Blog - Playa Viva Luxury Eco Resort, Mexico

Adopt A Student and Change a Life

Update: Dec 2019 – The new Programa Adoptar un Estudiante, is off to an incredible start!

- All 7 of our original candidates had their scholarships funded, plus an eighth student.
- So far we have 3 in the middle school and 5 in the elementary school.
- All fees, school lunches, supplies and uniforms are covered.
- There are still more students in need of help and room for this program to grow.

The students receive academic support through Ariel and our education initiatives, and we are already seeing how much of an impact it is having on families in the communities where we work. You can’t put it any more simply than one mom explained:

“This helps my son stay in school.”

Adopt A Student in Juluchuca

To adopt a student for 2020, simply email Colleen at colleen@playaviva.com. THANK YOU!

Adopt a Student Through Our New Scholarship Program (Published Oct 2019)

This season at Playa Viva we are extending our social impact initiatives to include a new student scholarship program for students in four local schools ranging from kindergarten to high school. Local public schools don’t have tuition, but despite that, there are still some fees and expenses that prevent some students from continuing their education.

We have identified 7 students that are in need of financial assistance, ranging from 1st to 9th grade. Some of them do not have uniforms or their family cannot pay the inscription fees are at risk of dropping out of school. Our goal this season is to provide scholarships for ALL SEVEN students that we have identified, and keep Carlos, Teresa, Aldofo, Luis, Alicia Sirenia, Brayan and Osvaldo in school to continue their education.

Meet Our First Scholarship Candidates

For just $30 a month, or $360 a year, you can adopt a student and sponsor their education. The scholarship covers all inscription fees, uniforms, school supplies, and school lunches. In addition to financial assistance, students in the program meet twice a month with Ariel Arguedas, Playa Viva’s Education Coordinator, to go over grades and homework to and get academic support to help them succeed in school.

Through the generous support of Alice Brenna, we have already been able to sponsor one student! We need your help to support the remaining 6 students.

Our first scholarship recipient is Carlos, who finished elementary school in Rancho Nuevo and is now attending middle school in Juluchuca. His goal is to study at university to become a robotics engineer.

Carlos (left) is the first recipient of the Playa Viva Adopt a Student Scholarship. Thanks to guest Alice Brenna for her generous support!

Congratulations to Carlos, we look forward to seeing you continue to grow and succeed!

To register as a sponsor, or to learn more about our Adopt a Student program simply email Colleen Fugate at colleen@playaviva.com.

Colleen Fugate es Gerente de Impacto Social y Ambiental en Playa Viva. Ella vive en Juluchuca. Aprenda más sobre su trabajo involucrando a nuestras comunidades locales a través de nuestros programas de impacto social.

Playa Viva is more than a hotel. It is a project.

Creating Transformational Experiences at Playa Viva, as a Core Principle and what that means.

Transformation is has become one of those buzzwords we hear so much today in travel, up there with Experiential and Immerse. At Playa Viva, the transformation is not just about the guest who comes in stressed and walks out relaxed. Transformation is about so much more as you will see in the stories in this edition of our newsletter. This meaning is so well reflected in the comment by one of our team members during a Regenerative Training session, “Playa Viva is more than a hotel. It is a project. It is a space where ideas are shared across cultures and carried by each one of us into our own communities.”

That encapsulates so much of our Core Principle of “Promoting Transformational Experiences” and many of the different levels that transformation takes place.

Playa Viva is more than a hotel. It is a project.

So much of what we do is outside the walls of the hotels and the roles you normally see for a hotel – hospitality. “It is a project.” A project? How is a hotel a project? When promoting transformation outside the boundaries of our property knowing that we are co-evolving with the community, that we bring in so much “capital” in the form of our guests and by creating opportunities for “rich” and deep connections between those outsiders with those who are this place, we can begin to be part of creating that transformation. “It is a space where ideas are shared across cultures and carried by each one of us into our own communities.” That exchange is truly “transformational” for our guests and the community. But it doesn’t happen on its own. Such transformation relies on those from the local community sharing outside the boundaries of the hotel.

So much of what we do is outside the walls… and the roles you normally see for a hotel

The importance of respecting one’s natural resources, caring for one’s neighbors, and one’s own health are values that transcend geography & generations.

That is why the Regenerative Training by our team of “outsiders” is so important. We brought together the local team of “insiders” knowing they think of themselves as “educators, advocates and role-models” in their community.” The exchange of ideas around regeneration at the training models the exchanges that create daily transformational experiences for our guests, staff and community.

One aspect of the training in particular stood out, the ingenious plastic pollution workshop by Lorenzo Locci, our La Tortuga Viva Sanctuary Coordinator. Per the story….

Participants formed a circle around a large bowl filled with rice. Mixed in with the rice were also pieces of plastic in various sizes. With the timer set to two minutes, each participant was given a small spoon and needed to collect as much rice as possible without capturing the plastic. When the time ran out, everyone realized they had quite a bit of plastic in their individual bowls, despite their best efforts to avoid it.

As a coastal community, Juluchuca has a deep connection with the sea, so this demonstration hit close to home.

When the time ran out, everyone realized they had quite a bit of plastic in their individual bowls, despite their best efforts to avoid it.

I invite you to learn more about our “Regeneration Stations Training Workshop” and the other core values we covered, 1) Promoting Biodiversity, working within 2) Systems Designed to Capture and Store Water and Energy, and to 3) Create Meaningful Community.

Core to regenerative thinking is whole systems thinking. While the workshops, discussed in this newsletter/blog posts, were divided into different topic areas focused on different core values/principles, yet as a whole system, all these values are interconnected. As discussed above, our core value of Promoting Transformation Experiences was part of every workshop, every discussion, every interaction.

As the owner of Playa Viva, I’m often asked to give a short talk about Playa Viva. I often have a hard time with these types of short presentations because I have a hard time articulating what we do briefly. Since we do so much, it is hard to encapsulate our difference in one statement. But after reading about the work generated by our team in the Regenerative Stations, I now have my new opening line. “Playa Viva is more than a hotel. It is a project. It is a space where ideas are shared across cultures and carried by each one of us into our own communities.” We create true transformative experiences.

Regeneration Training at Playa Viva

Practicing Our Core Values.

Regenerative, sustainable, closed-loop systems… we hear these concepts tossed around in different circles, but what do they mean? The team of people who help our hotel, farm and kitchen run smoothly come from communities big and small, carrying their own understanding and interpretation of these terms used to describe responsible practices. Our guests come to Playa Viva with their own definitions of these terms also, influenced by the worlds from which they arrive.

a half-day, interactive workshop to dive deep into what regeneration y regenerative practices mean to and for our thirty-five person hotel and permaculture teams.

At Playa Viva, and the other Regenerative Resorts with which we collaborate, we excitedly engage in conversations around these terms all around our hotel and farm. As Permaculture Manager at Playa Viva, I find opportunities to discuss the meaning of terms like reducing waste, capturing natural resources, y regenerative systems with all members of our hotel team. Our maintenance team is currently redesigning the way in which we handle and reuse organic and inorganic waste produced at the hotel. The permaculture team is busy designing and building natural water harvesting features inside our increasingly dry landscape, and the team of individuals who prepare the food for our staff and guests are thinking through ways we can use nutritious local ingredients and reduce food waste.

These concepts and conversations form some of our core values as an organization, and we are working with our team to create a deeper, shared understanding of what they mean in practice. Colleen Fugate, Daniel Ramirez, Lorenzo Locci and I, Amanda Harris, designed a half-day, interactive workshop to dive deep into what regeneration y regenerative practices mean to and for our thirty-five person hotel and permaculture teams. It was our intention to create an engaging space where our local colleagues could discuss some of the concepts and phrases they have heard over their collective years working at Playa Viva – terms like sustainable, farm to table, recycling and reducing waste, responsible energy systems, water conservation, regenerating landscapes and healthy communities.

Like any good workshop, we started with an icebreaker!

We began with a game to help the team open up, to recognize where they and their colleagues are going above and beyond the expectations of the work we do, and a space to express how we care about and appreciate one another. Each member of our team learned how their words and actions positively impact their colleagues as we sat back to back, with eyes closed, and gently touched the shoulders of one another when specific characteristics were read aloud.

Full of positive affirmations, we opened our circle up and Colleen presented the goals of the workshopWe began by writing a few key terms on a whiteboard and asking our team to shout out the first things that come to mind when they hear these words. Responses to regeneration included “reducing waste,” “reforestation,” and “a healthy diet.” When asked what these concepts mean specifically to Playa Viva, one member of our team said that “Playa Viva is more than a hotel. It is a project. It is a space where ideas are shared across cultures and carried by each one of us into our own communities.”

Playa Viva’s Core Values

In so many words, the team was discussing Playa Viva’s core values before we even asked them to. To streamline the conversation a bit more, we broke into “Regeneration Stations” to discuss three of the four core values most important to Playa Viva.

1) Promoting Biodiversity, working within 2) Systems Designed to Capture and Store Water and Energy, and to 3) Create Meaningful Community. A fourth core value which we did not discuss in the workshop, but one that carries equal weight among our team, is 4) Creating Transformational Experiences.

Click the links above to read more about these core values and understand what we discussed in the stations, but before you do, let me share a few heart-warming takeaways with you. The individuals that make up our hotel and permaculture teams come from a very small rural community. Global environmental and social politics do not always reach individuals and communities like Juluchuca (for better or worse), but the importance of respecting one’s natural resources, caring for one’s neighbors, and paying attention to one’s own health are values that do not rely on technology to transcend generations. Our team proudly declared that they want “decontaminate their community” from old thought patterns and from the excess of plastic bottles, bags and styrofoam used. A little self-reflection revealed that they think of themselves as “educators, advocates and role-models” in their community, and try to share what they learn from working at Playa Viva with their children, parents and other members of their communities. Thinking into the future, a few natural leaders from our team even mentioned the excitement they would feel if Juluchuca were able to position itself as a model community in not only the Costa Grande region of Guerrero, but in Mexico as a whole.

they think of themselves as “educators, advocates and role-models” in their community, and try to share what they learn from working at Playa Viva with their children, parents and other members of their communities

As we continue to improve our closed-loop systems at Playa Viva, we will depend more and more on the many individuals who make up our team to spread the concepts, the core values and the importance of each to the larger community where our hotel is situated. We also depend on you, our guests and our friends, to challenge us to go beyond our promises and to always be thinking of how we can better serve our community, our environment, and the global conversation toward a regenerative lifestyle and landscape.

Amanda Harris es la Gerente de Permacultura en Playa Viva. Originaria de Maryland, se dirigió a Juluchuca a través de Nicaragua, Costa Rica, el sudeste asiático y, más recientemente, una hermosa "plantada" en Virginia del Oeste.

Contributing to Cleaner Water & Energy

Contributing to more abundant water and energy sources is a Core Value at Playa Viva.

We live next to the sea, and at times of the year the river here is so full it carves new paths in the landscape as water forces its way across fields and forests.

During our two rainy months, you’ll find families bathing and washing clothes in the river that meanders through our community. And then, the rivers dry up, the leaves fall from the trees and the tropical landscape turns to desert. And we wait. We wait for the rains to start.

Decades ago people knew the water cycles.

Decades ago people knew the water cycles. They knew to plant corn on May 15 because the first rains came on May 16. They grew a large diversity of crops and fed their families from their fields because the rain was all but guaranteed. They fished in year round ponds. They did not question if there was enough water to wash their clothes, their dishes and their bodies all in the same day.

the rivers dry up… the tropical landscape turns to desert. And we wait. We wait for the rains to start.

Today, we talk about water in a different way. We are hyper aware that this part of the Costa Grande region receives about half of the rain water it did ten years ago. We think critically and collaboratively about ways to store water through the long dry months. We are designing landscapes to help slow, spread and sink rainwater in order to hold it in the soil and move it through plant systems. When we decide to invest in water catchment systems in town, community members come together to identify the families and households in the most need of access to clean water.

Water & Energy Regeneration Training Station

During our recent staff environmental training session we took a deep-dive into one of Playa Viva’s Core Values – contributing to more abundant water and energy sources. In three rotating groups we spent time discussing what we can do as individuals, as a small community, and as members of a regenerative hotel to conserve water and responsibly use energy. There are practices and systems in place at Playa Viva that are intentionally simple and easy to replicate in communities and households as small as Juluchuca and Rancho Nuevo. For example, grey water is captured from showers and handwashing stations and fed back into the ecosystem around each room at the hotel.

There are practices and systems in place at Playa Viva that are intentionally simple and easy to replicate

The environmental training and interactive workshop gave staff members from all departments the opportunity to ask questions about the systems with which they work so closely. For us, the more people that understand the grease traps, solar panels, biodigesters and grey water oases, the more attention each of these systems will receive. As we create opportunities for our staff to participate in regenerative practices, we can help feed their desire to be ambassadors of sustainability in their own community.

During the workshop we presented three systems used at Playa Viva which contribute to regenerative energy and water systems – banana circles, grey water oases, and solar electricity. The team was eager to know how the systems worked. Everyone spoke. They either contributed what they knew, asked if what they thought they knew was correct, or asked questions to find the answers they had long been wondering. We were motivated by each other. Some people commented that they “want to do more to preserve the resources around us, but [they] do not know how and do not want to do it alone.” Others asked questions about replicating some of the water management designs in their own homes.

These workshops are a starting point for Playa Viva. They are a space where we learn what it is we do not know and how to find, share and use the desired knowledge. Next steps for us could look like additional and more frequent regeneration stations and staff workshops; we can leave the roundtable discussion environment and observe and discuss the water and solar systems in the field, where they capture energy and create closed-loop systems.

Plastic Pollution & Biodiversity

Preventing Plastic Pollution and Promoting Biodiversity in Our Community.

As a coastal community, Juluchuca has a deep connection with the sea. We, and I think I can now count myself among us, spend our evenings at the beach either fishing or just enjoying a nice sunset with our families and friends. We comment on the changing tides, the amount of fish in the lagoon or the numerous species of birds that are active in the evenings.

Inevitably, we also talk about plastic pollution. Older residents lament “the good old days” before plastic waste became a problem. Today, it’s the younger generation who turn out in huge numbers for beach clean-ups and who lead our Juluchuca Limpio recycling project.

But what do Playa Viva Staff think about the problem of plastic? As part of our most recent staff environmental training, Lorenzo Locci, our La Tortuga Viva Sanctuary Coordinator, led a workshop on plastic pollution and how it affects marine ecosystems. He introduced Playa Viva’s Core Value of “Promoting Biodiversity” and how that connects to work of La Tortuga Viva. The goal of the training was to discuss why plastic is a problem, to introduce the concept of microplastics, and to show how plastic affects marine ecosystems.

A native of Italy, Lorenzo first shared quotes from St. Francis of Assisi about environmental stewardship and the importance of taking care of the environment. Afterwards, staff discussed a series of questions, such as “Why is the environment important to you and your family?”; “How would you define pollution?”; “What kinds of pollution exist and which are most common?”; “If plastic is a problem for our community, what can we do to address it?”

Older residents lament “the good old days” before plastic waste became a problem.

While participants recognized that the environment is essential to our wellbeing, they expressed frustration at the level of pollution that exists today. One group cited pollution from cars, factories, and individual homes who burn their trash. Others talked mainly about plastic and the need for it to be banned.

“I learned that plastic is a huge contaminant and that a lot of our plastic ends up in the ocean,” said Mari, a member of our housekeeping staff. “We really need to change this because it affects marine animals like turtles. Recycling is one good option to stop this.”

Lorenzo ended the session with an activity to demonstrate what happens when plastic reaches the sea. Participants formed a circle around a large bowl filled with rice. Mixed in with the rice were also pieces of plastic in various sizes. With the timer set to two minutes, each participant was given a small spoon and needed to collect as much rice as possible without capturing the plastic. When the time ran out, everyone realized they had quite a bit of plastic in their individual bowls, despite their best efforts to avoid it.

“This is what it is like for marine organisms out at sea,” Lorenzo explained, as he passed around pictures of fish and birds with stomachs full of plastic. “The rice represents the sea and what you want to eat. When we release plastic to the sea, marine organisms inevitably eat it and suffer. You can see that through the microplastics in your own bowl.”

By opening the conversation, Lorenzo created a space for our staff to really reflect on the issue of plastic pollution. While staff noted that there has been a significant improvement of plastic management and awareness in the past year in Juluchuca, they recognize that we still have a long way to go to truly become sustainable. For that reason, we will continue to do these periodic trainings to build upon our own learning and take tangible steps toward solutions. Our hope is that Playa Viva staff feel better equipped to talk about these issues with their friends and family, become true environmental leaders in their own communities and further committed to promoting biodiversity and cleaning up their ecosystem from plastics and other pollutants.

Meet Chef Daniel

Introducing Daniel Ramirez, Playa Viva’s New Chef.

We are proud to introduce Playa Viva’s new Chef, Daniel Ramirez. A native of Guadalajara, Daniel has spent much of his professional career working in Baja California. With experience in vegan, vegetarian and Farm-to-Table dishes, he brings newfound energy and creativity to the Playa Viva kitchen. I recently sat down with Daniel to discuss the impact of food on our community, to learn more about his past and what to expect from him this season.

Colleen Fugate: You recently helped lead a regenerative workshop with the staff at Playa Viva. Your station touched on Playa Viva’s Core Value of “Creating Meaningful Community”. What did you teach at your station and what did you learn?

Chef Daniel: We talked about eating a balanced diet and the importance of having a diet that is integral. We also talked about the importance of consuming products that are local and organic and the impact that this can have on a community and its residents. I was struck by the fact that pretty much all of the staff at Playa Viva want to eat healthier but aren’t exactly sure how to do so or what that means. Hopefully we can begin to change that this year.

CF: Tell us a little about yourself. What drew you to become a chef?

CD: Overall it was art, my mother and my family history that drew me to becoming a chef.

When I was young, I was studying music informally. My grandmother didn’t see much potential and told me, “Study something where you won’t die of hunger.” My mother and I used to like to watch cooking shows on TV and she mentioned that it was a really nice job. So I responded to my grandma, “I’m going to study and work in a kitchen. Surely there I won’t die of hunger.”

Pretty much all of the staff at Playa Viva want to eat healthier but aren’t exactly sure how to do so or what that means. Hopefully we can begin to change that this year.

One thing led to the next until I stepped foot into my first job in a kitchen. I continued to study the art of cooking, and realizing that I would never want to leave the profession, I looked for a scholarship to study at a culinary school. The rest is history!

CF: How would you describe your own personal cooking style?

CD: Creative Mexican cuisine that’s fresh and authentic.

CF: What does Farm to Table mean to you?

Farm to table means that at your hands you have the freshest product possible and the responsibility to take care of it and serve it in a way that exposes its properties to their maximum potential for the most pleasurable dining experience possible.

Chef Daniel…brings newfound energy and creativity to the Playa Viva kitchen.

CF: What are you excited to learn here at Playa Viva?

CD: Chocolate, community, chocolate and chocolate!

Creative Mexican cuisine that’s fresh and authentic.

CF: What new things can guests expect in the Playa Viva kitchen this season?

CD: People can expect a live preparation of food. Right now we have incorporated a new ceviche station at lunch and a “make your own taco” night at dinner. This season people can always expect the freshest food possible with vegetables for everyone!

Playa Viva is Feeling the Love…

The word is getting out.

This year we were recognized as one of the world’s best honeymoon destinations by Bride’s Magazine and and one of the world’s most amazing hotels by Fodors Travel!

If you’ve been to Playa Viva, you’ve realized you were at a very special place, and in 2019 a few more major publications caught up to what you already know.

We are proud to be a winner of Bride’s Magazine’s 2019 Honeymoon Awards and Fodor’s prestigious 2020 World Best Awards. We were ranked in both the top 10 hotels in Mexico and Central America, and the Top 100 Most Incredible Hotels in the World! We were also included on the cover of the new book “Comfortably Wild” which features the best Glamping destinations in North America. Thanks to our happy guests for spreading the word about Playa Viva, and here’s to many more years of creating award-winning, transformational travel experiences!

Coevolution: Growing Together

As we open for Season 11, a decade of co-evolution continues to Playa Viva a better, more impactful environment for all stakeholders.

One of the core principles of regeneration is the concept of co-evolution. What does that mean in the context of Playa Viva and Regenerative Travel as a whole?

At Playa Viva, we co-evolve with our surrounding communities, with the changing preferences of our guests, and increasingly with other hotels and companies stepping up to build the thriving regenerative travel ecosystem.

How does this co-evolution happen? Let me start with the broad travel ecosystem perspective through Playa Viva’s participation at Matter, which is part of Pure Life Experiences, a conference which “unites the best minds in high-end experiential travel and beyond.” I was invited to speak on the Wellness Stage by Mason Rose agency who curated this track. Mason Rose is a leading international communications and sales rep agency for hotels, luxury lifestyle, travel and wellness. The panel included the very talented Jessica Renshaw of Renshaw Travel and was expertly moderated by Jacinta Stevens of Mason Rose.

We were asked to discuss the following:

“As consumer consciousness expands beyond self-care to encompass the wellbeing of the planet itself, how can brands further tailor their offerings to suit holistically minded travelers?”

I started my comments with “If you have one take away from this conversation it is the following: ‘how do we move from the Ego to the Eco?’” The longer version was to discuss how Playa Viva has co-evolved to create a transformational experience and while guests may enter with one intention, the intention co-evolves with the place to create a new and more impactful experience for the guests, if they allow it to happen.

“If you have one take away from this conversation it is the following: ‘how do we move from the Ego to the Eco?’”

In this newsletter you will read about Amanda Harris, Permaculture Manager for Playa Viva, describe her visit to Costa Rica and her attending a workshop with her peers at Finca Luna Nueva which is a member of the Regenerative Resorts (RR) collection. Core to RR’s added value is the concept of “Sharing of Best Practices,” which includes not only best practices in hospitality operations, marketing, etc. but in permaculture (environmental conservation) and social impact. While Amanda was in Costa Rica, she had a chance to stop at Pacuare Lodge. Coincidentally, I was able to meet with Luz and Roberto of Pacuare while at Matter and Pure. Coevolution and Best Practice sharing were the topic of dinner for 14 current and prospective members of Regenerative Resorts. Luz and Roberto joined us at a dinner we hosted by at RR hotel Kasbah Bab Ourika. Luz and Roberto shared with me the work they were doing with their local community and how the “4 C’s” (Conservation, Community, Culture and Commerce) developed by hospitality environmental non-profit The Long Run guided their endeavor. We hope to learn from and co-evolve with The Long Run in promoting this type of work to guests and hotels. Education and advocating travel as a force for regeneration and positive change is key to being the change we want to be.

Education and the value of education to transforming communities one child at a time is the subject of the story by Colleen Fugate, our Social Impact Manager. Impact happens from both a top down and bottom up manner, in this case, we invite our guests to be part of that Co-evolution via an Adopt a Student program – be part of that change at a person to person level. It surprises me how just a little bit can make such a big difference to both the giver and receiver of these programs. We invite you to be part of the change and open your heart to these dedicated students.

Coevolution is a constant process. Now that we are opening for Season 11, I want to thank you all (our guests, our staff, the local community, fellow hotels and the entire Regenerative Resorts and Regenerative Travel community, etc.) for your support in this process of coevolution, sharing best practices and learning and growing together.

We are also honored to have been invited to help create a new event to promote the sharing of best practices in this regenerative hospitality ecosystem – I invite you all to check out the EcoResort.Network and join us in person for sharing, learning and continued co-evolution.

And the winner is…

Playa Viva is proud to announce the winner of our Season 10 Photo Contest, our guest Nirvana Nungaray!

Nirvana Nungaray visited Playa Viva from her home in Jalisco Mexico in February 2019. You may have already seen her winning image on our Instagram feed or in our July newsletter. It was so good we couldn’t wait to share it.

Nirvana’s grand prize is another stay at Playa Viva, and we can’t wait to host her! The Season 11 photo contest is now open, so share your photos and you could win too!

Playa Viva Season 10 Photo Contest Grand Prize Winning Photo – Credit: Nirvana Nungary

Photography is about being in the right place at the right time to capture a moment. The best photos make you think or make you feel deeply when you see them, and it never hurts if the photo has a wicked sense of humor too! Nirvana’s winning photo exhibits all of those qualities, perfectly capturing a moment of inspired silliness as she met some other guests while exploring the beachside new yoga platform. The moment she captured may echo into the coming seasons as those other guests happened to be a group of yoga instructors touring the facilities as they got to know Playa Viva. If you join a future yoga retreat with us, you may well find yourself studying with one or more of these yogis.

Congratulations again to Nirvana Nungaray for winning the contest and a return stay to Playa Viva – we can’t wait to host you again soon!

Wanna win your own return trip? Submit your photo for our Season 11 contest!

More Great Photos From Our Season 10 Finalists

Enter Playa Viva’s Season 11 Photo Contest

Grand Prize is a free stay for 2 at Playa Viva for 4 nights!

How to enter:

1) Post your on Instagram or Facebook and and Tag @playaviva to be automatically entered
2) Not big on social media? Email us your photos.

The fine print: Please limit email entries to maximum of 10 photos. Prize does not include airfare, you pay to get down here, we host you.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your Playa Viva Experience and good luck! We hope to see you again soon!

Expanding our Education Impact to Rancho Nuevo

As we open a new season at Playa Viva, it’s also the season for local students to head back to school.

Playa Viva is celebrating the start of the new school year by bringing a full year of English classes to Rancho Nuevo, a small agricultural town of about 200 people located about a 30 minute drive from Playa Viva. It is home to a local church, a few small shops, and many mango plantations, and it is one of Playa Viva’s four impact communities.

Playa Viva is celebrating the start of the new school year by bringing a full year of English classes to Rancho Nuevo

The community is also home to one school – la primaria, or the local elementary school. The primaria’s only teacher, Maestra Norma, lives in the community and teaches the 17 students aged 6 to 13.

At the end of Season 10, Playa Viva’s Education Coordinator, Ariel Arguedas, began traveling to Rancho Nuevo to teach English once a week. Parents from the community had heard that he was teaching in Juluchuca and asked if he could visit their local school as well. Despite living right in front of the school in Rancho Nuevo, Maestra Norma offered to make the trip to Juluchuca to pick up Ariel every Thursday.

At school Ariel divides the students into two groups, first working with the 1st-3rd graders and afterwards working with the 4th-6th graders. “They are learning basic vocabulary and phrases in English”, Ariel explains, “but together, we are also learning more than just English. We often talk about what it means to be a good person and how to be respectful of the environment.”

Ariel’s work in Rancho Nuevo has had a ripple effect in the community. In addition to his Thursday teaching routine, he also visits Rancho Nuevo every Wednesday evening to play sports with the kids and pick up trash around town. “People really pay attention when they see small children pick up their trash. It makes them think twice before throwing it on the ground again.”

We are learning more than just English. We often talk about what it means to be a good person and how to be respectful of the environment.

Perhaps the highlight of last season was Rancho Nuevo’s school field trip to Playa Viva, where they released baby turtles, took a tour of the Permaculture farm, and got to explore the hotel.

Thanks to Ariel’s involvement with the school in Rancho Nuevo, we have learned about the needs and aspirations of the community. Last season we were able to construct a well at one student’s home who lived without water; this season we have started a new school scholarship program and hope to expand our trash and recycling program. If you would like to learn more about how to support these programs, please email Colleen Fugate at colleen@playaviva.com.

Ariel Arguedas Fernandez is Playa Viva’s Education Coordinator. He grew up in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. He is an educator, dreamer, and avid nature lover. He has been volunteering with Playa Viva since October 2018.