El Colectivo 506 was co-founded by
journalist Katherine Stanley Obando, photojournalist Mónica Quesada Cordero, and B&B owner Pippa Kelly. All entrepreneurs, all professionals in different fields, all friends and mothers, we have many things in common… but what brought us together to create El Colectivo 506 is our love for Costa Rica. The project grew out of many years of dreams and frustrations, years spent watching Costa Rica’s rural communities compete for limited space in the media and often fail to get their stories told. We all saw, in different ways, how the country’s inequality and urban-rural divide is threatening its social cohesion, its childrens’ future, and even its long-standing democracy. We had a vision for a site that would bring together longform, solutions journalism, and community-sourced travel and living content. Today, we’re proud to say we’re taking that vision a little further each day.
El Colectivo 506 is for people who love Costa Rica:
no matter your nationality, no matter where you live, no matter whether you are familiar with every corner of this country or just dreaming about visiting it someday. What unites our community is an appreciation for what Costa Rica represents—its traditions of conservation, education and public health, its culture, and its people—and a desire to help the country continue to grow. We applaud the good that is happening here, and we also understand that there is much to improve. We also believe that the tools we need to address our problems are right here within our borders. We just need to figure out how to use them.
We invite you, our readers, whether you come to us from the heart of rural Costa Rica or a crowded faraway city,
to give yourself a little break from your day-to-day. Slow down for a bit. Step onto our collective bus, the colectivo in our name—the kind that stops wherever its riders ask and leads you to unexpected findings—and see Costa Rica with new eyes. If you imagine it to be a perfect destination, you’ll learn with us that it’s much more complicated than that. If you’ve breathed its problems your whole life and are feeling worn down, you’ll hear from others who are facing the same struggles and have fresh perspectives to offer. We’re all in it together, sharing information, stories, and reflections that are for and from this fascinating country: por y para Costa Rica.
