Jungle Living, Anyone?

[Doobius J]

We are sending out this message to plant the seeds for the next
phase of activity in manifesting a community of creators in
Costa Rica, and to invite your participation. Here is a brief overview of
the vision: to create a sustainable, nature-nurturing, off-the-grid, self-sufficient
eco-village, educational center and rejuvenation retreat in Costa Rica.
The intention is to grow and expand as individuals and together
as a community, to restore and strengthen our connection with Nature
and the web of Life, and to create an enjoyable, soul-satisfying way
of living that we can share with others. Music, art, drumming, dancing,
gardening, good food, building and joyful,creative expression in general will be an
important part of our daily life.

The name of our project is Salka Vida. Salka means untamed, undomesticated,
wild. Vida means life. Salka Vida is untamed, undomesticated, wild life,
something most of us are missing in our modern lives. The opportunity to
reconnect with the wild, untamed Life Force is an important element of
what we are offering to people.
There will be a small community of people (10-12 people to start, maybe
more as we go) that live here, and a shifting cast of teachers,
interns, volunteers and helpers that will come and go. Different teachers,
speakers, practitioners and facilitators will come to lead retreats and
workshops in various fields such as Qigong, Tai Chi, raw foods, yoga,
meditation, drumming, permaculture, sustainable living/building/energy
generation, building with bamboo and other useful skills to assist in
transforming ourselves and the way we live. We will host rejuvenation retreats where
people come and live in the jungle and get a major tune-up
through living in the wild, eating delicious natural food, soaking in
herbal hot baths and natural hot springs, massage, swimming in a beautiful river, interacting with
other explorers and members of the community, and connecting with the
abundant Life Force of this place. We want to offer a transformational
experience for people who are ready to upgrade their lives, an opportunity
to be rejuvenated, educated and inspired in a really beautiful, wild
setting. Just being in this environment is a healing experience in itself.

Our aim is to live off-the-grid, so we will be generating our power
with a combination of solar power, wind power and micro
hydroelectric power. We will grow as much of our food as possible and
work with local farmers to meet the rest of our food needs. We are already
growing guadua bamboo to build with and part of the vision is to
ultimately build a treehouse village out of bamboo. Building with bamboo
is an area of growing interest in Costa Rica and we will be learning
and teaching this skill at our center.

There are potentially many different ways we can generate money here.
These are just a few of the possibilities:
1) Hosting retreats and workshops
2) Building with bamboo: everything from houses and shelters, to
furniture, musical instruments, household items,etc. Also, the
potential exists to form a bamboo-building business to build
structures/furniture/whatever for hotels, businesses, other
communities, etc
3) Growing, packaging and selling herbs. Also making herbal extractions,
tinctures, flower essences and various herbal remedies.
4) Growing rare tropical hardwood seedlings for reforestation projects
and for replanting vanishing habitats for macaws, monkeys and other
wildlife.
5) Building treehouses and hooches.
6) Recording studio and audio/video/dvd production center,
for recording community members' music projects and to create
dvd's of different workshops and retreats that people can take with
them at the end of an event. The studio will also be available for
musicians and bands who want to come and record their next CD in this
awesome environment.

There is a suspension bridge we call the 'Leap of Faith Bridge' about a
half a mile from our land. Once you cross the bridge you are in another
world. You wake up in the morning to the sounds of howler monkeys
roaring and thousands of birds serenading you as the jungle wakes up.
Your neighbors are toucans and white hawks and various members of the
local wildlife. You go to sleep under a massive star-filled sky to a
symphony of crickets and frogs, and the sounds of the wild. Mother Nature
is in full effect here. This area is also a combination rainforest and
cloudforest. Big banks of fog come rolling into the valley and from
the deck of our jungalow, you watch as everything around you gets whited out
by a massive cloud bank. After a while, you are in the middle of it
and can see no more than 20 feet around you. Gradually it passes by and
the surroundings reappear. The incredible beauty of this place and the
continual change of the visual landscape is a source of non-stop wonder.

We are interested in exploring the possibilities with anyone who resonates
with this vision. We're looking for hearty souls with an adventurous spirit
who are ready to create a new way of living together that promotes joy, harmony and creativity.
We're going to be there in September, beginning to
work on basic infrastructure and some shelters/living spaces.
Anyone interested in joining us in the jungle to check things out for possible further involvement?
We're looking for people with skills in
building, organic gardening, permaculture, any healing arts, visual arts,
music, drumming, audio/video recording and production, alternative energy production,
organizing workshops, marketing and promoting, website creation, etc. Anyone with the
skills/inspiration/love/energy/vision to help manifest and add to the project.
Let us know what you do, what your skills/resources are that you can contribute and what you are looking for
in a community.
We look forward to hearing from you and romping/working/playing in the jungle together!
Peace, joy and wildness, Doobius J
[e-mail]

[Jeremy Hood-Daniel]

Hip Hip Hooray!!!!!
The more the merrier who espouse this way of life in our beleagured planet.
It has long been my dream to live a life off the grid, growing herbs and spices, organic gardening, listening to good music, enjoying this wonderful creation which we are given in which to live and have our being, to glorify the Father's works.
I built a small home in a ghetto area of Savanna la mar, Westmoreland, Jamaica, on what is basically reclaimed marshland, surrounded by land crabs and mosquitoes, last year, and installed a solar/wind hybrid system, which supplies all our power needs, and also allows me to enjoy another hobby of mine, which is freeband radio communications, completely free!
you can see my small efforts at http://www.freewebs.com/jeremy23da330/
I would love to visit your community at some stage in the near future, and all the best in your endeavours, 73's jeremy