ABOUT THE ARK
The land for Ark on Atitlan was bought in 1995 to facilitate the sustainable development of a pre-existing consensus community. All original development was on a strictly voluntary basis. In 1999 the Ark project was abandoned due to little progress. Xep moved to Pannajachel and opened Moonfishcafe.
In 2005, with ample help from Amanda, the Ark project was re-initiated with a more concrete structure. We accept paying guests , industrious volunteers, and have a number of skilled local employees.
Ark has six acres of lakeshore and volcano side land. We have eight classes of harvest bearing trees and over twelve more species in progress in two acres of food forest.. Ark has several example of swales and grass terracing for in ground water storage. Ark has a highly evolved catchment system that stores over fifty four cubic meters of water. Ark uses and produces over seven types of compost (used in beds ,the orchards depend mostly on green manures and dynamic providers). We have been building and designing composting toilets on Atitlan for eighteen years. We offer sustainable lodging for over ten people in buildings of stone , wood, urbanite, cane, and recycled materials with earth plaster ( super adobe mix). More projects are planed using adapted eco ladrillo technique with earth plaster. We grow herbs for all of our medicinal needs and can teach harvesting, use, and preperation of tinctures oils etc. All our technology is designed be easily copied by our Mayan neighbors.
Ark will be happy to design and teach workshops on any aspect of sustainability that we practice. We can offer open pollinated seeds or clones of everything that we grow. As we are backed by one of the largest stretches of untouched wilderness in highland Guatemala, we also want to take you to see the nearby cloud forests and rain forest, where monkeys and wild turkeys still range. For people with interest in long term practical experience we have volunteer opportunities.
Xep has grow and foraged plants for as long as he can remember. He learned the identification and uses of over four hundred species while completing his b.s. in agriculture and natural resources. Practical work in commercial organic agriculture, as well as herbal healing with renown herbalists and a hunkapa medicine man completed his studies.
Amanda was raised on a permaculture farm long before the word permaculture was invented. Her father, a traditional Mayan curandero taught her the theories of Mayan medicine, as well as the properties of the local plants.
Our purpose is to be a copy able example of sustainable living, which if adapted by enough people would save the planet from ecological collapse.
Contact us @