A New Space for Art in Puerto Viejo: De la Tierra al Mar at Cacao Huasi
Cacao Huasi has always been difficult to describe with a single word.
We make chocolate here. We cook. We taste rum and wine. People come to learn, tell stories, paint, listen to music, eat dinner or simply sit looking out at the Caribbean.
And now, increasingly, we want the walls to have stories of their own.
This September, Cacao Huasi becomes an exhibition space for De la Tierra al Mar, a month-long show featuring 15 artists from Limón, Puerto Viejo and Talamanca.
It feels like a natural next step for this little Caribbean house.
Art rooted in the place where it is shown
De la Tierra al Mar brings together painting, batik, sculpture and music inspired by the forests and ecosystems of Talamanca.
Its name — From the Earth to the Sea — describes one of the things that makes this part of Costa Rica so extraordinary.
Water descends from the Talamanca mountains through rivers, rainforest, wetlands, lagoons and mangroves before eventually entering the Caribbean. These connected habitats support an extraordinary range of life, from jaguars, tapirs and monkeys in the forest to manatees, dolphins and coral reefs closer to the coast.
Looking at Talamanca this way changes the idea of where the forest ends.
It doesn't simply stop at the beach.
Forest, river and sea are parts of the same living system.
And that connection sits at the heart of this exhibition.
Art that does something
There is another reason we were interested in hosting De la Tierra al Mar.
The exhibition isn't only asking people to look at nature. It is connected to people actively trying to protect it.
One of the organisations involved is ASOGUABO — Asociación Guardianes del Bosque, a community-based conservation organisation here in the Southern Caribbean.
The roots of Guardianes del Bosque stretch back around 30 years, when local residents began working to protect remaining areas of primary forest during a period of extensive deforestation. The organisation was formally constituted as ASOGUABO in 2023.
Today, one of its projects is the Community Conservation Declaration, through which landowners voluntarily commit properties to conservation and environmentally responsible management. The aim is not simply to protect isolated patches of forest, but to maintain connections between biological corridors, rivers, springs and wetlands.
ASOGUABO also works in environmental education, citizen science and ecological restoration. Together with Tropica Verde, it has developed programmes bringing conservation into local schools through teachers, excursions and activities in the forest.
That relationship between knowledge and belonging is particularly important.
It is difficult to protect something you have never been given the opportunity to know.
Turning paintings into a book
During the exhibition, Cacao Huasi will also host Aguas Eternas, a concert by Costa Rican duo Guápil.
Sisters Amanda and Ximena Obregón describe Guápil as an acoustic experimental project of musical exploration. Their recent work has increasingly crossed into ecological art: in 2026 they released Melodía del Manglar, created to draw attention to science and conservation work protecting Costa Rica's mangroves, while their Aguas Eternas tour takes its inspiration from the continuous cycle of water.
The Cacao Huasi concert on September 16 is also a fundraiser.
Contributions will help create an illustrated book combining art with scientific information about the fauna, flora and fungi of Talamanca. The book will then be shared with children and others connected with the work of Guardianes del Bosque.
So there is a lovely circle to the project:
the landscape inspires the artists → the art brings people together → that gathering helps create a book → the book helps another generation understand the landscape.
Making room for local art at Cacao Huasi
We would like De la Tierra al Mar to be part of something that continues beyond this particular exhibition.
Puerto Viejo has always attracted painters, musicians, craftspeople, storytellers and people making things that don't fit neatly into one category. But artists also need places where their work can encounter people.
Cacao Huasi isn't a conventional gallery.
We don't particularly want it to become one.
We like the idea of encountering a painting while drinking cacao, discovering an artist while waiting for dinner, hearing music as the sun goes down, or beginning a conversation with someone because of something hanging on a wall.
So we're beginning to think of Cacao Huasi as an informal exhibition space for art in Puerto Viejo — particularly work connected to the Caribbean, its people, its cultures and the natural world around us.
De la Tierra al Mar seems like a very good place to begin.
De la Tierra al Mar
September 10 – October 10, 2026
Cacao Huasi, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca
Aguas Eternas with Guápil
Wednesday, September 16 · 5:30 pm
Voluntary contribution ₡5,000–₡30,000
Learn more about Asociación Guardianes del Bosque (ASOGUABO)
