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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
22 Jan 2026
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78.1 %
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Details
Description
We are Laurence and Elisa, 2 nature passionate. Laurence is from Canada and has co-founded a cacao social enterprise in Guatemala 5 years ago. Elisa is from Guatemala and is a bamboo architect. We are passionate in farming, natural construction, and social justice. We are two very pro-active people that always have a few projects going on around the country. Life has been incredibly generous by gifting us a beautiful piece of land on the Atlantic Ocean of Guatemala. The land is PARADISE. We have a 50m white sand beach, a beautiful house, a private cabin, a large piece of land to plant lots of trees,, and 3 kayaks. It is located quite off-gris but public boats from Puerto Barrios to Livingston can stop by. There's a nice creek nearby to kayak peacefully. Our dream: to transform this land into a food forest with cacao, of course, and bamboo. create a beautiful permaculture garden that can keep this place self-sustainable. Host volunteers, guests, and friends to always have a nice community around. Create a wellness culture where we support each other, we stay active, we eat well and we care for the land. We are also founders of the NGO Give Back to the Source, we usually always have a social project going on. We are also connected to a few cacao farms in the region. As we are new to the village, we want to take time to know well the community before exploring impactful partnerships. There are currently 1 worker with, Gloria is an incredible cook, she makes the best local dishes and she helps with the cleaning of the house. She's have been connected to this land for over 30 years and hopefully a lot more to come. We also have 3 dogs living on the property which are all very dear to us so we highly recommend only dog lovers to apply for volunteering here. The izabal region in Guatemala is very special. It has a mix of cultures, delicious food, incredible nature and a lot of hidden gems.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Charity Work
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Hospitality/Tourism
General Maintenance
Interests
Politics / Social justice
Vegetarian or vegan
Self development
Sustainability
Pets
Farming
Charity work
Art & design
Gardening
Drawing & painting
Carpentry
Architecture
Animals
Sailing / Boating
Outdoor activities
Yoga / Wellness
Nature
Camping
Beach
Adventure sports
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
On a personal level, we are experts in cacao (Laurence) and bamboo (Elisa). We are co-founders of a local NGO working with women, bamboo crafts, and cacao farming communities, and we are always happy to share more about this work. We can share our knowledge about cacao and bamboo. There are a few partner locally owned cacao farms in the region that when we visit, we can invite a volunteer to join the adventure.
Through the work skill exchange, we will design and create a permaculture garden/food forest. The experience itself will be a learning experience and a hands-on apprenticeship.
During your time here, you can play with some bamboo waste and make some crafts out of it, you can purchase cacao from our local neighbors (even visit them) and transform the cacao usig our facilities (Laurence is alsway happy to share about the process), you can play basketball on the court next door in the village, you can kayak the mangroves, hangout with the community at the local restaurant, learn how to make tortillas with Gloria (she works with us), read a book by the beach (we have great permaculture and homesteading book), play music by the fire by the beach, take swims, explore food processing ( we make mango and cashew wines during the harvest season) and so much more.
Help
*IMPORTANT* Only apply if you can commit to a minimum of 2 weeks, are 25+ years old, pet-friendly, flexible in contributions, and feel good about community off-grid living.
We are at the start of this beautiful project which means we are very flexible with help. It can include: -
Carpenter - Farming/ tree planting/ permaculture design - Art & home decor - - Natural builder - Kitchen
We offer:
3 hours/day - 5 days/week from 10 AM to 1 PM: Bed in dorm - Access to a fully equipped kitchen, but food is not provided (unless picked up in the tree - cashew and mango season is very abundant!)
Each person should come with a project and objective and we like to let space for initiatives. For each role & project, we are looking for some minimum experience and for people 25+ years old. Some tasks would be done together as a group, others would be solo initiatives. We encourage skill sharing between volunteers as well. On our side, we are always happy to share about cacao, bamboo, agroforestry, and much more!
Help look like painting, pruning the food forest, creating bamboo crafts like making bamboo doors, building a clay wall with eco-bricks and bottles, creating a fire space, and making garden beds. We love to see the exchange as a lifestyle for you, a way to explore being in a relationship with the land. Our farm area is created by volunteers for volunteers. What you create here will be enjoyed by the next volunteers (hopefully a lot of food)
Day off - explore Livingston, Rio Dulce, enjoy quiet time, its all yours!
Important note** cooking for yourself, cleaning and mantainance of the common areas are things we don't consider in the working hours.The shared kitchen and dorm should always stay clean.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
French: Fluent
Accommodation
We offer a bed in a 4-bed dorm or camping option. The 4-bed dorm in a spacious cabin that we just renovated, in a clean and secure space. If you prefer your private space, you can bring some camping equipment and pitch your tent on our land.
We have a beautiful shared kitchen behind the dorm, it is for you to use! We have a stove with gas provided, a fridge, a coffee machine, and storage spaces. There´s a tienda in the village with all the basic food + some vegetables. For anything else, you can do a round trip to puerto barrio, where the local market and supermarkets are. There's also a local restaurant in the village that makes meals of the day for 25Q (you can Kayak there!)
What else ...
We prefer mature people as we seek to have a community (we are 30 and 38 years old). There are mosquitos and bugs, we are located in nature, please come aware and prepared. There are no parties but we do like music by a fire, chill music during the day, board games, and a few beers at times. We are vegetarian but eat fish and shrimp sometimes. We welcome non-vegetarians but very few meat would be available during the stay (you can eat out anytime if you crave meat).
It is quite off-grid, so be ready for a more laid-back lifestyle. You can reach us by boat from Livingston or Puerto Barrios or by car (45 minutes from Puerto Barrios city). There are no atm's and boat rides out of the place are around 4-7$ one-way.
Before confirming your stay, we like to have a videocall to go through all details and ensure the expectations of everyone is well set.
We will only answer requests that add in their subject: Dates & role for their stay. We hope to share memorable moments with you and create magic together! :D
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We recommend buying a tigo SIM Card in case the electricity goes out. The signal of TIGO comes in very well and can handle videocall.
Space for parking camper vans
You can drive directly to our place. We aren't used to hosting campers but we are very open to it. We can find you a nice place to park. We live off a 1 hour ride dirt road so only high cars are recommended to come, 4x4 is a plus!
Can possibly accept pets
We have 3 dogs. They are generally very friendly to other dogs. We love animals as long as they are nice to our pets and guests, they are welcome!
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
My animals / pets
Batzi
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback (5)
Thank you Nicola, you are welcome back anytime!
The place is really a paradise, beautiful beach, the hosts laurance and elli are wonderful people and also the locals are super nice. I recommend this workaway to anyone who enjoys being in nature, wants to learn something new, wants to be in a family environment and likes it a bit quieter.
Thank you so much for letting… read more
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Thank you Nicola, you are welcome back anytime!
The place is really a paradise, beautiful beach, the hosts laurance and elli are wonderful people and also the locals are super nice. I recommend this workaway to anyone who enjoys being in nature, wants to learn something new, wants to be in a family environment and likes it a bit quieter.
Thank you so much for letting… read more
