Hacienda Pinilla has a special place in the heart of CRPM’s owner, Eddie Davis. Its most prominent investor and the face of Hacienda Pinilla for much of its existence, H.G. “Pat” Pattillo, is who brought him to Costa Rica in the first place back in 2003.
Sadly, he passed away recently. Mr. Pattillo’s obituary can be found in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution here. His legacy in Guanacaste lives on, and he’s probably the single most influential person with regards to building Liberia as a vacation hub and the strong connection between Atlanta and Costa Rica.
Eddie commented:
My story with “Mr. Pattillo” as he was known on the property and to me begins as I was wrapping up university in Atlanta. I originally planned to take a year off and then go to law school. I had completed the LSAT already even and was hoping to find a job where I could improve my Spanish and public speaking. By happenstance, a family friend introduced me as someone who might be a good fit for an education program that Mr. Pattillo was putting together in the community.
Without knowing anything about him, I met him in his office in Decatur, GA. It was not ostentatious nor in a particularly flashy part of Metro-Atlanta. He showed me some site plans for Hacienda Pinilla, which already encompassed some 4500 acres and described his idea:
He wanted to bring the 5 brightest kids from the 10 area public high schools to a special English class to boost their skills. The top 10 students from that group of 50 would receive full scholarships to Berry College, outside of Atlanta.
He offered me the position of the program’s teacher on the spot, and gave me a $500/month salary, which he assured me would be plenty to live on within the local economy.
As a 22-year old looking for an adventure, I accepted and booked a flight to Liberia.
As the plane entered Costa Rican airspace, I couldn’t help but be struck by the natural beauty of the area (I was lucky enough to have a window seat).
My on-the-ground connection was the director of the program, Leonie Jimenez. She had arranged for me to hitch a ride with some Atlanta friends of Mr. Pattillo to the Hacienda Pinilla, where I had a room in the Posada del Sol.
In those days, the Tamarindo weather pattern was rainier road to Villareal was horribly pitted and muddy during rainy season, and most of the roads within the Hacienda were unpaved as well. I borrowed a company mountain bike from the Posada and road around the property, getting covered in mud (it was late August).
The property was spectacular if somewhat desolate. The Pinilla golf course was already in place. Las Golondrinas existed and there were a few homes already. But this was pre-J.W. Marriott, Las Brisas, Los Almendros, Avellanas Beach Club, and many of the amenities that exist today.
Much of the property was still being used as active farmland.
The first part of my job was to get the English class for the high school students going. We drove to each of the schools, met with the faculty, the top students, and their parents, and then arranged a bus driver who would pick up two sets of students per day of the week. Santa Cruz, Belen, Cartagena, Villareal, Santa Barbara, and other schools were included.
Since we had time before classes would actually start, I was put on the construction team renovation the elementary school in Villareal (paid for by Mr. Pattillo). It was a fantastic introduction to the local culture and the all-important casados (meat and veggie meals) known throughout the area.
Once classes got going, Mr. Pattillo himself would appear from time to time. The 4-hour class was first hosted in the elementary school in Hernandez. It then later found a more secure home in the high school in Villareal, where a few computers could be installed and locked up. True to the local area, we had chickens, iguanas, and other wildlife join our classes as well.
The students were in awe of Mr. Pattillo, and he was in awe of them. He was an extremely humble and kind human being who you could tell just wanted to pay it forward in every aspect of his life.
Fast forward to today and his obituary in particular, and it speaks quite a bit to all of his real estate development activity. He would be very proud of how far Hacienda Pinilla has come and the amazing architecture found within the property (he had an architecture degree).
However, I think he would be most proud of his influence on the local community. If rumors are true, he subsidized the Delta flight from Atlanta for a number of years to Daniel Oduber Airport in Liberia until it became one of the most profitable in the world. Just that effort was the spark that fired the development of Guanacaste, in general, which had largely been an afterthought to the central government in years prior.
What I’m personally most proud of is that he delivered on his promise to the local students. The top 10 from my original 50 got their scholarships to Berry. A number of them transferred to four-year programs from there. One of them even graduated from my Alma Mater, Emory University, all paid for by him. And then they came back to the local area and that knowledge made its way into the community at large. The cycle has repeated many times since. I was only there for the first academic year before I moved into real estate myself, with a base in Tamarindo.
I’m also quite sure that he was very proud of all the amazing architecture at Hacienda Pinilla, including some of the homes that we manage today, and that the horse stable operates to this day, lead by local cowboys who take guests from Atlanta and further away on rides into Guanacaste’s tropical dry forest.
Read more about our Hacienda Pinilla Property Management services and the various Hacienda Pinilla Condo communities that have been developed for rental and purchase over the years.
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