Kosmos didn't begin with a resort. It began with one stargazer in an empty valley — and became nearly 7,000 people building a community-built stargazing resort in Colorado: a warm place to sleep beneath true night, the kind of darkness most of North America has forgotten. Our founder, Gamal Jadue Zalaquett, comes from five generations of hospitality — his grandparents owned and ran a hotel in Arica, Chile for over thirty years, and he grew up in and around it, under a night sky that was the first thing he ever loved. At twelve, his family lost everything and started over in Miami. Years later, a corporate career looked like success — Gamal achieved multiple awards as the top contibuter in his company globally. But, the more awards and corporate politics, the less he felt happy.
In April 2020, months into the pandemic, Gamal arrived in Colorado's San Luis Valley — and found the sky from his childhood. Living in New York at the time with Bortle Class 9 skies, the dark Brotle Class 2 skies of rural Colorado reignited a connection to his ancestors and hospitality family roots. That December of 2020, he bought 40 acres of high desert (for $11,000 USD), only 18 minutes from the entrance of Great Sand Dunes National Park, home of the tallest dunes in North America. There was no resort yet. Only the sky, raw land, and a vision to follow his family's legacy.
What followed wasn't a montage. It was years of planning, engineering meetings, market research, feasibility studies, and public hearings that approved special use permits for Kosmos in February 2023. That was just the beginning as Gamal traveled back and forth between to Alamosa County — with a villa design, an ambitiopus master plan, and an itch that refused to sit still. The vision focused on connection. He wanted to create a place where we could all disconnect from our day-to-day life in order to connect with what really matters: our loved ones, our friends, our inner selves, and nature. The more people visited Gamal during this period, the more he understood the impact of bonding via shared experiences centered around the awe-inspiring views of our Milky Way.
It wasn't smooth all along. Building off-grid at 7,600 feet in a remote area, using natural materials most banks had never heard of, in a valley with harsh winters — every step had a challenge attached. We kept going though. Starting first with the infrastructure (well, septic) and building the first Stargazing Villa before we even started our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. Our passion to bring this experience to the masses in a sustainable manner never windled down.
In July 2024 we asked the world to help build a resort that existed only in renders. The answer broke records.
Teachers, astronomers, honeymooners, first-time stargazers. They didn't just fund Kosmos — they shaped it, questioned it, and booked it out before the first villa had a roof.
And along the way, an inner circle formed. What began as a simple WhatsApp group to keep investors and strategic allies in the loop grew into the Galactic Club — a true community of Kosmos's biggest supporters: backers, advisors, and guests who've stayed with us or soon will.
Real nights, real guests — photos from our community.
Four chapters in — and we're just getting started.
April 2020: Gamal arrives in the San Luis Valley. December 2020: 40 acres of high desert. Then the part nobody saw — years of planning, traveling back and forth, and a Stargazing Villa that evolved through six design versions, from a simple wooden concept to the final architecture guests sleep in today. Most of those ideas didn't survive. That was the point.
February 2023: after a long county process, the Special Use Permit finally landed. September 2023: to prove Kosmos was real, Gamal moved onto the land and camped off-grid for 45 days — no utilities, winter on its way — and launched the first investment round from the high desert. Banks weren't sure about hempcrete. We were.
September 2023 — 45 days on the land. Real photos, real wind, one very good dog.
July 30, 2024: we asked the world to help build a resort that existed only in renders. By launch day, nearly 7,000 people had signed up. The campaign closed at $2.27 million — the most funded resort campaign in crowdfunding history — and the Kosmos Stargazing Community was born.
The first villa opened in April 2025; three were under the stars by October. In April 2026, Kosmos became Colorado's first DarkSky Approved Lodging property. Not every night was perfect — off-grid systems have moods — but every lesson made the next stay better.
Right now we're optimizing operations — refining every stay, tour, and off-grid system with three villas live, so the next chapters land on solid ground.
Every villa at Kosmos is built from hempcrete — hemp and lime, walls that breathe with the high desert. We couldn't hire that expertise, so we built it: our own construction company, staffed and trained here in the San Luis Valley. That same crew now builds natural homes for neighbors across the region. A solar powered off-grid resort by design — solar energy, deep-well water, passive heating and cooling — and a DarkSky Approved Lodging property since April 2026: one of the few resorts that protect dark skies, not just enjoy them.
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Kosmos runs on connection — to the cosmos, and to each other. Star parties where strangers share telescopes. Guests who arrived as backers and left as friends. A Galactic Club that started as a group chat and became a community. Under a sky this big, nobody stays a stranger for long.
The high desert sets a slower rhythm, and Kosmos is built to honor it. Off-grid quiet, passive warmth, mineral-rich well water, and nights dark enough to reset your sense of time. Every villa already holds its own stargazing spa — a private jacuzzi beneath the dome — and the full Wellness Center spa is part of what we're building next. The stillness is already here.
Kosmos was founded by Gamal Jadue Zalaquett, who comes from five generations of hospitality — his grandparents owned and ran a hotel in Arica, Chile for over thirty years. After traveling to more than 35 countries and staying in over 150 hotels, he bought 40 acres near the Great Sand Dunes in December 2020 and built Colorado's first DarkSky Approved Lodging property.
Kosmos is a community-built resort. Nearly 7,000 people signed up as VIPs before launch, and the July 2024 campaign raised $2.27 million across Indiegogo and direct presales — the most funded resort campaign in crowdfunding history, with over $900,000 raised on launch day alone.
A dark sky resort is lodging built where artificial light pollution is minimal, so guests see the night sky as it naturally appears. Kosmos pairs Bortle Class 2 darkness with a telescope in every villa and astronomer-guided stargazing tours — a complete astrotourism destination, not just a dark parking lot.
DarkSky Approved Lodging is a certification from DarkSky International for properties that protect the night sky through responsible lighting and guest education. Kosmos earned it on April 28, 2026 — becoming Colorado's first DarkSky Approved Lodging property.
The San Luis Valley is one of the largest alpine valleys in the world — a high desert ringed by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which shelter it from distant city glow. A quick lesson for your visit: astronomers rate night skies on the Bortle Scale, from 9 (inner-city glow) down to 1 (pristine darkness). Kosmos sits at Bortle Class 2 — dark enough that the Milky Way casts a shadow.
Hempcrete is a natural building material made from hemp and lime — breathable, insulating, and carbon-conscious. Every villa at Kosmos is built from hempcrete by our own San Luis Valley crew, making it Colorado's first hempcrete hotel in the high desert.
Kosmos is a solar powered off-grid resort: solar energy, deep-well water, and passive heating and cooling run every villa independently of public utilities — full comfort without the grid, under skies the grid never touches.
Kosmos sits at 7,600 feet in Mosca, Colorado — 18 minutes from the entrance of Great Sand Dunes National Park, home of the tallest dunes in North America, and 25 minutes from Alamosa. It is one of the most unique places to stay in the San Luis Valley.
The Galactic Club is the inner circle of the Kosmos Stargazing Community — backers, advisors, and past and future guests who grew from a simple WhatsApp group into a true community of the resort's biggest supporters.
Guests rate Kosmos around 4.5 stars on Google. They describe star parties under the Milky Way, telescope nights on private villa decks, and the kind of quiet only a Bortle Class 2 sky delivers — their words are just above.
Come see what thousands of believers, one valley, and Bortle 2 darkness have built.
