Tales from La Angostura, Guatemala, A Project in the Making – Chapter I: Inspiration and First Moves

When I was Young

I was born in 1973 in a middle class family. My first memories were of our living in Nicaragua, where my father went to earn his masters degree in business administration in INCAE. We lived there for two years and then we came back to a home my grandmother gave us in the suburbs of Guatemala City.

Our house had a mere 700 sq. ft. and later, my father built other rooms to accommodate my newborn brothers. We ended with 1300 sq. ft for six people, including the help.

I began to consider the size of our house when we visited our grandparents’ houses. It never bothered me, but in my mind there was always the idea to buy a large house for my family, when and if I got married. When listening to grown-ups, an ever present topic of conversation was regarding land, properties, and houses. Big and beautiful was the recurring theme.

One day my uncle told me something that he’d learned from another — that the best investment you could make was land. He said that land would always increase in price and that there will always be less land available, since the human race was always growing in numbers. This was embedded in my mind.

Since I can remember, I have always been on the lookout for property. Sure, a nine year old kid was not able to buy land, especially with a monthly allowance of $2, but it was very exciting to me to observe what people sold and bought and dreamt about it.

I can remember being very happy when my dad told me he was trying to loan a ranch, but his dream never made it to fruition. Since then, the only piece of land I could put my hands on was a lot he had bought for me a year after I was born. It was on the mountains in the outskirts of Guatemala City, an area with dirt roads and a lot of trees. Really, it was inspiring every time we used to visit to check on it.

So, the years passed and I always had the idea to buy land, although at the time I did not have any idea what I was going to do with it. I only knew that I wanted some.

The day came when I got married, so now my section in the mountains got a clear directive for us: My home. Thanks to circumstances at the time, I had enough cash to build a home with all the amenities and details my wife and I wanted.

Still, the need for land had a special corner in my heart.

Inspiration

As time passed, I came to notice that if you were to have land and properties, this meant you would need caretakers and you would pay a lot just for the privilege of visiting once in a while, and the true user of the land was the caretaker, his family and/or his friends…. This made me realize that if you wanted to have beach houses, land and places to go in beautiful areas, you had to be willing to spend a lot and get accustomed to some things… or… have a business to pay for it all!

An idea sprang to life: I could have beautiful properties and if they paid for themselves I would be able to enjoy them — and after that I could let them generate their own income and voilà!, everything was settled. So, the idea of homes for rent, hotels and organic farms became my fantastic solution to property ownership and related costs.

Of course, there was the little inconvenient truth that I had no money to invest.

One day, cruising in the countryside, my wife and I were enjoying the beautiful scenery of the Guatemalan Altiplano and we decided we wanted a piece of land there, to build a beautiful wood cottage and have our own orchard. Check on these pictures of our Altiplano.

Coincidentally, a week after that, I met a person that had a five acre piece of land in the same area my wife and I were dreaming about. This person had the idea of building a holistic center, where there could be organic produce, sustainable living and respect for nature. It felt that there was a reason why I met this person and our ideas and motivations were similar.

So, I offered myself — to apply my knowledge and hard work on the site — because I figured that since I had no land, maybe I had to work on someone else’s. But we soon discovered that my ideas were a little different from hers, after all, and we parted.

This was around 2008 and this person was the first from whom I heard the word ‘permaculture’. The word was intriguing and was to me an invitation to investigate more.

After searching the internet for a while, I came across the core of it all: information from David Holmgren and Bill Mollison. I read everything I could find. I went to bed late that night, but something ‘touched’ me inside. It was difficult to sleep, such was the excitement.

At last I discovered that there were other people that felt the same as me, and they have been writing, studying and working on it for more than 30 years!

As soon as I could, I got Bill Mollison’s books and started reading. He led me to other authors that I also read so I could have a broader picture on what permaculture was. It was all very inspiring.

Motivated action

After reading a lot, I found out that there were many ways to implement permaculture in our lives, so I started with a few simple things I could do right away in my home, like sowing a few aromatics or preparing a compost pile.

This not being enough, I continued to read and think big. I really had the need to get a nice piece of land and start a full scale permaculture site that could serve as a reference and testing ground for the discipline. I dreamt about visitors, tourists, scientists, politicians and John Does that could draw value from my project and how it would grow and be nurtured from those visits. I have to be honest as well. I wanted to leave the city and go into the mountain and live there on my site, but for the time being it was difficult. My kids are at a good school in Guatemala City, but there are not too many good schools in the rural areas.

Really, I had motivation… but didn’t know where to start, besides planting my aromatics near the kitchen window.

So, I joined a few permaculture forums and websites hoping to discover the method to embark on the journey of my life, thinking that this would be like climbing on a boat…. What I didn’t realise is that I had already been on that ship for a long time — maybe from before my young adulthood.

Certainly, I took a few steps that can be considered as action, even though they may have been small. Nevertheless, the important thing is to be on the move. You can only take advanced steps after you’ve taken small ones before. Nature does not offer quantum leaps… this is for quantum physics, not for Mother Nature working in the field.

All things mounted up in a little while and I found myself with this great idea: to buy a large piece of land where I could execute Bill Mollison’s dream and show my fellow Guatemalans and Americans that there is certainly another way to do things and that this way is wonderful. If visitors came, the site could pay for itself. So, the idea was formed.

On the move

So, while doing small experiments at home, changing some things and learning more, I started to look for my land. The most difficult thing was that I was looking for a big patch of beautiful land without money, partners or mentors. Some people called me a dreamer or even thought I must have a screw loose in my head, but this didn’t deter me.

Uh, I forgot to mention my very large debt. Ten years ago, I thought that it was the best moment to invest in my business (jewelry wholesale), so I took a mortgage on my house and bought a lot of merchandise in a Vicenza Show in Italy.

After 9/11 it may seem a good investment to buy gold. It went from $250 to over $1,800 in 2011. The sad thing is that I didn’t invest in gold — I invested in jewelry. I found myself with little stock, less clients and almost no profit. Ok, this is enough about my financial situation, but I just want to share that my dream is quite difficult.

So, I began to search for the land, knowing that it was almost impossible to get it but I had the hunch that I was going to be able to buy it, even though I didn’t really know how or where.

So, I found it!

I happen to be a dreamer, but not a conformist dreamer…. This may lead me to big accomplishments but also to great hassles. Now, as time has passed I have learnt to better evaluate my risks.

The road is not straight and long. It isn’t easy but very little of importance comes easily. You have to be aware that good things come at a steep price — either in cash or in effort.

So, having all of this in my mind, I was sure I didn’t want a piece of waste land that would cost pennies, even though I only had pennies. I wanted it to be over 30 acres, with fertile land, a great view, tourist potential, close to the sea, potable water and timber, if possible. Yes, I know it was quite a long shot, but since dreaming doesn’t cost anything, I dreamt big.

One day, I came across a sales lead for a property on the Caribbean shore of Guatemala. It was 600 by 1000 meters(!). Part of it was original jungle and it was near Rio Dulce, one of the most beautiful areas in Guatemala. I was very excited.

I asked for the location in Google Earth and learnt where it was. Coincidentally, it was beside the vacation property of a friend of mine, whom I had visited a year before. I gave him a call.

When we spoke, I told him about the ranch that was on sale beside his vacation property, and he told me he was aware of it. He knew that the owner was asking for a truckload of money, but I told him that I thought maybe I could negotiate and get a better price or conditions to buy it, if he was willing to put the cash (or signature), and if everything went well, we could be partners 50/50. He was up for it.

So, I contacted the seller, discussed a few ideas regarding the land’s price and organised a meeting to go on a field trip. I spoke with my friend, now my partner, and he told me we could go together and see if the negotiation was suitable.

We got there, and the first impression was that the land was abused. It was filled with corn, from corner to corner. Much of the forest was burned to the ground to plant maize. Check the picture.

We walked across it and saw some beautiful things. It had great sights — there was still some primary jungle, and locals said it had a few caves and it had some Tectona Grandis planted on it. We found a few water holes with pure drinkable water. Check our this cave with water pouring from the ceiling, it’s awesome!

See the magnificent sight from the third mountain (below). You can see the whole Bahía de Amatique, the Rio Dulce’s River Mouth and Livingston, a nearby town. Sometimes, when the cruise ships come to make port in Puerto Santo Tomás, you can see them from here.

Click for larger view

I felt something. Maybe something like infatuation. There was a feeling that I cannot describe, but my heart was beating like crazy. I knew I couldn’t buy it myself at that time, but maybe, just maybe my shining new partner was happy to kick in.

There was some homework to do. I had to check if the investment was safe and sound, since my partner was going to come up with the money. So I investigated a lot of information on the land, spoke with neighbors, checked the legal status, limits, history… and found out a great deal of things.

One of the most interesting things I found was that this land was used in the Late Classical Period of the Mayans as a port.

See this picture, doesn’t it look like a wall?

An archaeologist told me that he made a study of the area and he verified that the land was used as a port because of the view it has over the river mouth of the Rio Dulce. Check the following picture taken from the first mountain, not minding the trees, you can see the whole river mouth from there.

By now, you can tell that I got hooked on the idea of buying this land.

We decided to buy the land. My negotiations paid off as I managed to get the asking price reduced by more than 50%. But, when we were almost ready to buy, my partner said that he was not comfortable with the deal and pulled out…. So I was left alone… still with no money, no credit, nothing to exchange.

I felt a little disappointed. At some point I felt like the universe didn’t like my permaculture project idea and that I should focus on my business, family and actual occupation. If I was to study permaculture, it would have to be just in my garden in the city. So I stopped investigating, reading and dreaming. My heart longed for permaculture, but I had to wait.

The only thing I had left was the determination that permaculture is the way to go, because all signs are mounting up. I can see that we need to do something as a human culture, or we won´t be permanent. We have to develop research sites all over the world, in every climate and microclimate in order to be able to survive, and this land should be Guatemala’s first permaculture demonstration site, or at least that is what I felt.

Watch for my next article to see what happened next….