From the beginning of our project we did our best to collaborate with companies that had similar ethos as our own:

• Indaba Trading (www.indabatrading.com) - Most of our interior furnishings were purchased from Indaba and imported to Panama in our shipping container. “We aim to re-discover an aesthetic quality found in craft traditions to create modern lifestyle collections with a focus on handmade, sustainable, ethical, and fun.”

• Onix Mosaic (www.onixmosaico.com) - Our pool tile was purchased from the leading glass mosaic manufacturer in Europe. “In the factory we have two firm commitments: quality and environment… our product is composed of 98% recycled glass, which requires an amount of 32,000 tons per year of this raw material.” Most of their facilities are also powered by green energy too, just like us!

Solar Power

Every morning The Hideaway powers up with over 50 solar panels giving us the energy we need to run throughout the day. This allows us to run off the grid during the day and sell back the extra, clean energy we don’t use. In the evening we click into the local electrical grid system for power. Our goal is to sell back enough clean energy in the day to offset our night usage, creating a perfect balance of environmental friendliness while continuing to offer luxurious comforts to our guests, such as air conditioning. In the event of an overnight power outage we have a solar battery back-up system to keep us running, which avoids the use of a gas or diesel generator. In addition to our solar panels, the lighting and illumination throughout the property and along the pathways are also solar powered. We also used LED bulbs throughout the property to limit our consumption.

Septic System

Panama, like many tropical countries, has a wet season and a dry season. In a typical dry season we won’t receive any rain for 4-5 months. Given that The Hideaway is full of lush tropical gardens, we opted for a septic system that reuses >90% of our water. The septic is directly connected to our irrigation system, which disseminates this reused water to maintain our beautiful gardens year round. We were pretty excited to find this septic system as our water usage is not completely wasted. At the same time this system protects our wells water table levels during those drier months.

Gardens

We never stop planting across our grounds. Guests will notice many fruit and vegetable trees scattered along our paths. We have papaya, plantains, bananas, pineapples, guanabana, limes, mangos, avocados, spinach, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, scallions, peppers, aloe, and tons of herbs all growing on-site. Our goal is to one day provide our restaurant, Sobremesa, with at least 50% of its produce.

Water

Our water comes UV filtered from our very own well. It is tested regularly to ensure it is the freshest water for drinking right from the tap. We highly recommend guests bring their own reusable water bottles as you will not find plastic water bottles for sale on-site.

Bugs

We are in the jungle, so yes, we have bugs, but we blatantly refuse to use harsh chemicals to combat mosquitoes. We are clearly a hotel that profits off of our natural pristine location on this planet, and hence it is our obligation to do our best to maintain these surroundings. Instead of harsh chemicals, we are using DynaTraps, and In2Care Container Traps with novel and green ingredients that naturally target both larvae and adult mosquitoes.

Support Local

Our General Contractor for our build, Michael Shogren, has a team consisting entirely of locals from our town and surrounding area. We do our best to hire, work with, and buy from the people within our local community.

Recycling

Recycling is not quite commonplace here in Panama yet, but we have found a facility about 2 hours from us that does manage recyclables. We separate all of our plastic, glass, and aluminum, and we personally drive this waste to the plant. Please ensure that you separate your garbage in the appropriate bins in your rooms to help us with this commitment.