Real Estate Utopia at Playa Las Flores, El Salvador, C.A.

Utopia Location:

2.5 hours East of San Salvador airport, located in the quadrant of San Miguel, somewhere east of the Rio Lempa, is a hidden jewel known as Playa Las Flores.

Las Flores is a dramatic, natural cove, hemmed in by severe topography and dense tropical flora, a playful blacksand beach bordering a cauldron of whitewater and waves detonating in the background, a throwback in time to a more prehistoric vision of Central America where the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean meet the black sands of ancient volcanic outflows.

A stroll in either direction along the secluded beach features stunning rock formations and numerous tidal pools. The ocean drains out several hundred meters at low tide across the alluvial plain of the gently sloping beach.

A mecca for surfers, Las Flores is one of the premier surfing locations in El Salvador and Central America, a unique right-breaking, sand pointbreak, with rides up to 300 meters in length. The wave is very consistent working from 2ft to 15ft and can hold the biggest swells that distant storms in the Southern ocean can dispatch to this tropical latitude 13 degrees north of the equator and 88 degrees west of the Greenwich Meridian.

Utopia Inspiration:

To surfers Las Flores is not so much a place as it is a spiritual experience, an epiphany— a comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization.

To reside in such a place is a paradox. What is “real estate”? It is an illusion, the idea that we can somehow own and occupy a geometry that is imposed upon a nature which will never acknowledge it unless that tenant is symbiotic with that nature and not in conflict— a geometry defined by a fixed set of coordinates while the earth itself hurtles through space at a hundred thousand kilometers per hour on some absurd celestial trajectory and we are all just hanging on for the ride.

Yet we can experience these fleeting moments of visceral awareness as a dialogue between ourselves and the natural universe. It is in this junction or nexus that Las Flores exists, yet what we must acknowledge is that there is always an uncertainty or approximation to our existence, a quantum state.

Utopia is a unique community designed for surfers, one where the only alarm clock is the detonation of 6 foot waves and the only commute is to the lineup. Utopia is an existence based on doing what we want— on living in the moment. As surfers we are attuned to the resonant frequencies of surf, sun, moon, stars, the quickening of our blood in the intense cauldron of southern machine swells, salt, sunburn, dehydration, rehydration— the cooling of our bodies from a liter of ice cold water after the morning’s surf, a big American breakfast warming our stomachs, the storyline of an idyllic novel that takes us away from it all, a catnap or a deep sleep in a hammock— where our dreams are virtually indistinguishable from the reality into which we awaken.

Utopia History:

Utopia evolved as a more or less organic continuation of the initial resort project which we have been immersed in since we broke ground on Las Flores Surf Club in October of 2003. The initial conception for Las Flores Surf Club, designed by architect Rodrigo Barraza Dominguez, was to create an architecturally designed surf club. Following the natural contours of the cove at Las Flores, the surf club would be a coliseum-like structure with the waves of Las Flores its gladiatorial sport, while at the same time camoflauged within the coastal rain forest which we would endeavor to preserve as we constructed the primeval surfers' fantasy.

By 2007, after 4 years of concerted efforts and labor by some of El Salvador's most skilled architects, designers, craftsmen, and laborers this has arguably been accomplished and provides the foundation for a unique residential community to be built within this signature by the same developer and management team.

Utopia Master Plan:

Utopia is an ecologically low impact development community that is designed to co-exist with the natural environment at Las Flores and to live in synergy with the human inhabitants of this peaceful fishing village and agrarian economy. Utopia exists on a clifftop location on approximately 7 acres of oceanfront land with dramatic views of the Pacific Ocean and the amphitheatre-like wave action of Punta Las Flores. Utopia is adjacent and contiguous to the Las Flores Surf Club, a resort community where residents will enjoy the services and facilities of a private 4-star beach resort hotel. The development and resort are both managed by Inversiones El Caracol S.A. de C.V. and designed by Salvadorian Architect Rodrigo Barraza Dominguez.

Utopia's master plan calls for 8 luxury, designer villas of 220m2 to 260m2 of interior floor space w/private infinity pools spanning a stunning, densely forested clifftop property. Because of its unique topography, all residences at Utopia will have commanding, unobstructed views of your "second home"- the Pacific ocean and Punta Las Flores. The community will feature a private internal access road, walking trails and designer landscaping. Utopia owners will enjoy convenient beach access and use of all Las Flores Surf Club facilities and services. Utopia's master plan also includes a state-of-the-art cliffside spa and fitness facility w/lounge, infinity pool and observation deck.

Utopia is for the surfer who seeks a refuge from the ratrace of life, the catfight for hotel rooms- the surfer seeking a more organic existence, based on a sense of permanence versus permeance.