Three countries, one island that finally felt like home.

Chapter 01 — Venezuela · Where it started

Long before Grand Bahama, there was another Caribbean island.

If you had told the girl growing up in Caracas that one day she would build her life on an island in The Bahamas, she probably would have loved the idea. Because islands were already part of who she was.

I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, to a German father and a Venezuelan mother from Maracaibo, in the state of Zulia. But Margarita Island was always my second home — and, if I had had my way, probably my first.

Margarita is a Venezuelan island in the Caribbean, just off the country's northeastern coast. With its free-port status, beautiful beaches and strong tourism industry, it became one of Venezuela's best-known holiday destinations, attracting visitors from Venezuela and around the world.

Funny enough, decades later I would find myself living on another Caribbean island — in a place actually called Freeport.

My parents bought our house there in the 1990s, and from then on, Margarita became part of our family rhythm. We would fly over once a month for long weekends and spend Christmas, Easter, Carnival and summers there. Even during university, every break between semesters somehow led me back to the island.

And the memories are endless. Shopping at Rattan and along 4 de Mayo and Santiago Mariño. Decorating our house, choosing furniture and designing the back of it — probably an early sign of the passion for homes and real estate development that would become such a big part of my life years later. Tío Pollo, ice cream at 4D, sundowners in Juan Griego, long days at Playa El Agua with all its restaurants along the beach, and Parguito for the surf.

There was also something wonderfully international about Margarita in those years. Friends came to visit us from different parts of the world, Europeans arrived on sailing boats, and different languages and cultures seemed to mix naturally with Caribbean life. Tourism wasn't something I only studied later — I grew up surrounded by it.

But more than the places, it was the feeling. The sea, the friends, the freedom, the social life, the familiar faces and always having somewhere to go or someone to see.

Margarita wasn't where we escaped to for holidays. We had a real life there.

And every time we left for Caracas, I was already waiting to go back.

Some of the friendships I made there are still part of my life today. And in one of those strange twists life sometimes makes, some of us eventually left Venezuela, moved to the same country and found ourselves living on yet another island together — Mallorca.

Looking back, the path from Caracas to Margarita, then Mallorca and eventually Grand Bahama doesn't feel quite as random as it might sound.

Island life wasn't something I discovered later. In many ways, it had always been my life.

Chapter 03 — Mallorca · 2005

I arrived with two suitcases. I left almost 20 years later with a whole family.

In 2005, at 25, I arrived in Mallorca a couple of months before starting an MBA in Marketing for Service Enterprises at the Universitat de les Illes Balears.

I didn’t wait for the MBA to begin before starting my life there. I found work, and once classes started, my days quickly found their rhythm: work during the day and university in the evenings.

The plan was simple: complete my MBA, enjoy another adventure and then return to Margarita.

But life had other plans.

The political situation and opportunities back in Venezuela made returning more complicated than I had imagined. So I told myself:

“One more year.”

Then another.

And somehow, without ever making one big decision to stay permanently, Mallorca became home.

Those first years weren’t always easy. I had arrived with two suitcases and had to figure out the practical realities of starting a life in a new country — renting an apartment, residency, Social Security, paperwork, work, and all the little things you don’t think about until you suddenly have to do them yourself.

And this was 2005.

Moving abroad looked very different then. There were no smartphones, no Google Maps in your pocket and no WhatsApp family group waiting at the other end.

MSN and Skype existed, but staying connected wasn’t nearly as effortless as it is today — especially when your parents weren’t exactly rushing to adopt every new technology. BlackBerry Messenger would become part of that era too, but only if the person you wanted to talk to actually had a BlackBerry.

Sometimes even something as simple as figuring out where to go, how to get there or who to ask was an adventure of its own.

But I wasn’t starting completely from zero.

One of my best friends from Margarita — originally from Argentina — was already living in Mallorca with his family. Having someone from that part of my life already on the island made the beginning feel a little less unfamiliar.

I still love that connection: someone from my island life in Margarita was already there when my next island chapter began.

Somewhere between working at Palma de Mallorca Airport, returning to hotel operations, making incredible friends, summer escapes to Ibiza and Formentera, and creating a life of my own, Mallorca stopped feeling temporary.

There was even a chapter in between that took me to Punta Cana before Mallorca pulled me back again.

Christmases were no longer automatically spent with my family in Venezuela. New traditions appeared. Friendships became family. My career evolved.

And eventually, I met Christoph.

Hospitality gradually led into real estate and development. We began building homes together. Our family grew. And the island I had arrived on with two suitcases became the place where our children were born and where their earliest years unfolded.

I went to Mallorca thinking I would stay for a little while.

Almost 20 years later, I left with a husband, a family, lifelong friendships, a career that had completely evolved — and considerably more than two suitcases.

But leaving Mallorca didn’t mean closing that chapter completely.

We still have our property there, now rented, along with friendships, memories and a connection to the island that remains very much part of our lives.

Mallorca wasn’t just somewhere I lived. It became part of who I am — and in many ways, it still is.

Chapter 05 — Grand Bahama · A new chapter

And then we found Grand Bahama.

During the pandemic, Christoph came across Grand Bahama almost by accident while exploring Google Earth.

He visited first. And what he saw immediately caught his attention — canal-front and beachfront land, space, and opportunities to develop that were becoming increasingly difficult to find elsewhere. For a real estate developer, the possibilities were hard to ignore.

He came home convinced that we needed to see it for ourselves.

So in 2021, we made the journey as a family: Mallorca to London, London to Nassau, one night there, and then on to Grand Bahama.

It was my second time in The Bahamas, but my first time experiencing Grand Bahama.

And something clicked.

Of course, the water was extraordinary. But it wasn’t only the beaches.

It was the space. The boating. The community. The freedom. And the possibility of giving our children an even more outdoor life.

I remember turning to Christoph and asking one very practical question:

“Is there an international school?”

If there was, I told him, we were good to go.

There was.

We visited Lucaya International School — a small international school offering PYP, IGCSE and IB — and that gave us another important piece of the puzzle. Looking back, choosing it for our children is a decision we haven’t regretted.

But we still wanted to understand more of The Bahamas before making such a big decision.

We rented a motor catamaran and spent a week exploring the Abacos. That only made us fall more in love with the boating, the water and the lifestyle.

We followed it with a week in Nassau.

And strangely enough, seeing more of The Bahamas made us even more certain about Grand Bahama.

For our family, it felt right: space, a planned city, almost no traffic, access to incredible boating, an international school and, for us as developers, the opportunity to create something in a place where there was still room to do it.

We had gone to Grand Bahama to explore an idea. We left wondering whether we had just found our next home.

Chapter 07 — Building a life & business

Somewhere along the way, building became part of our story too.

My professional life began in hospitality, but over the years it naturally expanded into real estate and development.

What started as a career became something much more personal: creating homes, developing projects and learning what it really takes to turn an idea on paper into something people can live in and experience.

That part of my life would eventually follow us across the Atlantic.