There is still a fair bit to do before the first MACALLÚ guest arrives.
We still have to find the right places. Then there are buildings to understand properly, rooms to repair, things to uncover and a great many decisions about what should stay, what really has to go and what simply needs somebody to look at it a little more carefully.
But I don't think MACALLÚ starts on the day the first room is finished.
The places are already here. The walks are already here. The woods, the old roads, the churches, the odd little stories and the people doing something interesting nearby are already here too. We just haven't finished joining them together yet.
That is partly why the Field Guides came first.
They give us a reason to look properly before there is anything to sell. To find out why an old road goes where it does. To notice the things growing underneath the trees instead of only looking at the view. To work out which café really is worth sending somebody to, rather than copying the ten places everybody else recommends.
By the time the first stay is ready, I would like MACALLÚ to already know the place around it fairly well.
Not everything has to begin at the front door.