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31 Oct 2024
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Description
Olá, we are Ale and Tissy.
In 2020 we left the bustling city of São Paulo in search of something more. We chose a very special place, in the middle of the Mantiqueira mountains, in a hippie village in the outsides of Monteiro Lobato, and started building our little piece of paradise: a permacultural and yoga retreat center.
We fell in love with the amazing views, the civilization is distant, and we can appreciate the silence. We also choose here because we felt impelled to regrow the forest that once was here, but it was taken down to raise cattle in the 1990’s. So we have also been planting a lot of native trees, food forests, and gardens to bring back the biodiversity that belongs here. We love our community, our neighbors are mainly artists and organic farmers.
We love making things. Creating, drawing, envisioning and building. We have been on this journey for more than 4 years almost non-stop. Our main goal is to materialize places where people can connect with themselves, others and with nature.
Throughout our projects we really connected with bioconstruction and building with wood. We builted two geodesic domes, one being a yoga hall, also a COB house, and we love doing green roofs. We are currently building a COB cabin, using only scrap materials that is designed to host more volunteers.
One of our many favorite activities here is to walk on the hikes inside the farm, bathe on the waterfalls, and be amazed by the flying toucans at sunset.
Today the farm hosts yoga and meditation retreats once a month, we also have ongoing construction projects, we have a garden and a lot of fruit trees to take care, and are always excited to plant new trees, specially since our rainy season is starting (from October to April).
We put our hearts and souls in this place everyday and welcome those who are open to joins us on this journey.Types of help and learning opportunities
GardeningDIY and building projectsGeneral MaintenanceUN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Throughout the last years we accumulated knowledge and experience on buildings (specially bio construction), maintenance, electricity and water systems.
Also restoring the land, planting trees, and food, identification of eatable plants. An ongoing challenge is to always test new preserving food techniques with our crops.
We love to cook, specially traditional Brazilian dishes for out volunteers to try.
We are very interested in exchanging history, traditions and recipes.
Tissy is passionate about Brazilian history and culture. So she will talk non stop if you let her. Ale is very good playing the pandeiro (Samba instrument) and he will gladly give you a lesson. We love to share traveling tips in Brazil, as well as in South America, because we are very proud Latinos and excited to share more of our amazing culture.Help
We've just finished building our yoga hall so we are entering a new phase of our project.
November and December 2024:
We will be focusing on a COB house to host more volunteers. A little cozy house with a simple project that uses only materials that we already have or are abundant locally. Bioconstruction is a lot of fun, and very empowering because we reconnect with the tradition of centuries of communities building their own houses. It will be extra special for the volunteers to build the house for the next volunteers.
On this period we're looking for anyone excited to learn and get their hands dirty (literally). There is no need of having previous experiences since we will be sharing the instructions and work side by side.
We're also looking for people that could potentially stay for more time and help us with specific parts of running the retreat (we offer paid positions for that).
We love working with creative, committed and communicative people.
If you have experience in hotels, refugios or shelters we would love to exchange practical informations to improve our routines.
And if you are looking for a quiet place, in the middle of nature, to learn new skills and meet amazing people, you are welcome to join us!Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
Portuguese: FluentAccommodation
The volunteers are hosted at the same rooms that we host our retreat guests.
We provide rooms with amazing hot shower, a lot of personal space and also a stunning view of the mountains. It's a great place to connect, rest and restore.
Since we are in the mountains, the closest village is 40 minutes walking, the place is more suited for quiet and chilled activities such as reading, resting, writing and contemplating.
We are hopping to have a groups of volunteers for this spring/summer so it would be great moment to connect and meet amazing people. We also have rooms for couples.
If we have a weekend retreat during your stay and all the rooms are full, we would provide tents for you to stay during those few retreats days.What else ...
Some important rules are that we have a veggie space and no alcohol or drugs of any kind are allowed in our land.
We are currently 2h15 away from São Paulo center, and 1h45 away from Guarulhos International Airport (GRU). It's easy to get an UBER directly to our farm (we have some good contacts that we really recommend). Also, it's possible to come by bus, from the city of São José dos Campos to Monteiro Lobato center. From there we can pick you up or a you can take a taxi from the bus station of Monteiro Lobato depending on the time you arrive (20 min from our land).
Generally our volunteers work for 5 hours per day, 5 days a week. We really like to start early to finish the working day by lunchtime.
We'll provide all ingredients for you to take care of your meals.
Let us know if you know good vegan recipes! :)
Please don't use ChatGPT to write to us. heheheh We prefer reading real people's messages!A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
internet connection is good and easy to do conference calls. it may vary depending on the day, but it's mostly quite reliable.
Space for parking camper vans
This host can provide space for campervans.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
5 hours a day, 5 days a week
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We thank her openness to change plans and accommodate our needs, and her collaboration with other volunteers. We hope only the best things for her next adventures!
Also such amazing people, I will never forget my time with them there and… read more
Azi has an amazing estethic sense for decorations, interior design… read more
Ale and Tissy are great resources to learn about Brazil, culture and to talk about travel plans. They gave us amazing suggestions… read more
Ale and Tissy,, we're so thankful for all those days together! it felt like a real home and a safe family to be with. As a first voluntarily experience we can call it "perfect"😍 we hope others come… read more
Tissy and Ale are making the place even better with agroforestry and sustainable housing projects.
They are very nice and can cook delicious vegan food!
vegana. La cocinera (otra voluntaria) preparó una variedad de comida muy rica y… read more