Volunteer at permaculture fruit farm & jungle reserve at the edge of the Amazonas region in Ecua

Location: Yantzaza, Ecuador

Hola! We are a very focused and dedicated young family with the clear and simple goal of a healthy lifestyle including growing own food, caring about our environment and a self-sustainable goal within the next 3 years.

Our project is an permaculture site in the Valle de las Luciérnagas (valley of the fireflies), at the edge of the amazonas region of Ecuador, South America. The farm is approximately 76 hectares or 180 acres and located about 3h north of Loja and 15h from Guayaquil or Quito, in Southern Ecuador. The lowest part is 800 to 1300 meters over the sea level. Which means we have a high variation of micro climates. It was not so long ago a dense tropical jungle with huge trees and later in the 60s half of the property was made pasture land for cows... The fruit orchard is very diverse: papayas, bananas, oranges, plantains, cacao, mangoes, bananas, lemons, white zapotes, lulo, guayabas, ice cream bean, passion fruit, sugar cane, and tons of other edibles.

Are you about eco or ego?
Do you care about all and everybody(adults, kids, babies, cats, dogs, chickens, insects, plants, soil, water, air, sun, moon and stars) as much as yourself? Or do you focus more about you and yourself. How do you tend to interact with new people? Do you wait for others to ask questions or are you proactive also in conversations?

Keep In Mind
The most helpful, effective, and happy participants are self-motivated, interested, responsible, and accountable.

If you are looking for a place to chill or to party or plan the next steps of your trip or listen podcasts all day or take long hot showers or eat vegan or eat diary, then here is definitively the wrong place. For us all of the daily meals are literally highlights of the day with many tasty and healthy fresh local dishes where we share and exchange our thoughts together.

FURTHER INFORMATION
As a community, we wake up together, eat meals together, take turns cooking for each other, and share in the responsibilities of keeping daily operations running smoothly.

VOLUNTEERS
We happy to share our space with 1-4 volunteers at the same time (Quality over quantity) but it can happen that you are alone with us :-) so If you are looking for more exchange with other Volunteers then this might not be the right place for you and we don't have workshops or any tourist program the focus is on helping in any kind of help around the farm.
The Volunteers room is next to our sleeping room we ask you to respect rest-time and to be quiet after 21:00 PM unless we do something all together which goes longer.

Participation is experiential education; you are learning about permaculture and community by living in it. The most helpful, effective, and happy participants are self-motivated, interested, responsible, and accountable.

FOOD
Eat healthy seasonal, local and partially organic food.
We eat as much organic produce as possible and harvest as much of our food from the finca as we can. Sunday's we go to one of the local markets to buy our food for the entire week. We cool all our meals together. In the kitchen we have a water filter (Berkey Light Water Filtration System with 4x ceramic filter elements - 99.99% of viruses, bacteria also lead and chlorine).
Fruits and vegetables at here - Depending on the season you an find: papayas, bananas, plantain, cacao, ice cream bean, sugar cane, pineapple, guava, lemons, guayusa, hierba luisa (lemon grass type), cassava (yuca), wild cherry tomatoes, corn, rosemarie, basil, thine, aloe vera, vettiver, neem, noni, naranjilla, zapote and we have been planting guanábanas, mango, avocados, oranges, grapefruits, chirimoya, coconuts, strawberry, maracuya, bread fruit, bamboo (bamboo shoots), macadamia, peach palm (contact), soursop, jackfruit, star fruit and dragon fruit.

APPLY FOR VOLUNTEER SPOT:
Volunteers - Only SERIOUS applicants please. Do not waste your time and ours (!!!) We have some many applications a week and then half of them never even visit Ecuador but go to another location...

Please READ CAREFULLY only send us a message if you are really 100% interested in volunteering for a minimum stay of 4 weeks. Thank you.
Applications with no attention to the following 5 points, will not be considered:

*️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️ Min. Age is 24 years old. Or REAL life work experience, ideal.
*️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️Clearly indicate dates available (start / end). At the beginning of your mail.
*️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️Your email/facebook address if available. Copy and paste the exact address please.
*️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️Send us a photo of the ID page of your passport, which will be kept private and never released publicly. This is to protect other community members and volunteers.
*️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️After sending your application we will send you a questionnaire please do reply within 48 hours.

If one of the above is missing, please don't bother sending your request.

Btina and Santi

Volunteer at permaculture fruit farm & jungle reserve at the edge of the Amazonas region in Ecua