Achtergronden:
Geschiedenis

De Nederlander Charles van Zijll de Jong had een droom, geïnspireerd door de film `Boys Town` Charles wilde op 80-jarige leeftijd weer terug naar de tropen en koos in 1997 voor Costa Rica. Het pakte anders uit voor hem... 

Wij vervolgen het relaas in het Engels, zoals grotendeels verwoord op de website van Hacienda la Esperanza.

The Dutchman Charles van Zijll de Jong had a dream, inspired by the movie ‘Boys Town’. He tried to realize his dream in Holland but that did not work out very well.

Charles decided to return to the tropics and chose at the age of 80 years... Costa Rica. He bought two haciendas and brought them together to fulfill his ultimate dreams. After joining the two haciendas - in all approximately 1.000 acres - he started planting trees and breeding cattle, especially Brahma cows and Arabian horses.

Unfortunately Charles became very ill and almost blind and died at the age of 86 years. His son Peter van Zijll de Jong inherited the 400 hectares property and sold it in 2003.

The new owner Ton Hoegee decided in 2004 to share the hacienda with his associate, contry estate entrepreneur Cor Denneman. Both have together worked for years, mainly in Brazil, buying and protecting - together with other serious Dutch investors - an endangered area of more than 450,000 acres in Amazonas, Brazil. They even met the President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) to discuss this serious threat in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas, Brazil`s largest province, which is as big as Europe.

In close harmony Cor took over the presidency of Hacienda la Esperanza Int. de Heredia S.A. through his company Forest Returns in March 2005. Forest Returns sold the majority of the shares to 8 other investors and kept 35 % in that period. With a little help of his friends Cor paid off the mortgage and cleared the debts. Independently he had the same vision as Charles van Zijll de Jong and took care of ‘the inheritance’.

Based on his cosmopolitan experiences Cor will make the mutual dreams come true. Con corazon’ Cor believes in true stewardship, in Dutch: ‘oprecht rentmeesterschap’. The main objective was to launch a sustainable reforestation process in Peninsula de Nicoya.

Based on his marketing back ground as well, ‘Don Cornelio’ strongly believes in the integration of several sustainable elements like forestry, hospitality, agro and aqua culture, cattle breeding, energy and sports and is eager to share the valuable property with other highly motivated people… For that reason new investment opportunities have been created as well ...

In close harmony with co-owner of `Esperanza` Jan Kluft Cor decided to launch in 2007 Vereenigde Costaricaanse Compagnie bv (VCC) to make it possible to increase the total property. An emission of new VCC-shares in 2008 made it possible to convert the former shares of la Esperanza Int. de Heredia S.A. into VCC-shares.