Cataleya

Cataleya came into existence just shy of one year ago. We are Papa (39), daughter (6), sometimes friends and neighbors and almost always a family of lovely Volunteers, learning, helping and teaching. Our dream is to turn this narrow but very long peace of property into a regenerative, experimental, somewhat comunity like project, where dreams still can come true. In Summer we use the irrigation dam for daily swimming, we do a lot of organic farming as an auto sustainable way of producing as much of our own food as posible. We are also still working and learning quiete some time in bioconstrution, as our big house is still to be finished. We have waterways, ( this winter way to much water), mystical places all around, native forest and much more to explore.
The plan is to hopefully be able to eat mostly products that have been grown here ecologically, without any chemical inputs whatsoever. We will grow everything from garden crops to cereals, and are still in the middle of the process of planting an agricultural (food supplying) forest of fruits, nuts etc.. We are constructing buildings with straw bails and mud, setting up an irrigation system, building basic infrastructure, building pathways etc.

We don´t work here, we live. Its caled "THE CATALEYA 3XPERIENCE".

We live this livestyle from sunrise to sunset. The days go by flying, there is always something to do, always some challenges to master.
This project is still early, and every hard (living) working hand is very needed and very welcome, but a high degree of independence and work motivation is required. Please only consider woofing with us, if you are aware that every beginning has its challenges and brings sometimes hard work with it. As said further up the lines, we actually don`t really feel this as work, we see it as life, that includes eating, cooking, swimming, learning, playing (when my daughter is here), doing some workout, maybe yoga, always puting the most urgent maters first. So life at Cataleya is interesting, different, hard, challenging and fun all together. You will not just be send to do something boring, you´ll be included 100% in the daily rutine and also always its surprices and challenges. This is Countrylife at its finest, It will be part of your longterm memorys for sure.
As everything is still in its starting phase, the living standard is basic so hosting will be in the main house until the volunteer space will be hopefully soon finished. Bring your sleeping bag in order to have enough cover in case of colder nights. Bring light long sleeves clothes for the harsh and burning sun in summer. Also a good headlamp, with rechargable batteries, some ruberboots, steady walking (working) shoes and maybe som flip flops for the house. We try not to spend a lot of screentime here. We find it very sad, that these days people only get together in order to sit on their individual phone doing dopamin binching. Its just very contraproductive for everything that we try to build here. I you need a dopamin rush every now and then, you can opt for a long and healthy cold shower, or jump in the cold Irigation canal for a nice cleansing bath.
Everyone here is gonna be part of another step towards a long path of beeing part of the new world.

Foodwise we can provide the basic foods that we ourselves are consuming like homemade sourdough bread, oak flakes and healthy food we prepare ourselves for conservation (we generally avoid the use of industrial products as far as we can and won´t allways have the same amount of varieties than a modern supermaket). We eat mostly vegetarian food, but not dogmatic, if somebody comes with a piece of healthy meat for a visit, we won`t say no. Should you have any special needs, there are a couple of possibilities: Walk 1,5km to a very smal shop, or hittch hike (or call a Uber for about 6USD) 12km, where theire ar more smal gshops. Or you take from theire the public transport to Linares City, (100.000 People), where you can find every imaginary temptation. A lot of nice places, natural paradises, are to visit here in the surrounding area so bring a lot of positive energy and opennes for a quiete diferent lifestile. Not yet, but hopefully soon, we might be able to rent a car for your weekend explorations. But even staying here is quiete fun, as my Doughter comes from Friday to Sunday, To name some of the natural attractions in the surrounding, you can find the river Putagan in Rabones, Las Vizcachas, El Embalse Ancoa, Achibueno, natural lagoons with volcanic water near to the Maule lagoon or just wander through the native forest behind our houese. Most of these places would have to be visited by hitch hiking, as public trunsport here is scare and complicated. Our artificial lagoon on the land is being filled up once a week with water from the Melado canal which is connected to the fresh mountain water so that we have our own swimming pool and water for irrigation. We live really basic and as ecologically as possible. We use compost toilets, only biodigradeble shampoos and the shower is warmer during the day and colder during night. So far, we have basic electricity based on solar energy. We would apreciate your stay here and like to welcome and get to know you for more than just a short impression - so stay as long as you wish. The days are a mix of living and working, cooking, conversations or different activities together, all in the sense of creating a communitary, solidary life together. Organic methods: I'm by my first trade bio-dynamic certifite Farmer. We will not apply any kind of herbicides, pesticides or insecticides on our property, We will not use chemical fertilizers. By my second trade I am a social worker and labor educationalist. Certifications: just getting started, with own property, but since I can think practicing of Agrochemical free agriculture. Current projects: Currently the Cataleya project is just getting started, we are finishing a house with mud and straw, planting trees, setting up the greenhouses and the gardens and cleaning trail paths in the forest. To establish an ecotourism spot up on the hills we are still exploring the vast hikes. We are constructing everything with natural and local materials if available. We are planning to set up water storage for electricity instead of using toxic batteries. We wanna try to combine grid power with solar, wind and hidropower and store its exces in water by pumping it up hill when not needed and letting it run downhill when needed. But thats still a long way to go. Everything here is just getting started, so there is a lot to learn and share together also to help each other on the spiritual journey of life...