From the Sesame Fields at Playa Viva to Your Dinner Table

Introducing Gente Viva Sesame

As part of our ongoing mission to support local farming communities in our home town of Juluchuca, we are proud to announce Gente Viva Sesame – direct-trade organic sesame seeds, grown on site and nearby, by farmers from Juluchuca and other local communities who have farmed their land for generations. This natural product is a great way to take a little bit of Playa Viva home with you, especially when used in some of our delicious recipes, found at the bottom of this post.

Our Farmers

Our work in rural areas in Mexico refutes the myth that opportunities do not exist outside the city. In doing so, we hope to revitalize rural communities and propose alternatives that empower residents of rural areas to form more resilient food systems and create connections to other firms that support these goals for sustainable, organic and regenerative agricultural and food ecosystems. Gente Viva works with farmers to provide technical support and training to help them farm organically and get organic certification. Additionally, we provide these farmers with secure market prices for their crops in advance, giving them a consistent, dependable income to support their families.

Our Process

Gente Viva’s farmers plant sesame annually during the second half of the rainy season in late July or early August. The timing of planting is imprecise if you rely on a calendar, but farmers depend on their years of experience to time it just right. It’s important that they prepare the land for planting during a mid-rainy season dry spell that can last from two to four weeks. They want to ensure that the seeds are in the ground by the time the rain starts up again, or shortly thereafter. Since they farm without using chemical herbicides, they must weed in between the rows of sesame twice per season. Once about ten days after the plants have emerged from the soil and again about slightly more than halfway through the season. From planting to harvest is generally 3-4 months, depending on the rains. For harvest, timing is again key because once the sesame stalks with the seed pods have been cut they must dry in the sun 15-20 days. So, it’s important that harvest happens as the rainy season is ending. Once they have harvested, farmers are at the mercy of nature, hoping for no or only light rains once the stalks are drying in the sun. During the drying process, the seed pods open. This is called ‘shattering’, and the story is that this is where the phrase ‘Open Sesame’ comes from–because the seed pods open on their own as they dry out. Because the pods face upright on the stalk, the seeds do not fall out once the pods shatter. Instead, once all the pods have dried and shattered the farmers return to the sesame and shake the stalks causing the seeds to fall onto a tarp or other surface where they can then be collected with shovels and bagged in 110 pound sacks. The sacks are transported to Gente Viva’s cleaning facility, where they pass through a machine that cleans them of dust and debris.

Our Sesame Seeds

Gente Viva’s sesame seeds are unhulled, which means that the seeds contain their outer husk. The husk is hardly noticeable; in fact, it’s quite possible you’ve consumed unhulled and hulled sesame seeds and never noticed the difference. Unhulled seeds are generally golden brown, while hulled seeds are whiter. The industrial food system often prefers hulled seeds because they look ‘cleaner’ to some folks. However, as with many plant foods the outer hull (or peel in the case of fruits and vegetables) frequently contains many of the nutrients. For sesame seeds, unhulled seeds provide greater amounts of fiber, calcium, manganese and zinc if the hull is kept intact. Three tablespoons of sesame contain 22% of an adult’s recommended daily intake of calcium and 25% for magnesium. Sesame seeds are also a good source of Vitamins B1, B3 and B6, as well as many other nutrients. Check your trusted health information site for complete information.

In Your Kitchen

Gente Viva’s sesame seeds have an earthy, slightly nutty flavor, which is enhanced by lightly roasting them in a skillet. If you roast sesame seeds, be sure not to burn them as they can turn bitter when overcooked. When roasting, stir occasionally to ensure all the seeds roast evenly and once you start to smell the aroma of the seeds, then they’re done. You can grind roasted seeds in a food processor to get a sesame powder, which has a savory taste and is an excellent condiment for salads and other vegetables. If you mix this sesame powder with sea salt you’ll have a condiment called Gomasio, of Japanese origin. Below are a few of our favorite recipes from the Playa Viva kitchen that make use of delicious Gente Viva Sesame.

Pasta de Ajonjolí – Tahini Paste

Ingredients:

3 cups of toasted sesame seeds
6 tablespoons of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
1 tablespoon of sea salt

Preparation:

Toast organic sesame seeds for 5 to 10 minutes in a saute pan on the stove. The seeds are ready when they begin to turn a golden color, or with luck, you can see some of the oils beginning to coat the seed.
Mix all ingredients together in a food processor.
Mix on low speed for two minutes. Slowly introduce pulses of higher speeds to thoroughly mix all ingredients. If a more thorough mixing is needed, stop the food processor, then gently mix the ingredients in the food processor with a spoon. Remove your spoon and mix ingredients with the food processor for another two minutes.
Remove the tahini paste from the food processor and store in a resealable container.

Enjoy! Tahini paste can be stored in the refrigerator for up to eight weeks.

Aderezo de Ajonjolí – Sesame Salad Dressing / Tahini Dressing

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons of tahini paste (Make your own using the recipe above!)
4 limes, halved and squeezed
2 tablespoons of EVOO
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1/4 cup of filtered water (as needed)

Preparation:

In a medium size mixing bowl, add three tablespoons of your homemade tahini paste. See recipe above for details.
Halve four limes and squeeze their juices above a sieve to avoid rouge seeds in your dressing. Get creative – lemons will also work.
Add two tablespoons of organic olive oil and one pinch of sea salt to the mixing bowl.
Gently whisk the ingredients with a fork (or whisk) to blend the flavors.
Slowly mix in a few tablespoons of water to the consistency of your liking. We recommend no more than one quarter cup of water to maintain flavor.
Bottle the dressing and enjoy!

Dressing will maintain freshness for one week in the refrigerator. Eat it regularly for a boost of flavor on all your dishes!

Holistic Hosts – Connecting Guests to a Truly Memorable Experience at Playa Viva

Holistic Hosting at Playa Viva

Editor’s note: Anjuli Mahendra manager of our Holistic Hositng program discusses the development of this unique role and how hosts the guests and community at Playa Viva.

As a teacher and therapist, I’ve had the vision for many years of developing a holistic retreat center focused on regenerative living. So as I read through the details of an online job posting sent to me by my dear friend, I immediately had the feeling it was the right fit for my partner and me.

heart-centered, thoughtful, flexible, strong, confident… hosts support both the guests and the staff to have the best experience possible.

Alok and I applied on the spot, becoming the first couple to take on the role of holistic hosting for Playa Viva. As a world traveler, I’ve experienced many versions of hotels, retreat centers, eco-communities, and ashrams, both before and after coming to Playa Viva, and I can say that the holistic hosting position at Playa Viva is quite unique.

We spend a significant time together with the guests, and we find we often develop meaningful relationships that will last long after your stay at Playa Viva. How does that happen? As hosts we actually live on-site, so we are there to support you with any questions that arise during your stay and offer personal guidance to help you get the most out of your stay. We offer daily morning yoga classes 6 days a week, along with specialized bodywork and massage sessions. Another key feature is the community dining experience ~ a beautiful spread of food is served family style and all the guests mix together for meals including the host(s). This environment is an opportunity to develop a very organic relationship with our guests, and to encourage and help you to connect with the activities, projects, and experiences that speak to you, both on-site as well as further out into the local town and surrounding areas.

We’ve witnessed the growth and evolution of Playa Viva over the last six years and with that our holistic hosting role has expanded and evolved as well. I’ve become the manager of Playa Viva’s holistic hosting team and assistant on retreat outreach. I’ve had the privilege of putting together a dedicated and high-caliber hosting team at Playa Viva from around the world. I start off by looking for well-versed, highly experienced teachers and therapists that have worked with a variety of populations.

As hosts we actually live on-site, so we are there to support you with any questions that arise during your stay

The next crucial step is tuning into their social skills and desire to be immersed in community-style living. Of course, it goes without saying that the hosts themselves should be value-aligned with Playa Viva’s social and environmental mission. Overall, I look for heart-centered, thoughtful, flexible, strong, confident, and well-spoken hosts that will support both the guests and the staff to have the best experience possible.

It’s been a pleasure to work on both the front and back-end of Playa Viva and I look forward to our continued collaboration. Alok and I are already itching to come back! 😉

Anjuli

Food Systems at Playa Viva

The hotel at Playa Viva is situated between beautiful sunrises and sunsets by the ocean and a 200-acre landscape used for several generations for agricultural production. Today, a team of hard working local men and our permaculture specialist use agro-ecological practices to bring the land back to life and fill our kitchen with organic harvests. Years of labor and love allow us to produce an assortment of familiar and fresh salad greens every day for guest meals; and as we rebuild the soils and the living biome below it, larger varieties and volumes of nutrient dense foods will spill from our gardens to your plates.

We produce an assortment of familiar and fresh salad greens every day for guest meals

The diversity of foods coming off the land right now is impressive – from the fresh fruit of a cacao pod to the rich, dark chocolate it is made into in the Playa Viva kitchen; costalillas of organic sesame seeds are turned into homemade tahini and salad dressings and the seeds shared with restaurants and sold at a local organic market; hibiscus flowers are harvested weekly for fresh jams, juices and the base of delicious vegetarian tacos; and our chickens lay fresh eggs daily. We do not produce enough volume of any of these ingredients to support ourselves completely, but nor it is our intention. Instead, we choose to supplement our local food purchases with our own organically produced ingredients. It is equally important to our team that we purchase the foods cultivated by our neighbors in our own community.

We purchase the foods cultivated by our neighbors in our own community.

During high season, when yogis come to use their bodies and families bounce back and forth from the pool to the ocean, and our own Playa Viva team of thirty people are on site, we serve an average of 100 meals each day. As such, we depend on our community for some of the staple items on our menu and source first from four communities within 20 kilometers North or South of the hotel – Juluchuca, Rancho Nuevo, Las Salinas and Petatlán. What we can’t find hyper locally, we source from a regional market about 40 kilometers away in Zihuatanejo. Specialty items come from a supermercado also in Zihua. Depending on the time of year, local ingredients include fresh cows milk and to-write-home-about fresh cheese, locally captured and produced sea salt, bio-intensively grown black beans, jackfruit and bananas. Huevos del campo translates to farm fresh eggs around here and means that small-scale sustainable egg production is still alive in many of the rural communities surrounding Playa Viva. Our Arabica coffee beans come fermented and roasted from an off the grid farming family just an hour arriba, or into the mountains.

We use the power of our pesos to support models of small-scale sustainable production

As we continue to define our food system here at Playa Viva we invite you to join in the conversation on the blog or during your next visit. From an agricultural lens, we share a vision with community members to reconnect people to the cultural importance, the nutritional value, and the medicinal properties of the foods traditionally grown here. We will also use the power of our pesos to support models of small-scale sustainable production that benefit communities and the environment by placing the livelihoods of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of this food system.

Turtle Beach Night Patrol

A unique and gratifying adventure in conservation

As you head out after dark with the turtle sanctuary volunteers on ATVs your work is to scan the beach, to identifying turtle tracks, and locate nests to collect vulnerable turtle eggs. If left on the beach, the nests are susceptible to predation from dogs and racoons as well as poachers – humans. With only one in a thousand hatchlings reaching adulthood, every egg counts.

Valentine, the La Tortuga Viva Sanctuary Coordinator, with two of the local volunteers digging up a nest to relocate to the sanctuary

A nest on the beach, vulnerable to predators

If the timing is right, it’s possible to come across a nesting mother turtle as she returns to the same beach on which she was born. It’s an intimate experience to respectfully observe her as she lays her eggs, and to know that without your support, she would have had very little chance of survival. Even if no adult mother turtles are sighted, keep an eye out for bioluminescent plankton, shooting stars and lagoon crocodiles. This is all part of the Turtle Beach Night Patrol at Playa Viva.

Playa Viva guests taking eggs out of the nest to relocate to the sanctuary

Freshly excavated turtle eggs, being placed in a plastic bag for relocation

After collecting the eggs from the beach, nests are brought to the Turtle Sanctuary, an enclosed and protected area built and maintained by the Turtle Sanctuary Volunteers. Here, the eggs can be kept safe until hatching in 45-60 days. Upon release, the hatchlings follow their instincts to the sea. The beach at Playa Viva is home to three sea turtle species: Olive Ridley, Leatherback, and Green turtles. With all three species critically endangered on the Mexican Pacific coasts, this work is invaluable to the protection of global populations.

Being a part of the nest collection process puts the work of La Tortuga Viva into a different context – you have the opportunity become a crucial component of conservation efforts, realizing the hard work that is done 365 days a year. Learning how to save turtle nests from predators and local poachers is a level of adventure and cultural immersion unexpected on most luxury vacations.

Playa Viva guests collecting baby hatchlings in the sanctuary to release as part of their night patrol experience

Playa Viva guests proudly showing off the eggs from one nest collected during night patrol.

Guests are asked for a donation of $25 per person to go on the Night Patrol, yet some guests have given as much as $100 per person because they loved the experience so much. All of the proceeds from the night patrol go directly to the operations and to the members of La Tortuga Viva, providing a well-deserved financial incentive for their valuable contributions as volunteers. These patrols provide a great cultural exchange as the volunteers often forget how special the work they do is and going out with guests and seeing their excitement about something that has become mundane to them is very important part of the volunteers finding renewed value in their work. The patrols allow for a meeting of two seemingly polarizing worlds. The common interest – protecting these incredible creatures – unites those fortunate enough to travel to Playa Viva with some of Juluchuca’s most vulnerable community members. Sharing that curiosity, passion and cultural exchange is a priceless outcome for both parties.

During a stay at Playa Viva, you’re more than a guest – you become a member of our community commitment to regeneration and conservation. Through sharing an experience and connecting with the work of La Tortuga Viva, you have the ability to combine a beautiful vacation with a positive global impact.

A baby hatchling making its way to the ocean

Background and Key Info on Turtle Sanctuary:

A stay at Playa Viva is more than just a vacation, it’s an experience. At the hotel and on excursions, you have the opportunity to connect with nature and actively contribute to its regeneration. For our more adventurous guests, that now includes midnight sea turtle patrols along a lone Mexican beach.

Working with La Tortuga Viva, Playa Viva has been able to facilitate the release of over 400,000 sea turtle hatchlings since 2010. Run by 14 local volunteers from Juluchuca, the program fosters sustainable practice in the community and aims to turn poachers into conservationists. With the implementation of the new “night patrol” excursion this past December, guests are able to embark on an adventure they might have never known possible.

Playa Viva Checks All My Boxes – Even Some I Didn’t Know I Had

Playa Viva was recently host to a film crew from England who were producing a segment about Playa Viva for a show about some of the most incredible hotels of the world (stay tuned for more info about this). During my interview, the producer asked me, “What makes Playa Viva so different, so special, so unique?” The best answer I could provide is one that we get from our guests, “Playa Viva checks all my boxes.” To which the producer responded,

“Playa Viva checks all my boxes, even boxes I didn’t know I had.”

This comment may get edited out or it may make into the final video, but I do think it is key to why guests chose to come here and chose to come back.

So what is meant by “Checks All My Boxes.” Here is an excerpt from an email I recently received from a well traveled guest (she had already been to 2 other hotels in Mexico that month).

“… As I had told you the first night, the decision to book at Playa Viva was because it had the right combination of “my boxes being checked”: true oceanfront, yoga classes, low impact casita-style accommodations, size (fewer than 20 rooms), direct flight and easy transport, safety and farm fresh food. The turtles definitely clinched it….” – Playa Viva Guest, 2019

Her boxes included easy access, beach, yoga, small, private, healthy food, oh, and turtles. Yet I’m sure, by the time she left, we checked some boxes she didn’t even know she had. She’s already written to us that when she comes back she wants to bring her family, visit the farm, do some medical work in the local community, take a cooking class. So while we might have been a good match for her initial checklist for a boutique hotel, her experience here opened her up to even more possibilities. While she definitely wants to come when her child can experience the release of baby turtles, now she know she can also join the turtle sanctuary on Night Patrols to maybe see mother turtles laying eggs, collect eggs and teach her son (who is a turtle fan) about the entire life cycle of the turtles. Additionally, the cross cultural connection of her son with the young members of the Turtle Sanctuary will be invaluable to all.

What happens to many guests after staying at Playa Viva is they tell us, now that they have vacationed at Playa Viva, it will be difficult for them to go anyplace else. That is also why we have started Regenerative Resorts, to make it easier to find places like Playa Viva around the world, places that create opportunities to go deeper and to “Check Boxes You Didn’t Even Know You Had!”

Our Prescription For Nature Deficit Disorder

Disconnect to Reconnect

By the time you arrive at your destination for a long awaited vacation, the chances are you are feeling pretty relaxed, at least compared to the hustle and bustle of your daily life. But what you may not even notice is that as you arrive at most hotels, your senses are still inundated by the trappings of the modern world.

at Playa Viva… un-natural vibrations are absent

Chemicals in the paint and carpet, the hum of the escalator, of your air-conditioner, or worse, the dull hum of the mini-bar refrigerator in your room hamper your ability to truly unplug. When you are at Playa Viva, these un-natural vibrations are absent. You don’t realize it, but nature engulfs you and your body transforms, you are disconnecting to reconnect.

When guests arrive at Playa Viva, they often tell us, “Wow, the pictures on the website, Instagram and Facebook are amazing, but when you get here, you realize, the pictures don’t do this place justice.”

The immediate impact of the natural beauty of Playa Viva is most evident in the materials: wood pillars, bamboo walls, a natural stone sink, bronze hand-hewn faucets, organic fabrics, etc. Your hand naturally reaches out to caress the contours of the wood. Your eyes look out over the ocean to catch the site of a dolphin riding a wave. Your ears begin to tune into the sound of birds calling to each other in the distance. The senses individually don’t do justice to the deeper experience, the combination of the senses is more than the sum of its parts.

The experience of Playa Viva can come from just being here and letting go of where you came from.

This reminds me of an expression that guests of our coined. They had been at Playa Viva for about a week and they were telling me over dinner, “you see guests come in wearing their ‘Urban Black’ with their electronic devices erupting from their pockets and purses….then a few days later, you see the look in their faces, no makeup, natural, in a state of…bliss..and you know that the ‘Playa Valium’ has kicked in.”

Nature engulfs you and your body transforms, you are disconnecting to reconnect.

The experience of Playa Viva can come from just being here and letting go of where you came from. It can come from immersion in the ocean, hiking the Discovery Trail to the Farm, heading out the local community, getting a world class massage and or imbibing in our of our organic basil margaritas.

The cure for Nature Deficit Disorder? We definitely recommend a little bit of Playa Viva as part of the cure!

Meet Ines: Chef Prepares Authentic Vegetarian Food with Love

Chef Ines Nopales shares her love for cooking healthy vegetarian and vegan food with authentic Mexican ingredients.

At Playa Viva we like to think of our staff as the heart of our regenerative project. We encourage them to be true stewards of sustainability, conservation and community engagement. Ines is an exemplar member of our team not only in her interactions with guests and the delicious food she makes, but also in the way she gives back and gets involved in her community.

In the nine years she has been a member of the Playa Viva team, Ines has shown a true love for cooking. When asking her how she learned, she explained, “I grew up in the countryside and my mom always cooked rancho food. I learned from her, from observing and practicing.”

Today, Ines continues to learn through observation and practice. We recently took a trip up to the Eco Casita Vegana in Zihuatanejo to learn about nutrition, ayurvedic cooking, and how to make healthy vegan meals. Ines can often be found attending these workshops in her free time, taking notes and coming up with ideas for how to incorporate new dishes at Playa Viva. “I like learning new things,” she says. “Each time I attend a workshop I’m able to learn more about vegetarian, vegan or ayurvedic foods. I didn’t know about any of this before and now I do.”

Apart from Playa Viva, Ines is often thinking about her own community of Rancho Nuevo. “I am always always considering the ingredients we have access to and how to adapt dishes so they work for us.” Ines is quick to recognize when a dish is too complicated or an ingredient to difficult to access. She often shares recipes with alternative ingredients so people from her community and more easily incorporate healthy vegetarian or vegan meals into their diets.

Soon we hope that Ines will be leading her own workshops in town, showcasing her knowledge and her love of cooking. Here at Playa Viva, we support Ines and all she is doing and hope that both community members and our guests are able to learn from and connect with such a wonderful individual.

Step Into Our New Beachside Massage Palapas and Yoga Platform

Slip into the natural world, remember you are connected.

Do you know that you can actually watch bamboo grow? Or that if you hold your hand a certain way you can affect the breath that rises and falls within your chest?

Connection to nature offers us an opportunity to slow down and become quiet enough to witness the subtle movements of life.

When we are contained within walls, viewing the outside world through glass, we miss the sounds, smells, and pulsations of the natural world. We become oblivious to the profound ways in which we are connected to everything.

In order to resonate fully, to be alive fully, life must pass through us. We need to allow movement within and around us.

Playa Viva provides an invitation to seamlessly merge with the elements.

Like the waves you will see crashing upon the beach, or the warm breeze you’ll feel dancing across your skin, like the flowing movements in your morning yoga practice, or the smooth rejuvenating touch during your massage—life vibrates powerfully here.

You can look into yourselves through healing arts, meditation, sound and movement in order to fine tune and align with all which surrounds and sustains you.

At Playa Viva, everyone works WITH the elements instead of resisting them as a result, we are healing and raising the vibration of this land, of our communities, and most importantly of ourselves.

Absolved of “real life” duties, we can sit in the lap of nature and feel the earth breathe. we have the space to witness our own breath and how we are breathing with the earth.

We then have the space to notice our thoughts and feelings. Within nature, the moment is ripe for staying put, for listening inside and out with deeper awareness, for truly experiencing our interconnectedness. Now is the time to say yes to the invitation. Slip into the natural world, remember you are connected. Open your eyes and your heart and slow yourself down.

“This is Playa Viva.”

Britta y Caro

Britta Rael is a yoga teacher, community architect and entrepreneur based in Joshua Tree, CA. Learn more about her work at www.brittarael.com

Carolyn Cohen is an international teacher of AcroYoga, Thai Massage, and movement with a clinical practice for bodywork and acupuncture in the Bay Area. www.carolyncohen.org

What’s Next for Permaculture at Playa Viva?

Playa Viva Welcomes Amanda – Our New Permaculture Specialist

Hi there! I’m Amanda (Harris) and I recently joined the Playa Viva team as a Permaculture Specialist. My family lives at home in Maryland and I made my way to Juluchuca by way of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Southeast Asia, and most recently, a beautiful, diversely planted “holler” in West Virginia. I have a lot to learn about coastal Mexico and the eclectic Spanish spoken here. Fortunately I thrive in new environments where the equal exchange of knowledge is encouraged.

I am blessed and grateful to have the opportunity to continue the work of the many people who tended this land before me.

As I make my home here amongst the Playa Viva community I hope to share with you some of the regenerative land management practices I have borrowed from communities throughout the tropical ecosystems I love the most.

It’s been three weeks since I arrived to Playa Viva and my mind is overflowing with ideas for this beautiful, living land. There is an abundance of evidence of all the years of careful thought, design and attention that went into stabilizing and rebuilding the unique ecosystem surrounding the hotel.

Permaculture is about designing ecologically-sound human habitats.

I am blessed and grateful to have the opportunity to continue the work of the many people who tended this land before me. I see it as my role to continue moving their visions forward, while incorporating some of my own permaculture strategies along the way.

Permaculture is about designing ecologically-sound human habitats, increasing food sovereignty through local production, and regenerating degraded landscapes. It is a land-use and community-building movement which strives toward the harmonious integration of human dwellings, microclimates, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, and water into stable, productive communities. The focus is not on these elements themselves, but rather on the relationships created among them through the ways in which we place them in the landscape. This synergy is further enhanced by mimicking patterns found in nature.

To me, food is medicine.

The ethics of permaculture encourage a long period of observation before making changes or improvements to a landscape. In the tropics, where rainy and dry seasons persist but change dramatically with each new year, it is evermore important that one learns the land through the eyes and stories of the community members who know it best. As such, I intend to move slowly during the next year and spend time understanding the agricultural traditions of the area, identifying local knowledge and underutilized species, and exploring the landscape to see how it is affected by the elements. I hope you’ll join me on this journey as we step beyond the fluid boundaries of the land and into the community where our project exists.

The opportunity for guest and community engagement in the landscape.

The lens through which we will approach this work is three-fold:

Health. To me, food is medicine. We have the opportunity to heal ourselves and prevent illness with fresh and local ingredients, through diversity and color in our diets, and with the use of traditional herbs and herbal medicine. With time, we will develop landscapes with this in mind – using tree crops and medicinal species to diversify the plant community and food consumed.

Carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation. Hurricanes and rising sea levels are real threats to coastal communities. An overarching theme to my proposed work plan will keep these threats in mind as the team and I design and begin planting. Also important here is the ability for community members to replicate the patterns we put in place at Playa Viva. It takes a village to protect the village, and I design with this in mind.

Opportunities for engagement and interaction. Equally important as the first two approaches is the opportunity for guest and community engagement in the landscape. We will continue creating opportunities for people to explore the diverse ecosystem, to walk away with valuable and shareable knowledge, and to inspire people to think through ways they can make similar impacts in their own communities.

En paz,

Amanda

The Impact of Our Travel

This holiday season (or any season), I challenge you to consider the impact your travel has on the planet, the communities you visit and on you (and your daily habits) far outweighs the carbon your seat(s) on that plane add. As a conscious consumer and thus a conscious traveler, I would argue, that where you travel to, the choices you make in hotels, the way you interact with the local communities and they way that travel impacts you is more important than burning jet fuel.

Let’s start with some key concepts from the book “Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.” In this insightful book edited by Paul Hawken, he has a top 15 list of solutions. Eliminating planes or flights is not even in that top 15 list. At the top of the list: Refrigeration (1), a.ka. Air Conditioning. Fly to some place hot and then sequester yourself inside a refrigerated room and you’ve just become the number one worst carbon offender.

Where you travel to, the choices you make in hotels, the way you interact with the local communities and they way that travel impacts you is more important than burning jet fuel.

Next in the top 15 include alternative energy: Wind Turbines (2), Solar Farms (8), Rooftop Solar (10). So the next big choice for you beyond whether your room requires A/C is how is that A/C and the rest of your vacation powered. Rounding out the top 15 include items specific to your food choices: Reduction in Food Waste (3), Plant-Rich Diet (4), Silvopasture (9), Regenerative Agriculture (11). So when picking that destination, the food lifecycle from how it is made and the amount of waste produced, to how far the food traveled and how many forests were destroyed to make it are just as important as how far you traveled.

Beyond A/C, energy and food, one of the other key components to consider is the impact your travel has on the local communities and ecosystem. Also included in the top 15 are: Tropical Forests (5), Education Girls (6), Family Planning (7), etc. related to conservation and social impact. If you can travel to locations where you can be part of promoting the education of girls and the empowerment of women in those communities, you can make more of an impact which will cumulatively offset all the carbon from your airline miles.

As conscious consumers, picking destinations and hotels in those location which take a more holistic perspective can not only neutralize your flight’s carbon footprint but also be part of a comprehensive plan to reverse global warming.

What if you could find hotels which work with their local ecosystems?

What if you could find hotels with no A/C, who ran on alternative energy, who reduced food waste and had a farm-to-table program working on their land and with their neighbors to deliver a delicious plant-rich diet to your plate based on silvopasture and regenerative agriculture. What if you could find hotels which work with their local ecosystems, so you could be part of improving the education of girl who in turn gain more control over their family planning? These hotels do exist. Playa Viva is one of them. Our guests at Playa Viva are asking us where else they can find similar hotels and we are finding them. Playa Viva and hotels like us are joining a collective called Regenerative Resorts. Each is doing their part in regenerating their local ecosystem and communities and being part of this drawdown.

Part of travel is the transformation that comes from being on vacation. This can be as simple as just unplugging from your daily routine. At Playa Viva, we hope that you not only disconnect, but you reconnect to new habits. New habits you can take back home with you. Habits that allow you to be part of that drawdown and reversing global warming through your day-to-day activities. For 2019, we hope you will go places and be a part of creating that change in the local communities, with the local people and ecosystem. Hopefully, that change, will ripple back to you and be part of your own transformation and you too can be part of that drawdown of carbon, not in avoiding that flight, but in each and every choice you make, every action, every dollar spent and that you inspire others around you to do the same.

Happy Holidays from the Playa Viva team and all the folks we impact through your visit!