada. I mean, we can grow papaya and bananas and all those sorts of things down here. So, yeah, I mean, you can produce a lot more food and a lot less space. And then we have vertical gardens in the hydroponics, so you can really produce a lot of food.
And the beauty of having the stream run through there, we literally just capture the stream water at the top of the of the property and run it through the hydroponic gardens and then out the other side back into the stream. We’re, and it’s all very natural and doesn’t, don’t even need a water pump.
Emily: So, no, it’s amazing. You don’t have yet kind of building, but you already have garden at least set up and when all will be built, it would be a little bit mature.
Patrick: Exactly. That’s the whole point is get it going now. And the beauty of it is, I mean, I planted papaya a couple of years ago. I planted some papaya trees.
And I have no idea how fast and how quickly they, they’ll mature. And this was beside a two story home, and there were solar panels on the top of the second story, and within about less than a year, the leaves on the papaya tree were already blocking the solar panels two stories up, and they’re producing massive papayas.
And so the beauty of the tropics down here is the speed at which things grow, especially In a community like with the property like this where you have the stream, very rich nitrogen rich soil and all the things that come along with that, this was a volcanic plane in the plateau and so that creates very rich soil too.
So it’s got a lot of things going for it. So, yeah, we’re starting the orchards and gardens now. So. So even as, next year at this time, there’ll be a lot of food being produced there.
Emily: Great. And a school, this international school, actually, the physical location will be in the village?
Patrick: Inside the community, yes.
It’s not going to be huge, the thing that changed around COVID is before that, it felt like we were making retirement communities, right? A lot of times, because, a lot of people, let’s say people in their forties would be buying a home with the intent that they’re going to rent it out for some rental revenue income and then as they retire, they’ll just move into it.
That was a pretty common story not too long ago. Now we’re seeing a totally different demographic. It’s a lot of young families. And one of their concerns is where are my kids going to go to school, especially in a country that’s mostly Spanish speaking, right? My Spanish is terrible and I get by just fine.
But, it’s great for kids because they can pick up Spanish and French and German and different languages and all these things. But a couple weeks ago, we were showing Veritas to different people and it was, my wife and I were there and going, this is great. Like, it was a couple from Italy and a couple from Germany, a couple from the Netherlands, a couple from Canada and a couple from the US and a couple from Australia all in a row. So nobody from the same place. Many of them had young kids. And it was funny because there was one older couple there and they’re saying, I’m not sure if I want to live in a community where there’s, a lot of kids around. And then, this German couple’s kids were hanging on to them and calling them grandpa and grandma.
And all of a sudden they’re like, I forget everything I said. This is wonderful. I want to be around. Kids, it makes me feel alive again. And so to me, it was just a, it’s, I enjoy it much more now than, than just being surrounded by people and you’re kind of same age demographic. So yeah, the school is going to be great.
I think the way they’re planning on doing they already have an online curriculum, but this will be as far as I know, this will be their first bricks and mortar school and they’re, they’re excited about it too. I think it’s going to become popular and they’re going to start seeing that school type of curriculum show up a lot more often because even, even with my kids, I would try to teach them, like I mentioned in the presentation, I tried to teach them how to change a tire, change oil in a car or whatever it is, or how to budget, like create a spreadsheet with, how much you taking in and how much are you spending and how to taxes work and all those different things.
And. But, talking to a 24 or some 22 or 24 year old the other day and they just Didn’t know any of that stuff, right?
Emily: They’re not prepared. They’re not prepared to real life and and it’s it should have start from Early actually from the school And I was very disappointed telling the truth by canadian education my children received and I was trying kind of to supplement from my side, you know additional clubs and private teachers and what but It’s it’s a big Poland education.
And I believe they they’re suffering when they are adults. They need now to take their time to learn something that should have be already part of their life. They learning hard way.
Patrick: Thinking the other day I saw I can’t remember his name. He was born in Russia. Soviet Union. And then I think he grew up later on in life in the UK but he was talking about how the American and Canadian Western society universities are so woke these days and, just focused on diversity and inclusion and all that, all great, whatever, but he’s like, you can’t build a bridge on diversity, and while the kids in China and Russia are learning much different things, it’s stuff that’s more practical in real life.
And I think we’re weakening the western culture by not having proper schooling.
Emily: Absolutely, I even know who told it, Konstantin Kissin and trigonometry and absolutely. We agree with him. It’s what I am now coming back to, to your community and opportunities for people to live there and to join.
So I understand you already sold kind of first phase homes or?
Patrick: What we’re doing right now, every country has different rules. So, you can buy homes currently and lots of people are in our Belizean, Honduran and Nicaraguan communities. The Panama one is just finishing up permitting and we can’t officially sell a property until the permit is approved.
And, we were sure it’s going to be approved. It’s just, we don’t know when exactly. And, and so we’re, we’re letting people put down a small deposit to, to hold their position in line. So, if, if you’re next, I don’t know what number we’re at, but let’s say we’re up to 45 or something, then you’ll be number 45 in choosing your lot.
And, the next person would be 46, And so it’s just a way for us to, make a fair way for the people that came in first to get the first choice of lots. Even though we can’t officially sell a lot until, the day it starts.
Emily: Just to organize yes, the list. So, I understand the first phase would be 90 homes you mentioned.
And maximum what you can, build on this lot. You mentioned 300, 400, or?
Patrick: No, I mean, not, the 300 or 400. Size homes in a community is pretty typical of a community. So Rita’s Veritas is a, is a smaller one with only 90 in total. Now we’re, we’re looking at expanding we’re not only just around it, but in other areas nearby to create more communities like that.
I think, you and I talked a bit last time about eco villages will be expanding into Mexico and Costa Rica quite soon as well. And, there will be Veritas Village, Mexico, Veritas Village, Costa Rica, and we’re expanding the same concept that people really love into different countries.
Everybody has a country that they prefer and that’s fine. There’s different reasons for different people to like certain places. I, I enjoy my kind of nomadic life by going to, have, I have a home in Honduras, a home in Nicaragua, a home here in Panama. Home in Belize. So for me, it’s like I get to enjoy the different locations and I don’t really have to pick one are our company’s offices here in Panama City.
So I’m here a lot, but still nice to be able to go around different places. So, yeah, I mean, because of the popularity of Veritas that we’re going to be releasing all the lots at once.
Emily: Okay, great. I will obviously follow up all news about these communities and others like which I am aware of and I wish you all success in getting permit and starting construction and having good people around and I will try to help you to find good people who would be part of this community because it’s what life about, like enjoy life in community of like minded people of different age.
And cultures.
Patrick: Yeah, exactly. It’s great. I think, yeah, and I appreciate that, Emily. I appreciate you giving us a chance to chat a little bit about our communities. And, we’re really under pressure right now. And there’s a lot of people in the world that want to move away from where they are into communities like this.
And I mean, it’s great for us because, I’d hate to build it and sit there and hope that somebody was going to come. But we know there’s a lot of people that are already putting down deposits to have a home and every day we’re hearing, from more and more people and I think, the statistics I saw, this was for Nicaragua, but it was something like, for every one person before COVID, there was 20 to 30 people moving to Nicaragua after, immigrating to Nicaragua after COVID or during.
Because, because of the way they handled it, and it just, that’s probably a very similar statistic for all the countries down here. People are opening their eyes and realizing, you know what, it’s a, it’s a just a, a more family oriented, freedom oriented, society and culture. And that surprises a lot of people because everybody thinks they, they’re, watch the mainstream media and they think, oh, this is all dictators in those countries.
And it’s not the way it is at all. It’s nice. I appreciate the opportunity.
Emily: Yes, it’s good to to know about opportunities and I will try to spread the, the word and people need to know that there are places where they can move and live and save on cost of living. And not only save, but enjoy the life.
It’s what I see actually mood of some people, you know. They’re here up north, I would say, and I personally, when I’m listening to your story or story of similar communities in Latin America, other places I really happy and I understand that life is going on and there are choices and people can find them and live happily so I wish you again all possible successes in your business and All projects you are involved now, and I believe that listeners and followers learn a lot as well.
And if there are any questions, please, Patrick, again, repeat where they can find you, and I will put information about your community, how to connect with me, because I will try to represent your project as well.
Patrick: Yeah, you can look at our website of all the different communities that were Working on at www.ecovillages.Life and the email that will go to ourselves and to Emily is ilc@ecovillages.life
Emily: thank you very much. I already get kind of personal email in your system. It was again, pleasure to meet you. And I believe we will continue conversation about kind of next phase of Veritas or other projects for freedom loving communities in Central America.
Patrick: Thank you.
Using my knowledge and experience from founding and growing successful companies to improve lives through being involved with companies that put corporate social responsibility first.
Today, I have a special guest for you. His name is Patrick Hiebert, and hes a Canadian expat who moved to Central America 20+ years ago. Hes also the founder and CEO of Ecovillages Life, Marvin NFT Marketplace, a project that creates eco-friendly communities in different countries. In this article, youll learn about Patricks amazing story, how he became passionate about eco-living, and how he`s changing the world with his innovative ideas.
Patrick used to work in software, but he always had a dream of living in a tropical paradise. He decided to take a leap of faith and move to Central America with his son. He fell in love with the culture, the nature, and the people there. He also realized that he wanted to do something meaningful with his life. He wanted to create communities that respect the environment and value freedom and sustainability. That’s how he started Ecovillages Life, a project that he co-founded with his partner.
Ecovillages Life is a project that creates eco-friendly communities in different countries in Central America. These communities are designed to be affordable, beautiful, and self-sufficient. They have everything you need to live a happy and healthy life, such as water, food, shelter, energy, and fun. They also use payments in Bitcoin, a digital currency that gives you more control over your money. And they have a system that lets you vote on important decisions for your community, using blockchain technology. Ecovillages Life is all about giving you freedom and sustainability.
Patrick’s journey to sustainability started when he and his son lived on a boat near Vancouver Island, Canada. They learned how to catch fish, grow food, and make their own power. They also learned how to appreciate nature and live with less. This experience inspired Patrick to create communities that are self-sufficient and eco-friendly on land. He wanted to share his lifestyle with others who care about the planet and their future.
Patrick knows how important it is to have privacy and freedom in your life. That’s why he makes sure that Ecovillages Life communities respect your rights and choices. You own your land, and you can do whatever you want with it. You don’t have to worry about anyone telling you what to do or how to live. You also get to enjoy the Latin American culture, which is very friendly and relaxed. Ecovillages Life communities are places where you can be yourself and live your best life.
Patrick is very careful about choosing the locations for his communities. He looks for places that are natural, remote, and comfortable. He wants you to live in harmony with nature, but also have access to the things you need, like shops, schools, and hospitals. He also wants you to have a variety of options, so you can choose the country and the community that suits you best. Ecovillages Life communities are places where you can find your home and your happiness.
Patrick is always looking for ways to improve his communities and his services. He plans to add more features, such as video editing and other forms of content creation. He also wants to expand his project to more countries and regions and reach more people who share his vision. He hopes to inspire and empower others to follow their dreams and create their own opportunities. Patrick is a man with a mission, and he’s not stopping anytime soon.
Ecovillages Life is getting more and more popular. They have a different way of building their communities. They don’t do it in phases, they do it all at once. They have a waiting list because a lot of people want to join them. This way, the community grows together and becomes stronger.
You can choose how you want to live in Ecovillages Life communities. You can stay for a long time or a short time. You can get a residency in Panama or another Central American country, or you can get a tourist visa and renew it every few months. It’s up to you.
Patrick thinks that modern education is not very good, especially in North America. He thinks that people need to learn practical skills, not just academic stuff. In Ecovillages Life communities, you can learn both. You can learn from books, but you can also learn from nature. You can do things like fishing, gardening, and animal care. You can get a well-rounded education.
Patrick knows how important it is to have friends and people who share your values. Ecovillages Life gives you that. You can meet other people who care about the environment and freedom. You can do fun things together, like sports, music, and art. You can feel like you belong to a community.
Ecovillages Life is smart about sustainability. They don’t just do it for the sake of it, they do it because it makes sense. They use solar and wind power, which are good for the planet and good for your wallet. You can save money on your electricity bills and still enjoy modern comforts.
Ecovillages Life has a big vision for the future. They want to create communities that are free, sustainable, and happy. They want to show the world a better way of living. They use new ideas, like Bitcoin and blockchain, to make their communities more efficient and fair. Patrick’s story shows that anything is possible if you have a dream and work hard for it.
We hope you enjoyed learning about Ecovillages Life and Patrick’s journey. We invite you to join us as we discover more stories of sustainable living and freedom-oriented communities. We believe that projects like Ecovillages Life can make a positive difference in our world.
Affiliation with: Algarve Senior Living (Portugal, Spain); Harmony Suites (Bulgaria); Remote.com, Remote-How.com, Relocate.world Marketplaces
Partners: DOMA Real Estate and Investments (Mexico), Outbound Mexico, FFC International Lifestyle Platform (Colombia), Digital Nomads and Remote Work Communities Globally
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada, Email: info@emilybron.com
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