About A Piece of Ground
Built by hand.
Over 25 years.
Jama is a New Yorker — born, raised, and still unmistakably shaped by it. He first came to Belize in 1999 with a group called Planted Seeds, chasing a vision of land cooperatives, wellness centers, and intentional community. They based themselves in Barranco, a remote Garifuna village deep in Toledo District. After six weeks of roughing it in conditions nobody from New York is prepared for, one thing became undeniable: if you're bringing people down from where we're from, a solid and comfortable home base isn't a luxury — it's the foundation everything else depends on.
Planted Seeds never came together. But Belize got under Jama's skin, and he kept coming back.
By trade he's a carpenter — finish carpentry specifically. When he bought a single story bungalow in Punta Gorda, the plan was simple: a reliable place for people he trusted to stay when they came down to work or build alongside him. Then came a second floor for bedrooms. A third so guests could gather. A fourth with rooftop access. A second building with its own apartment. Over twenty five years, working between New York, Nantucket, and Punta Gorda, Jama poured everything earned as a carpenter back into this place — buying beds, sourcing Belizean hardwood, building from his on-site shop with his own hands. Nearly every piece of furniture you see at A Piece of Ground was made right here.
It started as a hostel. That chapter taught him something: budget travelers can be a race to the bottom. When COVID shut down tourism in Punta Gorda, it forced a rethink. Coming out the other side, A Piece of Ground shifted to group hosting — students, church groups, outreach teams, researchers, people arriving with a purpose. The energy is completely different. That's who this place is built for now.
A Piece of Ground is not a resort and it is not trying to be. You'll hear roosters in the morning and music drifting in from down the street at night. The furniture was built on-site. The rooms are genuinely comfortable because the person who built them knows firsthand what it means to need a real place to land after a long day in Toledo.
The right guest knows it the moment they arrive. The wrong guest wishes they'd booked a resort. Jama would rather you know which one you are before you get on the plane.
