The minga is an integral part of life in the Andes. It’s a form of collective work where community members work together to fulfill a common cause that benefits the community itself. However, it isn’t just work. It’s a moment to congregate, catch up, laugh, tell stories, and solidify the bonds within the community as well.

Join Abya Viva for a very special Cultural Road Trip this month where you will get to participate, firsthand, in a community minga to help reforest a damaged area of the highly biodiverse Andean paramo (highlands) with native plants and trees. You will work side-by-side with community members who take care of and conserve the largest privately owned nature preserve in Ecuador, Marcos Perez de Castilla in Oña, Azuay!

You will also enjoy a deliciously prepared meal with ingredients from the community members’ gardens and farms. You will have a number of chances to speak with and get to know the people of Marcos Perez and learn from them about the age-old practice of the minga, get a tour of their community center, and talk about the work they have been doing to conserve and reforest their land.

Saturday, May 21
7:30 am – evening
$60*

*everything is included (transportation, meals, guides, tools and plants for reforestation etc.)
– – we will meet at idiomART and be dropped off there afterwards – –