FARM IN MACARIO GOMEZ, QUINTANA ROO

The farm t is located in the town of Macario Gomez, km 20 on highway tulum - cobá, traveling west from the archeological site tulum on the beach.

It consists of a self sustainable house that provides temporary accommodation for people developing cultural or research projects in the area of Quintana Roo directly related with the Mayan culture.

Rather than permaculture, this house is being built by observing the architecture that is present and has been in the area since more than 2000 years ago.

The house intends to become somewhat close to self sufficient in terms of feeding its inhabitants, guests and coworkers in the span of the next five years. For now there are 100sq m of construction on a 3000sq.m land extension and can already supply the needs for 9 people as in for toilets, water, cooking, energy, and living quarters.

The experiment to develop is to work employing the traditional Mayan way, called milpa, which consists in a yearly multi crop based mainly on maize,  along with beans, pumpkin and chili. We will work on a 20 by 20m milpa with outstanding soil conditions that for the moment is still partly taken over by the jungle. Such a an amount of crop land would have solved (along hunting) the feeding needs of a Mayan family in the area about 100 years ago, and would have needed 120 days of work of one person (according to mr. Morley). So this is to be the goal we would like to explore, among other  smaller crops of several other culinary interests.

As is the case for the most of the Yucatan peninsula, we live on top of a system of underground caves and rivers which carry clean water that we use for cleaning, watering the crops and drinking. Several actions have been taken into not to contaminate this system which extends all the way directly into the Tulum beaches as an alternative to the more extensively used solutions in the area which do not take care of their individual disposals indoors rather throw them elsewhere.

The toilets are solved in a way of an enclosed dry letrine which does not require water and works as a normal compost which residual is later to be used for bettering the soil, same way that is done in a separate area with the organic trash. the water employed for cleaning is again gathered and passed through a filter of rocks, gravel and charcoal for later to be used in watering a separated crop. so the use of the house hardly produce any littering at all. the idea is to benefit from the underground rivers rather than using them as a free sewage.

Electricity is provided by a gasoline powered generator, turned on as needed for power and lightning demands. most frecuently will be on a couple of hours after dusk. among other smaller scale proyects, we are working on creating a noise less lightning system based on marine batteries and led lamps? sometimes we are more keen simply using candles...

There is a separate bathroom with running water, the living quarters of the landlord, and a main house which holds the kitchen and a living space with hamocks, which on times shifts into a separate dormitory for guests acording to the needs of the house. in the exterior there is an upraised plataform which holds one tent above jungle ground. there is no fridge, mainly because we like to eat fresh and it is fair easy to get most kind of fresh food from stores in town less than 1km away. so we do not carry a strict vegetarian menu but it is preferred, also because the quality of the compost :)

The kitchen and the food are worked in a common shared basis. so is the same for the different chores around the house as cooking, washing, composting, etc. dormitory privileges are worked out depending on availability and booking of guests and coworkers.

Through the rest of this and next month we will be working building another structure that's to be a separate guest room, and then will be clearing grounds for another two tent setup.

the tasks you can help with will be mainly on: clearing grounds, preparing the soil to crop, gathering rocks, construction of simple walls and platforms. also depending on skills and availability chance is to get involved in other projects like building a stone oven, a 4 person stone steam bath (temascal), the construction of furniture pieces using available materials in the area.

We will try to establish a collaboration program according to personal needs and interests of both parties. we are suggesting a one week trial before making any long term agreements. exterior labor work is preferably done early in the day, starting with sunrise and carried on from 2 to 5 hours depending on each  involvement program.

The house is surrounded by jungle. expect to see a lot of birds, insects and some small animals. the weather is hot with high humidity. the rainy season goes lately starts late June and carries up to November. there is a fair amount points of interests around the area we suggest to do your own research. the house is within the reach of the cellular phone grid by the international carrier tel cel. for the moment we do not count with our own wifi hub. closest town would be Tulum downtown 20 minutes away. There are buses, shuttles, and taxis traveling on the highway 200m away from the house most through the daytime.

If  this project is of your interest and you would like to come and work as a volunteer on a temporary basis we are going to be very pleased. it would help to know you by a brief intention email explaining your traveling dates, and maybe particular interests or skills you would like to share. You should be able to show traveling documents when arriving.