If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. —Dalai Lama

When Linda and I first visualized Casa Cayuco, we always considered community service as being fundamental to our ecotour goals. Over the years we have been fortunate to have groups come down to assist with numerous projects in lending a hand to the local communities. As we have explored the archipelago, we have developed strong ties with the indigenous communities. Oftentimes the communities have Peace Corps volunteers, with whom we work to coordinate the projects. Our projects typically involve improving water and septic systems as well as construction of community facilities and promoting tourism, where appropriate.

We have also brought down medical and dental professionals as well as training the locals in emergency medicine. Several of our guests and groups have been very generous by bringing down medical and educational supplies as well.

We do feel that our guests have found the service portion of their stay with us to be very rewarding. Whether they work an hour or a week, we try to maintain the balance of work and play. After all, we do adventure, and find that working hard, playing hard and enjoying the relaxation time that CC offers, a fine balance.

Current and Ongoing Projects at Casa Cayuco

We will maintain a list of projects that are underway, and provide dates that we will be working on them. If any of these interest you, let us know how you would like to assist. We welcome donations, which you can make on the reservations page of our website. Just let us know what project you would like to support. By all means, contact us for more details.

• Adding more storage to the Salt Creek community school water system. In 2008 Lawrence Academy students constructed the water system for the elementary school. The village requested more storage, so this is a priority.
• Trail improvement for the Salt Creek community. This is an ongoing “tourism” based project that will enable the local guides to take tourists on nature hikes and ultimately to a turtle nesting beach. We are encouraging these practices in hope of saving the rain forest and the turtles from the communities’ unsustainable practices.
• Wilderness First Aid training for the local “guides”. Over the past 4 years we have trained several local “guides” from the Gnobe communities. We are continuing this process, and are seeking funding to pay the instructional