Today we’d like to introduce you to Gamal Jadue Zalaquett.
Hi Gamal, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hospitality is in my blood. My grandparents owned and ran a hotel in Arica, Chile for over thirty years, and I grew up in and around it — watching how they treated guests, how they built something that lasted. My family operated hotels across Chile and Bolivia, and I took my first trip when I was thirty days old. By the time I was an adult I’d been to more than 35 countries and stayed in over 150 hotels and resorts. So the dream of running my own resort was always there — it just took a couple of decades of detours to get to it. After moving to Miami from Chile, I spent part of my career in real estate as it was the family business and 8 years as a software executive, scaling teams and building customer experiences; and honestly, every one of those skills ended up mattering.
The turning point came in 2020. I went down to Colorado’s San Luis Valley to visit a friend and couldn’t find a place to stay — everything was fully booked. Then I saw the Great Sand Dunes, the tallest dunes in North America, and that night I looked up and saw a sky I didn’t know still existed in the continental U.S. Here was a national park with visitation growing year over year, essentially no supply of quality accommodations, and some of the darkest skies in the country. I went home, punched in the numbers, and — wallah. That was the beginning of Kosmos.
From there it was step by step: due diligence through 2020, acquiring 40 acres near the park entrance in December 2020, and getting our Special Use Permit approved in early 2023. Along the way the concept sharpened. What started as an eco-wellness resort became something more specific: a stargazing resort, built off-grid and designed around the night sky itself and connection. In July 2024 we launched on Indiegogo and the response blew us away — nearly $2 million raised and more than 5,800 VIP deposits from people who believed in this before a single villa was open.
We welcomed our first guests in 2025, and in May 2026 Kosmos became Colorado’s first International Dark Sky certified resort, sitting under Bortle Class 2 skies with 700 acres of surrounding conservation land. Today we have three stargazing villas open, and we’re just getting started — Phase 1 brings an observatory, spa, and our two-story Galaxy Villa in 2027, and Phase 2 plans for a one-meter telescope and planetarium in 2028 to form a Stargazing Center.
Six years ago, I started with nothing but a spreadsheet and a dream. Now families fly in from around the world to see the Milky Way for the first time. That’s the story — and honestly, we’re still in the early chapters.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth? Not even close — and I say that with a smile, because every struggle taught us something we needed to know.
Start with the timing: I found this opportunity in 2020, which meant doing due diligence, buying land, and pitching a brand-new resort concept in the middle of a global pandemic. Then there’s the reality of building in the American West that nobody warns you about — water. In Colorado, water rights are their own universe. We had to engineer a full water augmentation plan and work through an agreement with the local water conservancy district before we could move forward. That’s the kind of thing that doesn’t show up in the dream version of “I’m going to build a resort,” but it can make or break the whole project.
Permitting was another mountain. We bought the land in December 2020, and our Special Use Permit wasn’t approved until early 2023 — more than two years of engineering, county processes, and revisions. And we weren’t building a normal hotel; we were building off-grid, at 7,600 feet, in a remote valley where construction labor and materials are hard to come by.
We also made a promise to ourselves that made everything harder — and better: to build sustainably, for real. We chose hempcrete, a natural building material made from hemp and lime. It’s non-toxic, breathable, fire-resistant, and incredibly insulating — perfect for our climate — but it’s also a new technology in the U.S. There was no playbook. Very few contractors had ever worked with it, inspectors had rarely seen it, and we had to learn the material ourselves: the mixes, the curing times, how it behaves through a San Luis Valley winter. It would have been far easier to pour concrete and call ourselves “eco-friendly” in the brochure. Instead we became pioneers of natural building in the process — and our villas are healthier and more beautiful for it. The original concepts had to change again and again as we learned what would actually work on this land, and every one of those pivots was earned the hard way.
Then there was funding. As a first-time resort developer, I heard “no” more times than I can count. We pursued traditional lenders, private investors, every path — and ultimately it was regular people who believed first. Our Indiegogo campaign in 2024 raised nearly $2 million from more than 5,800 backers before a single villa was open. That was humbling, and it also meant our timeline slipped — we had hoped to open in 2024, and we welcomed our first guests in 2025 instead. When you’re building something real, the calendar doesn’t care about your pitch deck.
But here’s the thing: every one of those struggles made Kosmos better. Hempcrete made us builders, not just developers. The water work made us more sustainable. The permitting process made us better neighbors in the San Luis Valley. The funding journey gave us a community of thousands of believers instead of one big check. If it had been easy, someone would have already done it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Kosmos Stargazing Resort & Spa?
Kosmos Stargazing Resort & Spa is Colorado’s first International Dark Sky certified resort — an off-grid, eco-luxury retreat in the San Luis Valley, minutes from Great Sand Dunes National Park. We sit at about 7,600 feet under Bortle Class 2 skies, which is a technical way of saying: some of the darkest, clearest night skies left in the United States. On a moonless night here, you don’t just see stars — you see the Milky Way stretched across the sky like you’ve stepped onto another planet. Our 40 acres are surrounded by 700 acres of conservation land, so those skies are protected, not just lucky.
What do we specialize in? Connection. Every stay at Kosmos is designed around reconnecting — with yourself, with the people you came with, and with nature. The night sky is our centerpiece, but the experience is the whole point. Our stargazing villas are 1,200 square feet of quiet luxury, built with hempcrete — a natural, breathable, non-toxic building material — with skies overhead that most of our guests have never experienced in their lives. We host guided stargazing sessions and telescope experiences for everyone from first-timers to serious enthusiasts, and we run special events around the sky’s own calendar — like our astrophotography workshops during the Perseid meteor shower, where guests learn to capture the night sky with professional astrophotographers, cameras included.
What sets us apart is that we didn’t add stargazing to a resort — we built a resort around the stars. Everything flows from that: the off-grid design, the dark-sky lighting, the natural materials, the location itself. There are places with nice telescopes and places with nice villas; there’s almost nowhere that was conceived, permitted, and built from the ground up for the night sky. And we’re just getting started — our next phases bring an observatory, a spa, our two-story Galaxy Villa, and eventually a one-meter telescope and planetarium forming a full Stargazing Center. The long-term vision is bigger than one property: we want Kosmos to be a model for sustainable, experience-driven hospitality in underserved natural places.
Brand-wise, what I’m most proud of is that Kosmos was built by believers. Before we opened a single villa, more than 5,800 people put down deposits because they wanted this to exist. Today, guests fly in from around the world, and the moment that never gets old is watching someone step outside on their first night and go silent — because they’re seeing the Milky Way for the first time in their life. That’s what we’re known for. Not a place to stay, but a night you’ll never forget.
What I’d want your readers to know: you don’t need to be an astronomer. Come as you are. The sky does the rest.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Most people who see the finished villas assume we hired everything out. What they don’t know is that to build Kosmos the way we wanted — off-grid, with hempcrete, a natural material almost nobody in the U.S. works with — I ended up starting a construction company. We mix, we build, we problem-solve on-site at 7,600 feet. I came into this as a developer with a spreadsheet; the valley turned me into a builder with lime dust on my boots. Now that same team builds natural, sustainable homes for others in the region too.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kosmosresort.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kosmosresort
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kosmosresort/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kosmosresort/videos
