Agua Selva hostel and eco-park
I am a 25 years old traveller from Estonia and my name is Terje. I have been in Mexico for about 4 months before going to Agua Selva hostel and eco-park. I visited Tulum, Palenque, San Jose de Pacifico, Oaxaca City, Puerto Escondido and Mexico City and then decided that I need to spend some time in nature after staying 2 months in Mexico City. Going to the beautiful jungle on the border of Tabasco and Chiapas seemed like a perfect place to go to.
I started volunteering at the hostel with a girl from Germany, a guy from Mexico City and another guy from United States. Julia, Armando and Neil. It was really good to have some people to help me with learning more Spanish and also to communicate with the local people of Malpasito. After Julia and Armando left, another lovely guy came there for a few weeks – Alex. He was extremely helpful as neither me or Neil spoke enough Spanish to communicate with people.
We started out with planning what are the most important things to improve in the hostel and made a compost box so we could have our own dirt to use for gardening. It is also possible to gather plants from the eco park and plant them in the garden of the hostel. The hostel is very cosy and also has a lot of potential to grow and become a community for people who are interested in an environment-friendly lifestyle. It is also a nice get-away for families all around Mexico.
My favorite part about being at the hostel was definitely having the freedom to do a lot of things: planting the garden, making furniture and painting a mural. Also experiencing the hospitality of all the local people and the neighbours. We had 2 meals a day at our neighbour’s house and it was always amazing. It is very interesting for me to see how people live in rural areas of Mexico. One time we were even offered a horse-ride to a shop near by.
I was very lucky to be at the hostel with other volunteers and we all became good friends. We spent a few hours swimming under the waterfalls at the eco-park almost every day. Then we would work in the garden and rake the leaves or build furniture or just maintain the cleanliness of the place. Most of the afternoons we would relax in hammocks in front of the house and share stories.
I would recommend Agua Selva eco-park to anyone. It’s a great place to stay if you need to relax and spend some time in the nature. However, it is also possible to do some pretty extreme things such as rappelling, zip lining and hiking through the river. There is something to do for everyone.
