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2012 is a very special year for the Mayan Calendar. It represents the final year of a 5,126-year cycle, and has a significant relevance for the Mayan Community. This year, in a very special event between El Camino Voluntours and Seres we are offering the chance for people to come join us in bringing in 2012 in Guatemala, the Heart of the Mayan World!

This retreat is designed for all levels of permaculture expertise, whether you are a seasoned veteran or a newcomer. Each of us has a world of talents and expertise that will make our experience undoubtedly rich. A unique aspect of the retreat is the opportunity to put our learning and skills to use through our activities on the ground, making a meaningful contribution and learning skills that we can take with us to our homes and communities.

Read more below…

Seres Permaculture Retreat New Years, 2012 in Guatemala! A very special project/course/retreat. El Camino VolunTours has partnered with Project Seresfor something truly unique…   2012, as you may have heard, is a very special year for the Mayan Calendar. It represents the final year of a 5,126-year cycle, and has a significant relevance for the Mayan Community. Come join us in bringing in 2012 in Guatemala, the Heart of the Mayan World! There will be no better place to be this New Years Eve!   Read more below about Permacutlure, and its importance to sustainability in a world that needs it more than ever… What is ‘Permaculture’, and why is it so important? Sam Dunlap, our Permaculture trainer from Cincinnati explains… Sam with Corrina Grace, founder of Project Seres, and Jango the Seres Dog Einstein, in his timeless wisdom, told us that we will never solve our problems at the same level of thinking from which they were created. As we move into a new age, we find ourselves at a crossroads of old ways of being and a world of enormous potential for change and transformation. What path will we choose? In order to answer this question as a civilization, each of us must answer it on an individual level.   Permaculture offers us a departure from the fragmented way of thinking that has characterized our society in recent history. The concepts of harmony, integration and using natural systems as our guide for creating abundant, productive landscapes are powerful. Learning them gives us the potential to transform ourselves and our communities. Yet, having these concepts in our brains is not enough. We must incorporate them into our being and our way of seeing and acting in the world.   Ancient and emerging spiritual teachings tell us that we have the power to create our reality through our thoughts, intentions and actions. At the Seres Permaculture Retreat, we will explore permaculture as a means of making deep transformations through applying it to the way we think, live and act. What are we planting in our inner gardens? What thoughts are we nurturing and giving power to? What kind of world are we creating?   These questions move us into the heart of our journey. They couple the concepts of permaculture with a new level of thinking and being that have the power to make lasting change in our world. Please join us for this transformational journey!   The Retreat will include these activities and much more! Cultivating Intention Meditation and Inner practice Permaculture methods and design Application through service and volunteering Leading from the Heart Celebrate New Year’s Eve and usher in 2012 Excursions to beautiful and historic sites Create Action Plans to bring the journey home   This retreat is designed for all levels of permaculture expertise, whether you are a seasoned veteran or a newcomer. Each of us has a world of talents and expertise that will make our experience undoubtedly rich. A unique aspect of the retreat is the opportunity to put our learning and skills to use on an exciting project. We will be contributing to the site development for a collaborative between two non-profit organizations: Project Seres and Project Somos and a socially and environmentally conscious coffee company: Ethical Bean. Here we will have the opportunity to exercise our inner practice through our activities on the ground, making a meaningful contribution and learning skills that we can take with us to our homes and communities.   In summary, Permaculture is a design system that uses healthy ecosystems as a model for creating settlements that meet the range of human needs in such a way that the system gets more robust and abundant over time.   At first, permaculture was about creating a permanent agriculture. But we can take it further, into the design of our buildings, communities, businesses and personal lives. So it’s really about creating apermanent culture.   Creating systems like this requires us to break from fragmented, reductionist patterns of thought and embrace whole systems thinking. We recognize that everything is connected. Thus we act so as to have the most beneficial effect on the whole system, whether that is our backyard, our community or the entire planet.   Permaculture encourages us to push our thoughts beyond sustainability, suggesting that we can actually design systems that increase in fertility and abundance over time rather than degrade or simple remain the same. For this reason, permaculture is an art and science of Regeneration.   The Permaculture Ethics: Earth Care. To have healthy minds, bodies and communities, we must take care of the source of all our physical needs, Mother Earth. People Care. We are all connected as a human community and must take care of one another. Fair Share. This ethic is also described as reinvest/redistribute the surplus. It encourages us to give something back so we end up with more than what we started with. It also encourages us to limit our consumption so that everyone has the opportunity for a quality life.   Itinerary: Here is what the trip will look like: Sam teaching the group in March, 2011 (14-nights) Day 1: December 27, 2011. Arrival day into Guatemala City. You will be met at the airport by your tour leader who will hold a sign with your name on it at the arrivals area and then be transferred to the hotel in Antigua. Your tour leader will then hold an orientation that evening. Day 2: Travel day. This morning, after breakfast, we leave Antigua for Tecpan. This will be an approximate 1.5 hour shuttle ride through the Guatemalan highland countryside. Upon arrival to the hotel in Tecpan, you will check in to your room, then meet Sam and his team. This afternoon we will take a tour of the project site and begin the course. Your evening is free to enjoy at your leisure. (B,L,D) Day 3: Class/Practical Session.  (B,L,D) Day 4: Class/Practical Session. (B,L,D) Day 5: New Years Eve! Half Class Session, followed by Excursion # 1: The Mayan Ruins at Iximche.  This is a fascinating half-day guided trip where you will learn about the ancient history of the former Kaqchiqel Maya capital. Tonight, we celebrate New Years Eve! (B,L,D) Day 6: Class/Practical Session. (B,L,D) Day 7: Class/Practical Session. (B,L,D) Day 8: Class/Practical Session. (B,L,D) Day 9: Excursion Day. Today we shuttle to Panajachel and take a boat across Lake Atitlan. We will have two nights to enjoy a quiet lakeside village at your leisure with fun field trips to other permaculture sites. (B) Day 10: Excursion Day Part II (Continuation of the Lake excursion). Day 11: Return to Tecpan for Class/Practical Session. (B,L,D) Day 12: Class/Practical Session. (B,L,D) Day 13: Class/Practical Session. (B,L,D) Day 14: Half Class/Practical Session in the morning to finish up final details, then the group will head to Antigua for an afternoon/evening of leisure. (B) Day 15:  January 10, 2012. Early morning Pacaya Volcano hike. Have you ever roasted marshmallows on hot lava? Well, you will today! This is a half-day hiking excursion to one of the most active volcanoes in Guatemala. (Lava flow is not guaranteed, but regardless, the experience is not to be missed). After returning to Antigua in the afternoon, the Permaculture VolunTour is officially over. You can return home, or continue on to explore more of this wonderful country on your own! (B) * Itinerary subject to minor changes if necessary. Seres Retreat/VolunTour Cost: $1499 + Airfare to Guatemala City Price Includes: - 14 Nights Accommodation - Most Meals (as indicated by B, L, and D for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Vegetarian delights prepared by our excellent chef Pedro) - All Ground Transportation - Fun Excursions and Field Trips - An El Camino VolunTours Tour Leader to guide the group through the entire experience - A $350 Donation to Project Seres to cover materials, local worker’s wages, and general operations of the project. Only 15 Seats Available! Act fast and BOOK NOW!   We would be honoured to have you join us for this truly unique and wonderful experience. If you have any questions and would like to talk about options, please feel free to contact me any time.   Sincerely, Chris Buckshaw El Camino VolunTours “Volunteer Vacations Made Easy” ph. 604 589 TOUR (8687) fax 604 589 8685 toll-free 1 888 680 TOUR (8687) mobile 778 866 8111 email chris@voluntours.ca web www.voluntours.ca “Don’t be a tourist, be a VolunTourist!” “Like” our Facebook Fan Page! “Follow” us on Twitter!

Street dogs after the market in Tepcan

Hi, my name is Emily. I am an Australian in Guatemala volunteering with Seres for the next 6 weeks. I am interested in Urban Sustainability. And one of my biggest concerns is waste.

Back home the magic of our garbage pick-up and RE-cycling systems makes it easy to become complacent. We don’t see how much we waste.

But the average Australian produces around 700 kg of waste per year, second only to the USA at 760 kg per person.

Here in Guatemala the issue of waste is confronting. There is no rubbish removal service. Garbage is either burnt, thrown over a cliff face or dropped on the street. It is visible everywhere you go.

As we helped Corrina set up her new home we were faced with the difficult question “so what do we do with the rubbish?”. And the challenge: Can we become a waste free household?

Corrina sorting out the rubbish system on day 1 in the new house

Around half of all household waste is food or organics that can be composted. So a compost is a must and was one of our first tasks.

And as we worked out the rubbish system it became clear that we couldn’t rely on the RE-cycle option. For example Aluminium is recycled but glass is not. Although glass drink bottles are RE-used; you can see the wear marks on the outside of your beer or soft drink bottle.

And so for us Avoid and RE-think are crucial.

Soft plastic packaging and plastic drink bottles are made into ecoladrillos. The bottles are packed with plastic and used as building materials. Thanks to Step 1 – Avoid – we are finding that we need to source our plastic bottles second hand (from elsewhere).

Making an eco-ladrillo

In the 3 ½ weeks we have been here 4 people have produced:
4 ecoladrillos
60L compost
a dozen aluminium cans, 6 glass bottles (which can be taken back for re-use)
7 wine bottles (mmm wine… yet to determine final use)
And a single bag of non-recyclable, non-compostable waste.
Some of this waste can be resolved with more RE-thinking and careful consideration (some Education!)

So for us the personal challenge continues – and a greater challenge emerges. How do we counter the plastic revolution that is overwhelming this country. The aura of clean sanitary plastic has sucked people in. Single use disposable plastic is replacing the paper once used to serve street food, the origami newspaper bags and even the banana leaves used to wrap food. Just as it did in Australia and elsewhere 30 years ago. How do we counter the plastic culture before people forget that there is another way?

A completed eco-ladrillo

The remaining rubbish - which we need to RE-think!

The stars of the show - Fernando, Jose, Juan and Pepe

A few days ago, I went out to the coastal community of El Ahumado near Las Lisas on the Pacific coast of Guatemala on an invitation from Fernando and Jose – two wonderful friends of mine – to go and visit a project that they had been working on together. The project is an experiment in a family-sized aquaponics system to test the viability of growing vegetables locally, and very relevant to a partnership that Seres is about to start with these two enterprising young men.

It was over two years ago when I first started thinking about the potential of aquaponics as a solution for combating the shockingly high levels of malnutrition in Guatemala. Back then, Seres was a fledgling project just a few months old and I very much a novice in this whole game. However, I had a vision for teaching people about this technology and finding affordable ways to build the systems so that economically disadvantaged communities would be able to have access to the nutritional benefits that aquaponics offers, and so I set about building my first low-cost “backyard” aquaponics systems. Here are a few links to some of my earliest blogs that documented this process:
Something Fishy? It’s Aquaponics
Update on Aquaponics
Educational Aquaponics

The aquaponics grow beds - tomatoes, watermelon and cucumber

Fernando (pictured above) stumbled across Seres and the aquaponics project through these blogs. He made contact and we shortly afterwards became good friends –sharing dreams and visions and an enthusiasm for innovative, sustainable technologies. We had always planned to collaborate together and that dream recently became a reality when Seres won a grant from The Lindbergh Foundation to build an educational aquaponics system as part of the Seres Centre. The system built at the Seres Centre will be similar to that built in El Ahumado – a typical community where we believe that aquaponics has the potential to make a large impact. Although in these fishing communities the additional source of protein from the aquaponics system is probably not high on the priority list, the vegetables are. Currently, vegetables are driven in from Quetzaltenango – a highland town 6 hours away. If we are talking about food security and sustainability, the benefits derived from familites that are able to grow their own local produce is obvious.
We arrived at El Ahumado on Sunday evening, driving the last few hundred meters alongside mangroves where the water level could not be more than 2 inches below the roadway. Jose told us that since last year they have started having trouble with access during high tides and big rains. We got a demonstration of what big rains meant as pulled up at the site: the heavens opened up, the electricity went out and we witnessed one of those rare storms that always make me think of the end of the world. It was spectacular. We waited a while for the sound of the rain to diminish sufficiently so that we could hold a conversation and then by candlelight Jose, Fernando, Sherry (a wonderful women that is a great supporter of the El Ahumado project) and I discussed the following day when we would have groups of students from the nearby school come and visit to learn about the project. It’s always such an exciting and energizing process: working out what areas to focus on, what activities to have the students participate in, what messages we wanted them to take home with them. Aquaponics is such an elegant solution to so many of the challenge that we face now (environmental degradation, food security, food miles, malnutrition, sustainability) and such a great example of how we can mimic ecosystems to create robust, sustainable food systems that I find it difficult to decide what to focus on. But we narrowed it down, worked out activity stations and some games and went to bed eager for the next day.

Fernando on the bicybomba pumping water

The next day dawned beautiful and rain free – although still without power. This however is not a problem for the system as it has a back-up “bicybomba” – a bicycle powered pump that can be used to pump the water through the aquaponics system (which is one of the ways that we are investigating that will make the system available in communities that do not have a grid electricity connection). We went out to have a look at the system before the kids arrived – fish, worms, larvae, duckweed for feeding the fish and the first budding watermelons and cucumbers starting to show a promise of the harvest to come. As well as looking for alternatives to electricity as an input, this system is experimenting in ways to grow food sources for the fish within the system and avoid having to use commercial fish pellets – hence the reason for the barrels of worms and duckweed. So far, the results are promising.

And then the kids arrived and it was time to start the show – with the aid of Juan and Pepe who are in charge of looking after the system and taking measurements when Fernando and Jose aren’t around. It was heartwarming to watch everyone swing into action – I was down on the beach with Jose, talking to the grounds of students about the importance of ecosystems and what was happening in their own backyards. Fernando with the help of Sherry, Juan and Pepe led the groups through the aquaponics system – giving all the students a go at running the bicybomba, measuring the pH and feeding the fish. For many of them, it was probably the most interactive and informative science experiment that they have participated in – which was one of our aims. In a place like Guatemala, where the education system is so rudimentary something as simple as this aquaponics system can be such a valuable tool for students. It provides a spark, an idea, an opportunity. Whether that spark is around ecosystems and sustainability, food security or an entrepreneurial idea for a business venture, it’s a great start. And many times throughout the day, I saw that spark in someones eyes and I had that heartwarming feeling that we were making a difference.

Students from El Macizo

Fernando and I will be writing regular updates on the design and construction of the aquaponics system here in Tecpan, and will be posting photos on Facebook and Flickr. Next week we will put pen to paper and with the help of our resident architect Cecilia begin to see what the system here will look like. Stay tuned for more updates and photos.

Corrina

NB: Photos courtesy of Sherry Miller

Cucumbers!