#1: Bienvenidos a Ritmo del Río

January 5, 2025

Hidden in the lush hills of San Rafael, Antioquia, Ritmo del Río is a living and constantly evolving dream — set on a 15-hectare jungle reserve with the pristine Río el Macanal running through our property. Here, surrounded by waterfalls, birds, and fruit trees, we’ve created a space where organic farming, nature conservation, language learning, and music all flow together in harmony.

In 2013, we purchased what was once an abandoned cattle farm — left untouched for seven years — from a San Rafael native living in Medellín. Since then, we’ve planted over 2,000 trees, including hundreds of fruit trees, transforming this land into a vibrant ecosystem and a place for deep reconnection.

Our organic farm now produces an abundance of tropical fruits — papayas, pineapples, citrus, mangostines, guavas, bananas, and more — alongside vegetables and herbs like lettuce, yuca, tomatoes, carrots, kale, basil, flor de jamaica, and onions. We raise chickens and fish, and we’ve recently started cultivating oyster mushrooms. Everything we grow goes directly into the meals we serve to guests, students, and staff at our farm-to-table restaurant.

The vision began with Jesse, a linguistics student from California who first arrived in Colombia at 20 years old. Drawn to the language, culture, and natural beauty of this land, Jesse moved to San Rafael in 2013 and began Ritmo del Río with the idea of creating a nature reserve, organic farm, music venue and language school.

Years later, a shared love of language with Carlos Nieto, a Colombian Spanish teacher and now co-director, led to the founding of the Spanish School at Ritmo del Río — a place where language immersion happens not just in classrooms, but in rivers, gardens, and in the local community.

Today, Ritmo del Río is a growing project dedicated to creating employment opportunities in San Rafael:

• 13 full-time workers running the hotel, farm, and restaurant

• 3 Spanish professors and and 4 Spanish professors in training

• Yoga, salsa, organic agriculture and music instructors

• A growing number of part-time collaborators

One of our central goals is to create sustainable, dignified work opportunities in rural Colombia — jobs with fair pay and benefits that allow people to stay rooted in their communities.

Whether you’re coming to learn Spanish, explore the jungle, relax by the river, or share in music and culture — bienvenid@s al Ritmo del Río. Here, we learn, grow, and flow together.