How it all started…

It all began in 2006, when a hotel had double-booked our room and so our family had to find another place to stay. This is how we landed, smack-bang in the middle of Mallorca. Roland and I are sailors and up until then, had mostly seen Mallorca from the water. We had explored and grown to love the sheltered coves and countless beaches but what lay inland was unknown to us. To our surprise we discovered the island’s rural heart had much to offer. Although the island had been a tourist hub for decades, it had managed to retain parts that were still wild and completely untouched.

I spent the first 12 years of my life in Africa and always dreamed of being able to live, once again somewhere with lots of sunshine. Mallorca suddenly became a place where that could happen, living a barefoot kind of life in an old finca.

So the search began and eventually, at the end of a dirt road, we found a beautiful, natural, rustic ruin where time stood still. Sheep grazed inside its crumbling walls and an owl lived, in what is now called the Tower room. The plot offered a million-dollar view and seemed perfect but it came with a warning from the local estate agent. There was no road leading to it, not a great starting point for a building site and archaeological remains had been found in the process of putting up the exterior walls and so everything had ground to a halt, exhausting the patience of the previous owner but it’s magic had cast its spell and we bought it. 

It certainly wasn’t an easy process. It took three years just to get the licenses to continue building. Whenever patience waned, we would visit the plot with a picnic basket to just sit and enjoy all the different views, make plans and soak in its incredible energy. These visits allowed us to believe that, at some point, the dream would come true and finally, in 2011, it did.

Although Roland and I still lived in Amsterdam, Osa Major, which we named after the ‘Great Bear’ star constellation that is visible above it every night, became our second home. With each visit we created new places in and around the finca, that we gave iconic names, such as; ‘Stairway to Heaven terrace’, the terrace ideally suited for stargazing; the ‘Paradise Showers’, secluded outdoor showers surrounded by lush greenery in what has become the tipi glamping area; and ‘The Beach’, the shallow end of the pool where you can sit back in a butterfly chair with your feet in the cooling water. In 2014, it became our permanent home. With full time supervision we have been able to create a home that not only enjoys the magical location but also only uses the resources that nature offers from the sun, that gives us the energy we need, to the fertile grounds of our vegetable garden, the Osa Verde, that grows the food we eat.

I always envisioned running yoga retreats at Osa Major. On top of the hill, we built a beautiful yoga shala overlooking the endless valley, fully equipped. Teachers from all over the world started noticing us and so we have been hosting many beautiful yoga weeks  

The big dream to become only reliable on the natural resources surrounding us and being completely self-sufficient seems more realistic each year, as we are expanding with various projects such as the beehives, land for a vineyard and gaining more control over the Osa Verde, that produces more fruits and vegetables each year. The Earth is bathed in a huge amount of energy from the Sun every day. The suns rays fall on the solar panel fields around the property, providing us with the energy we need. Batteries in the ‘sala machina’, store the remaining unused energy to make sure we have light during the bleakest months of the year.

 Osa Major became a never-ending project, with endless opportunities arising from each development. We have learned that if you stay curious, opportunities open up all the time. It just goes to show what you can create with a vision, patience and that simple desire to feel the earth under your feet.