Papaya Collective Arrived In Costa Rica To Showcase Everything Jacó Has To Offer, Does, And Conveys

(MENAFN- Costa Rica News) The post Papaya Collective Arrived In Costa Rica To Showcase Everything Jacó Has To Offer, Does, And Conveys appeared first on The Costa Rica News.

Tania Guevara, the driving force behind Papaya Collective, describes her creation as a“rebellious and super active child.” Far from being the result of a meticulously planned strategy, this collective emerged naturally and unexpectedly, driven by Guevara's“gift for people” and her ability to connect brands with potential.

Guevara is a native of Bogotá, Colombia, where she grew up and was educated. A young traveler, curious and interested in learning about new cultures, other languages, and different ways of seeing the world, she arrived in Costa Rica six years ago. It turns out that her mother bought a plot of land in the country and the idea was to have an esoteric café.“The idea was for her to come and live here and for me to come and visit her,” said Tania.

Tania visited Costa Rica, but in the end her mother didn't stay. Since then, in July 2019, she has been living in Jacó, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, where her recent creation, Papaya Collective, is now thriving.

Tania Guevara describes the creation of Papaya Collective not as the result of a premeditated strategy, but as an organic and surprising process, comparing it to a“desired but very unexpected pregnancy.” This project, which she feels is like a“rebellious, revolutionary, super-sparky, super-active, and creative child,” had been trying to find its way to manifest itself for some time. Guevara emphasizes that there was no prior plan or strategy; it was something that“just happened” naturally, although“unexpectedly expected.”

The driving force: Talent, passion, and the community gap

Papaya Collective has its roots in Guevara's“gift with people” and her lifelong ability to connect people and promote brands with potential. She is passionate about seeing other entrepreneurs succeed and uses her skills to promote and help their businesses grow. However, this initiative also stems from what Tania sees as a persistent complaint: the difficulty of building community in Costa Rica, especially among the large foreign population. Guevara perceives a lack of strong community culture, where people tend to focus on their own affairs, without the proactivity to“connect everything and co-create.”

For Guevara, collaboration and co-creation have always come naturally, connecting with her background in journalism. After weighing up whether her experience would be valued when“knocking on doors,” she decided to focus her talent. This approach began with the creation of workshops, driven by her curiosity and desire to teach everything she learned. This period of intense activity, necessary to avoid stagnating in a small town, led her to connect with new people. It was in a conversation about the need to create a“tribe,” co-create, and build community that the key word appeared: collective, a word she immediately adopted because of its resonance with her vision of uniting ideas and people.

The project is already a month old, filled with many activities and ventures within Jacó.

After defining the word“collective,” Tania Guevara reveals that her mind was divided. Parallel to Papaya Collective, she was sustaining another fundamental creation: a personal branding mentorship aimed at personal development businesses and holistic coaches. This facet, linked to accompanying human processes, is what truly moves her. Despite being focused on this mentorship, she felt a“creative energy swirling around,” a force that was seeking a new channel of expression.

The final revelation came the next day while she was doing her exercise routine. As she did a sit-up, the idea took shape in her mind, but not just as a“collective”; the question arose:“What's happening in Jacó?” However, she immediately felt afraid to focus the project solely on that location. It was in that moment of creative doubt that, out of nowhere, the word Papaya popped into her mind, and she combined it with her previous idea, thus giving birth to Papaya Collective.

The word Papaya is because Tania considers it a very noble fruit, very characteristic of Costa Rica, of the area,“it grows in any garden, anywhere, and yes, it's like a fruit that sticks because it sticks. I also think it's very pretty. I'm obsessed with nature, and I think the papaya flower is beautiful, the plant is beautiful, the fruit is beautiful, the food is beautiful, and the benefits of papaya are also wonderful. It's a very feminine fruit, and from there, a whole concept develops, which is wonderful.”

The brand's materialization, including its design and visual identity, came about very naturally. Guevara did not work alone in this process; she did so in the company of two Costa Rican friends with whom she has shared mutual growth. This close and organic collaboration underscores the spirit of co-creation that defines the collective, reflecting the same need to unite and build bridges that motivated its founding.

Papaya Collective does not have a physical space; it defines itself as a“traveling and omnipresent digital platform.”

Its main mission is to act as a catalyst for the community: a collective that connects, creates, builds, and co-creates, promoting local talent and responsible and sustainable tourism. For Tania Guevara,“it is a rocket or a spark designed to reinforce the identity of the inhabitants of Jacó, clean up the image of the area, and give back a little of everything it has given in recent years.”

The team

Within Papaya there is what Tania calls the Petite Comité, which is strategic allies and friends. It is a super interdisciplinary group, there are photographers, there are designers, there are artists, there are entrepreneurs, there are community leaders, there are business owners, there are women who are very connected to everything, very sensitive too, 11 girls in total.

Visibility and growth for purpose-driven companies

For companies and businesses, Papaya Collective serves as a comprehensive platform for visibility, content creation, and strategic alliances. It offers access to a real community of people committed to supporting local businesses. The goal is not to“sell for the sake of selling,” but to highlight businesses whose owners put their hearts into what they do and work with intention. The collective acts as a cultural and informational reference point, covering from Herradura to Bejuco, with a vision to expand throughout Costa Rica and, eventually, to other countries.

Beyond dissemination, Papaya Collective takes on an active role as a cultural manager and curator of unique events and experiences in the area. It organizes tours, excursions, and distinctive events co-created with the community, focused on authenticity and purpose. The experiences seek to connect with the body and spirituality and cover a wide range of topics: from personal finance, sustainability, and conscious entrepreneurship to nutrition, leadership, and women's health.

The collective also offers professional consulting services in key areas such as marketing, branding, visual identity, and strategic management. In addition, it addresses holistic well-being with advice on time management, mental health, menstrual cycle awareness, and female sovereignty, demonstrating its commitment to the personal and professional growth of the community it seeks to impact.

Behind Papaya Collective

As we mentioned, Tania Guevara is the mastermind behind Papaya Collective. As a child, she liked to sell things at home, even pretending she had a restaurant. At school, she sold candy.

She also grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, which undoubtedly influenced her to dream of becoming an entrepreneur herself.

Most notably, she considers herself a lively, empathetic, creative, and overly decisive person. She feels that she is multifaceted and curious. Among her flaws, she notes impatience, distraction, and becoming overwhelmed with things.

Professionally

She is a social communicator and journalist specializing in communication and organization, and decided not to study for a degree with the aim of becoming a bridge.“I have always been very good at connecting one side with the other and always mixing with people and environments and spaces that are different. As I am very adaptable, it is easy for me to connect with people of all ages, all types, all tastes, all sizes, colors, smells, and so on, so that has allowed me to perform in various areas.”

Let's say that Tania's characteristic of always being so active led her to work in various important places both in Colombia and in other countries. Her first job was in the innovation entrepreneurship community Impact Hub (Bogotá),“I was like the creator of experiences for the house and had to be attentive to the members of the community and others. It was a pretty nice ecosystem,” she explained. She has worked writing articles and designing content for websites and social media for major brands.

It is worth noting that her university internship was at the Colombian embassy in Ottawa, Canada, and she spent seven months living in Canada, which Tania considers to have been a wonderful experience:“It was the first time I had lived outside the country, and there I connected with a network called One Young World, which is the largest youth entrepreneurship network in the world.

She speaks several languages, including English, French, and Portuguese. She has been a Spanish teacher and a spinning instructor. She is a businesswoman because she believes that Colombia has incredible things to offer,“so I have always taken advantage of the talent and products there to show them to the world.”

She is also a menstrual and comprehensive sexuality educator, passionate about women's health and mental health. She has taken many courses and workshops related to emotional management, the body, emotions, movement, yoga, breathing, and connecting with the body.

What inspires you about Costa Rica?

Tania Guevara finds deep inspiration in Costa Rica, highlighting the nature and simplicity inherent in life in the country. For her, the informality and ease with which one can live life under the motto of“Pura Vida” are powerful elements that attract her. This atmosphere invites her to connect with a noticeably calmer, more peaceful, and slower-paced lifestyle, fostering a step-by-step, day-by-day approach that has brought her“back to basics.”

Another factor that inspires Guevara is the geography of the town where she lives, Jacó: having mountains, rivers, and the sea all in one place. This natural combination not only facilitates a more peaceful lifestyle, but also seems to fuel her creative energy and her ability to continue driving Papaya Collective forward.

According to Tania, how can we contribute to improving our planet and its biodiversity today?

Tania Guevara is emphatic in pointing out that environmental education is the“platform, the key, and the most powerful weapon.” She stresses the urgent need to raise awareness, which, according to her, must come from“the inside out.” For this reason, she fervently promotes health education, especially women's health, arguing that knowing our bodies is the first step, as it is our“first territory” and the only one for which we are truly responsible. If this foundation is not taken care of, any attempt to sustain the care of the external environment is unsustainable.

Guevara establishes a direct connection between personal care and planetary sustainability:“caring for nature begins with caring for the body.” She believes that people are the seeds of change. This care involves going back to basics: food, movement, understanding our natural cycles, and respecting our bodies as an integral part of nature. This translates into concrete actions such as avoiding the use of chemicals and being mindful of what we consume, including the environment and water.

The young woman emphasized that the real contribution to changing the world lies in starting with oneself, which generates greater awareness, responsibility, and respect for the outside world. This requires“awareness and a change of mindset” in order to adopt a perspective of sustainability and respect for nature.

How does she see herself in the future?

At 30 years old, Tania Guevara feels she still has a lot to create, learn, cultivate, and let go of, inspired by her recent travels, such as her trip to Brazil. Her vision for the future focuses on living“very peacefully,” always maintaining her spark, energy, and vitality. She plans to continue working intensely with women and communities, maintaining a similar approach to that of Papaya Collective: accompanying internal and intimate processes. Her dream is to create experiences worldwide, envisioning herself living in Brazil, Colombia, and Costa Rica, and traveling to Africa, always with a sense of freedom.

On her path to the future, Tania Guevara also prioritizes deep learning and connecting with the natural environment. One of her goals is to purchase land and learn much more about the earth and food, integrating this knowledge into her work with communities and in her physical spaces.

For Tania, what does it mean to live, work, and create in community?

For this young Colombian woman, who shares her heart and soul with Costa Rica,“from our cells we learn that we cannot function alone, that we are nourished by the tribe, and even more so as women, by our microbiota, our nervous system, food, everything. We need each other to coexist, we are social beings and we always need each other, and it is easier to grow in community than to grow alone,” she said.

In her opinion, the sense of community is something innate in human beings, and she thanks God for making it clear to her that“it is very easy for me to connect and create.”

In this way, Tania expressed a message to all of you, our dear readers, especially those who like things with purpose created from the heart, with all the fire and spark.

She invited you to follow Papaya Collective @papayacollective_“collaborate, support in whatever way you can, it's like giving, sustaining, and building together. I feel that creating with purpose always has great rewards, taking into account planting papaya seeds and lighting up all people. I am happy with how Papaya has grown in such a short time, grateful for the receptivity. I am happy to create from the heart and see how everything grows naturally and very solidly. I tell you to consider the following: if you have many ideas, they will not work if they are not planted in the ground and with the right strategy.”

How wonderful it is to chat on TCRN with Costa Ricans who are doing incredible things outside of Central America and with people from other countries who are making a great contribution within Costa Rica, such as Tania Guevara. Undoubtedly, we must support everything that adds value...

She has numerous goals to achieve, focused on both stability and the creation of tangible spaces. Among her objectives are financial stabilization and the development of her digital and physical businesses. Specifically, she aspires to own a café, conceived as a space for people to connect. Professionally, she seeks to become a speaker on various topics, actively collaborate (co-create), and achieve a great social impact, accompanying people to reconnect with themselves through love and authenticity.

The post Papaya Collective Arrived In Costa Rica To Showcase Everything Jacó Has To Offer, Does, And Conveys appeared first on The Costa Rica News.

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