Hotel Opening and Permaculture Seminar - 03/08

We are proud to announce the opening of the hotel at El Peten and our inaugural permaculture seminar. This will take place in the first two weeks of April. We have some 40 participants from Nicaragua and the rest of Central America, many of whom represent co-ops. Several of Byron’s “locos” (professors) from Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia will be teaching their various disciplines from soil photography to rock flour mineral extraction in various workshops over the two weeks.

Simas, the association for sustainable agriculture, will be administering the seminar. They plan to invite all of the local dignitaries including the Minister of Agriculture and the media to inaugurate the opening of what we hope to be the educational center for organic agriculture in the region. We are proud to be sponsoring some of the participants.

The hotel has been outfitted with custom made furniture from Finca Las Nubes. The bar and restaurant features an outdoor grill and seating for up to 40 guests. It is perched on a knoll overlooking the lake and Rio Juijuina. The roads into El Peten are being redone and we have contributed $10,000 toward the project. We are also currently installing primary power lines all the way into the farm. We hope that both of the projects are completed by April 1st.

This year’s coffee harvest was a big success and as luck would have it, coffee prices went up substantially right as we were selling. We are using this windfall to help the community with the road project mentioned above and other projects.

Byron continues to inspire and direct improvements on the farm. Together, with his help and the ongoing administration of seminars on the farm, we hope to put into practice many new experimental methods. These will include bio-dynamic beef (dried and fresh), medicinal herbs and teas, dried and canned fruit, and a myriad of other organic farm products. We contemplate offering continual seminars in all these disciplines.