El Refugio is a place made for tourists, travellers, and digital nomads. What separates us from the rest is our first-class commitment to sustainability and personal development. We offer practices, tools, and services to replenish your mind, body, and spirit. Our goal is to help you achieve balance and harmony, both in your internal and external world.
Our Story
The story of El Refugio begins well before our space first opened its doors. It's well known that the health of the natural world has been degraded over the past 50 years, largely due to unsustainable practices of globalization - practices that generate poverty, division, and injustice among living beings. We humans have abused our ability to extract natural resources for the benefit of very few, and we have destroyed entire ecosystems through our dependence on the oil and mining industries. Regardless of who is in power, much of the world's politics has been dedicated to the abuse and exploitation of power in service of large corporations and international banks.
The purpose of El Refugio is to provide a real-life example of what it means to live in harmony with our ecosystem, rather than merely by taking from it. Our goal is to build a permaculture residence that regenerates the surrounding ecosystem, using a combination of ancient practices and modern technology to acheive self-sufficiency in energy and food.
Our Philosophy
At El Refugio, we believe that nature has all the answers for our problems, and we can find them by reconnecting ourselves with the natural world. Our mission is to build a team of pollinators, each equipped with the tools and knowledge to spread permaculture practices wherever they go. Our ideals include promoting regenerative tourism through consistent application of the 3 Rs of sustainability: reducing, reusing, and recycling.
- Reducing our consumption means being careful about what we buy. We source local and buy our supplies in bulk whenever possible.
- Reusing means making the most of anything that we do need to buy. Our plastic containers often end up as homes for new plants, and our grey-water filtration system keeps a tight loop on our water use.
- Recycling means that we take responsibility over the purchases we make, ensuring that they find a proper home once we have done our best to find use for them.
Everyone who works at El Refugio believes in the same fundamental priorities of community-building and success through co-operation - you can learn more about our community here: