How Home Can Be More Than a Place
We checked in with Emma Baas,
co-founder of La Onza,
to continue our series
where we ask the team:
Why Peru?
Emma Baas
Emma is the co-founder of La Onza and a proud new mama to baby Rosie. As a global traveler who is starting her own family in Peru, we were keen to hear from her about what creates a sense of “home’ in Lobitos.
We asked: What does “home” mean to you now?
EB: For a long time, home was simple to me. It was the small village in the Netherlands where I grew up, my parents’ house. It was loving, safe, familiar. That’s what home is for most kids.
But even while growing up in such a beautiful home, I always felt there was something more out there.
Sacred Valley caputred in her lens
When I was 18, I left home and started traveling through Southeast Asia, Central America, South America, and Europe, and realized people define home in completely different ways. For some, home is the road. For others, it’s the smallest town you could imagine. I once met a woman in a tiny village in Miramar, even quieter than Lobitos, and somehow that was home for her.
For a while, the road felt like home to me too. But deep down, I think I was always searching for a place where my life flowed naturally. That place became Lobitos.
The community, the ocean, the culture, the slower rhythm of life — something here just fit me. Over time, it stopped feeling like somewhere I was visiting and started feeling like somewhere I belonged.
La Onza volunteers at skate class for the kids with local NGO Waves
And now, home has grown even bigger. I found home in my partner, and recently in my daughter too. This past weekend, I celebrated my first Mother’s Day here in Peru, and it hit me in a completely different way. I used to celebrate Mother’s Day with my mom in the Netherlands. Now I’m celebrating it here, with my own family, in the place that has become my home.
I still think home is fluid. Especially when you travel, you realize it can evolve throughout your life. The Netherlands will always be part of my home because my family and lifelong friends are there.
But right now, my home-home is Lobitos.
Emma eading a tour with local leaders
Three weeks left in Early Bird for the August trip to Machu Picchu + Lobitos.
Secure your place before the Early Bird rate ends.
