MEALS

All your meals can be arranged for you in the village. As with the guiding, it is based on a rotation system so you will spend time (and money) with different families during your stay. All the meal providers have had training in health and hygiene and meal preparation. Like the village tour, this is another valuable way in which the Mayan women can earn additional income in their own community, without jeopardizing their family obligations or traditional values. All TEA member families are subsistent farmers, they plant their own crops organically and you will eat their beans, rice, corn tortillas with the locally grown chicken. Using the intercropping method these farmers also plant their bananas, plantain, yams, pumpkins, and sugar cane, cocoa, all can be eaten and added beside the main dish. Many of our vegetarian guests are fed with an abundant legumes freshly collected from the forests.

The Mayan families generally don‘t sit down and eat with visitors as this is not their custom, but will continue their house and kitchen work — please do not feel offended by this in any way. You can use this opportunity to observe Maya home life and if someone does sit with you, to ask questions and share your experiences with them.

We encourage the families to co-ordinate their cooking to provide variation for the visitors, but this is not always possible given the limited range of food available in the villages and the time required to gather food. Vegetarians and vegans are welcome — the villagers will make every effort to accommodate your needs. We are providing additional training in food preparation in order to diversify the meals available, so please be patient.