Profile information
Host rating
80 %
Last replied
27 Oct 2025
Reply rate
71.9 %
Usually responds within 3 days
Feedback
12
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Badges (4)
Details
Description
I am on a mission to grow my off-grid beach lodge into a center for learning and creativity that connects people with art, science and nature. I am located directly on the beach, right in front of a well known surf break in the quiet, but up and coming village of La Fortuna, on the incredible East Cape of Baja California Sur, Mexico.
We currently have a solid team of 11 volunteers set up for our winter season, most of which are long term (more than 3 months) and we are now open to more short term volunteers who have building skills or mural experience.
I dreamed up this project 18 years ago as a teenager and after spending 12 years working at sea as a Captain on luxury sailing yachts i saved enough money to get started on turning this dream into reality in April 2023. After spending the first year building, i am now finishing my second season and getting ready for a third season featuring a more diverse programme of live music events, experiences, workshops and other activties.
After searching the world for a single beach that has world class surfing, kiting/windsurfing, spearfishing, diving, whale watching and all around adventure, i found La Fortuna. It has it all in one spot. We are surrounded by tranquility and wild nature yet only thirty minutes drive to the artistic town of San Jose del Cabo with a great music and art scene plus all the modern conveniences and shops needed, plus an international airport.
Currently, i lease a large piece of land by the beach on which I have a 40ft converted schoolbus as our flagship unit, plus two tiny homes on wheels, a couple of beach huts, a fully equipped music recording studio and digital media room, gift shop, carpentry workshop, watersports shed, crew glamping area, & large outdoor communal kitchen. I also lease a second property next door with a ranch house that sleeps 12 people that i rent on bnb.
The main property features around a beach cafe infront of the bus that i use as a public space and hold live music events every week and outdoor documentary cinema, as well as a base for our ocean tours and rentals business.
I currently have one local employee, Feliza who manages our cafe and bnb part of the business.
The activities I offer now include surfboard rentals, lessons and guiding, SUP and kayak rentals, whale watching tours, sailing tours, underwater music meditation, snorkelling and freediving.
Now that I am going into my third season I intend to start educational workshops, courses and retreats in the fields of music production, visual art, documentary production, marine wildlife and research, language learning, cooking, yoga and meditation and more.
A major goal is to have musicians and bands coming to rent our studio and accommodation to write and record as well as play shows.
Hope to see you out here.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Help around the house
Hospitality/Tourism
General Maintenance
Interests
Sustainability
Cooking & food
Music
Camping
Beach
Sailing / Boating
Water sports
Outdoor activities
Adventure sports
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Living here allows you a front row ticket to worldclass surf as well as kiting, freediving, spearfishing and whale watching and volunteers have access to the watersports equipment.
La Fortuna is a safe and peaceful beach environment with a strong sense of community, creativity and adventure.
It's a good opportunity to learn about the local mexican culture through the ranchers and the neighbours who we share this village with and are very welcoming and friendly. A great way to learn spanish.
Lots of other amazing adventures nearby, including trips to Cabo Pulmo for incredible scuba diving, heading up to the Sierra Madre mountains to camp out by the rivers and waterfalls or heading to San Jose to catch live music or visit the art galleries.
I am more than happy to share my knowledge and skills regarding watersports, construction, entrepreneurship, filmmaking or music.
Help
Builders & Muralists to join us!
The main roles i am looking for right now are:
- Builders/Carpenters/Handypersons are always super welcome as we are always building new things and needing to maintain everything else. Projects range from building beach huts, to furniture, art installations.
- Audio/Video person - I am looking someone who can look after our music programme. This means taking our equipment out the studio every sunday, setting up the stage for our live music event, running sound check, monitoring sound levels during the show then packing up and returning everything to the studio. Our other volunteers will help with the heavy lifting. The rest of the week you would be working on sound mixing recordings and ideally combining this with video editing to help produce ´tiny desk´style content for our youtube channel.
- Documentary filmmakers - I am looking for someone who can help produce a series of documentaries that tell stories of the nature in our local area as well as the people and their relationship to it. These films will be screened here at the station as part of our documentary events. Ideally you would speak spanish and english in order to conduct interviews with the local people and produce films in either language.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: IntermediateThis host offers a language exchange
Building a business here in Mexico obviously i need to learn the language and my goal is to become fluent. At the moment i can handle basic conversations and interactions but much improvement is needed. So spanish speakers are very welcome and i would be happy to help others learn english.
Accommodation
Workawayers stay in our crew glamping area. We have a couple of bell tents with a maximum of three people in each. A large communal kitchen in a our shipping container and outdoor dining area.
I provide breakfast for Workawayers in the form of eggs, tortillas, avocado & beans, fruit as well as $7 worth of credit per day to spend at our cafe. I also provide one communal dinner per week for the volunteers, usually on sunday night during our live music event. The rest of the time Volunteers are responsible for providing their own lunch and dinners.
Each week there will be one or two trips to town with our vehicles in which Workawayers can go in order to buy their groceries.
What else ...
There is no reliable public transportation between the town of San Jose and our location on the East Cape, so getting back and forth is the biggest challenge of living out here. Wherever i can fit it into my schedule i will provide lifts in between. These are the current options that volunteers have been utilizing:
- Hitchhiking. This is the safest region of mexico and there is only one road between our place and town so it's generally very easy to hitchhike back and forth. Often volunteers will co-ordinate with me so that they hitchhike their way into town from La Fortuna and then we will time it so when i'm done running my own errands in town i can meet them to give them a ride back.
- Uber. There is Uber in San Jose and the Cabo area and often drivers will be willing to take a fare all the way out to La Fortuna, however most drivers will be unfamiliar with the fact that the last two kilometres are on dirt road, so it's best to warn them before they accept the ride in order that there are no surprises. The cost is about $20-25 USD
- Neighbours. I have several neighbours in the community who are sometimes willing to take my volunteers with them on rides to town for free or for a small fee to cover gas and time.
- Rental car. This is probably out of the budget of most volunteers but of course it's amazing to have your own vehicle here. If you are coming for a month or more you can get some good long term deals from locals. Ask me for more info.
- Professional taxi drivers. This is often a last resort as it's the most pricey and a ride could be from $50-100 but in a bind at least it's there.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have ultra fast starlink wifi that will allow you to work remotely.
Space for parking camper vans
We have lots of land avaiable for parking. This is a van life hotspot.
Can possibly accept pets
Super pet friendly spot. My dog Papaya has the best life running free around the beach. No leash ever.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
My animals / pets
Papaya
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback (8)
We had planned to spend 2 weeks and stayed for 5.
While we were there, Gio was hosting around 20 volunteers and created a space for so much creativity, community and fun. It was magical!
Gio is super generous with all the toys and activities that it has to offer. He is good at… read more
They are both so easygoing, hardworking , reliable, good fun and positive, a real pleasure to be around and to have as part of the family.… read more
We were given the responsibility of caring for the units. I did all the housekeeping (laundry and turnovers) and my husband was the resident handyman and carpenter.
The station is a vibrant and ever-changing… read more
Photos
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.3)
Communication:
(4.9)
We had planned to spend 2 weeks and stayed for 5.
While we were there, Gio was hosting around 20 volunteers and created a space for so much creativity, community and fun. It was magical!
Gio is super generous with all the toys and activities that it has to offer. He is good at… read more
They are both so easygoing, hardworking , reliable, good fun and positive, a real pleasure to be around and to have as part of the family.… read more
We were given the responsibility of caring for the units. I did all the housekeeping (laundry and turnovers) and my husband was the resident handyman and carpenter.
The station is a vibrant and ever-changing… read more
On a remote corner of the world, a forgotten paradise, Gio created this ambitious and beautiful project on the immensely pretty La Fortuna beach that embraces everyone and attracts the best people. During my cross continent bike tour I volunteered here for almost two months (initially… read more
Incredible place, the location is awesome, luxury rooms and kitchen, surfing, kayak and snorkel stuff "just take what you want".
Gio is super nice and he have a lot good experience about the life and he have good ideas and talents.
His Mexican neighbors bring you into the best Mexican… read more
Working with Gio was great. He trusted us to help… read more
