By Corey Culligan and Tiara Ramsay Perez
We started off with breakfast at 7 a.m. We had beans, tortillas, eggs, and fresh fruit. We packed up our stuff and we left Casa San Benito at 8 a.m. Martin picked us up with the van and we picked up Javier up on the way for the 4-hour-long drive to San Lucas Toliman. On the way, we saw how traffic works in Guatemala City and how everyone commutes. We saw how hard it is with the traffic to get out of the city. It took us over an hour to get outside the city!
We arrived at the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute (IMAP) around 1 p.m. We dropped our stuff off in our lodge and headed to lunch with Maria. We had soup, potatoes, chicken, vegetables, and more. After lunch we had a workshop hosted by Patrik where he talked about moon cycles and the Indigenous calendar. They use a 20-day calendar with special symbols denoting the day. Today it was the snake. It symbolizes the shedding of bad habits and thinking more on what’s important.
We then had a tour of the facility. We saw a worm compost bin where they turn leftover food into soil. We saw lots of gardens. We saw a dehydrator and a solar oven. We got to try some dried pineapple, oranges, chilies, and some roasted cacao beans. We saw some of the buildings around the facility. A lot of them are made out of clay and cement. Some buildings have glass bottles and tires added to them. The tires provide shock absorption during earthquakes and glass bottles provide additional light. One of the buildings is used to harvest and process grains. We saw a Tuj which is the name coming from the sound of hot water on rocks. It is a small ‘sauna’ where people can reflect with family members, take some quiet time or even sometimes wash themselves.
Then we walked down past some more gardens to the seed room where they store seeds from different vegetables, medicinal herbs, and more in these clay jars. Throughout the tour we saw several animals around. They have a chicken coop and several stray dogs that they take care of here at the facility. We met a dog named Chulo, who is six years old and was rescued from the streets in Guatemala.
After the tour was done, we went to a little shop and saw some of their homemade items and treats. We had some downtime and then we had another little workshop with Christian on plants and how to use biodegradable resources to help plant them. We practiced rolling paper up using leafs to tie it together and packing soil into these little tubes of paper and planting seeds and small plants. All of the materials it is made out of is compostable.
After our plant workshop, we had a little break and got to explore and take photos of the facility. Before dinner we had some journal time. For dinner, we had soup and Tostitos with salsa, avocado, and cheese. After dinner we had some reflections on our day and what we learned, and now we are all ready to head to bed. ¡Buenas noches!
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