COVID-19 is like a major jolt to our systems. Unlike a fire, flood, hurricane or other natural disaster, what is being destroyed here are human-to-human connections due to social distancing and our health and economic systems. Ironically, one is protected and preserved from the same behaviors that deteriorate the other.

We all know and understand the trade-offs of our health in exchange for economic viability. In this case though, our economic system is being destroyed as if by rapid fire. Property is not destroyed, no buildings burned, no cars flooded, no trees uprooted by high winds. We did this to ourselves to flatten the curve, and we can undo it in good time and in a manner that won’t jeopardize our health.

La Resiliencia Depende De Sistemas Complejos Que Se Unen Para La Auto Reparación

So what does COVID-19 teach us about our living systems, especially in the tourism business? Specific to resilience, when we look at resilient systems, the question is how quickly can they self repair. When you think about a fire, how quickly does a forest regenerate. I remember visiting Yellowstone National Park after the great fires of 1988, and while the forest was a desert of charred dead trees all silver and black, the ground was greener than it had ever been and full of life. Not all the trees were burnt. Where small trees couldn’t find new light, now they had plenty of sun to grow big and strong.

I was in North Carolina after the devastation of Hurricane Hugo, and the morning after the storm, as we walked around surveying the damage, the sound of chainsaws cleaning up the damage was already echoing all over.

We know that living systems can self repair. They do take time and energy. They may not be exactly as they were before the devastating event, but they do bounce back.

Construir en Redundancia y "Ahorrar Para El Eía De Las Vacas Flacas" (Desastre)

How quickly a system bounces back is an important question to ask ourselves about the systems we are part of. How can we make them more resilient in the future? For example, in the case of the U.S. medical system’s capacity to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, we had to flatten the curve because we did not have enough respirators, hospital beds and hospital personnel to handle the volume of cases that was expected. What are the points of failure in the system and how can these points of failures be strengthened? What would happen if we had more ventilators, had more beds on reserve, could bring up a reserve of health care workers?

If we had to flatten the curve to reduce the impact on the healthcare system, where that line is on the graph might alter how much the economy really needs to be impacted. The healthcare system and the economy are individual systems, which are inextricably intertwined. So building in redundancy reserves and “dry powder” in one system reduces the impact in the other, impacting the entire system.

Planificación, Preparación y Despliegue Disciplinado

COVID-19 in particular is a shock to the human-to-human system. As we can see from Main Street and Wall Street, this crisis affects some businesses more than others. Businesses that rely on people coming together are particularly impacted by COVID-19, including events (sports, music, festivals, conferences), restaurants, bars, and especially travel. Who wants to board a plane full of people to breathe the same air when someone might be infected? Who wants to go to a hotel where they will be in close proximity or in the same room as someone with COVID-19?

This is where we need to take lessons from some countries in Asia that responded with aggressive testing and contact tracing. In this case, technology was used (and good old fashioned detective work in some cases) to limit the impact and allow for a more balanced approach rather than severely disrupting the economy through quarantining the population at home. Countries that had recent experience with other viruses (like SARS) had developed systems for rapid response.

COVID-19 teaches us that planning, preparation and disciplined deployment can make a huge difference in limiting the effect of a disaster on systems.

Flexibilidad, Reasignación, Creatividad y Pivote

When watching how we in the U.S. are responding to COVID-19, what has been most interesting are the “feel good stories” and how much we rely on good news to get us by. A common thread in many of these stories is how a factory that once manufactured X is now making Y, which is needed more when global production and trade are also impacted. Flexibility, creativity and responsiveness are also key lessons.

When considering our hotel on Mexico’s Pacific coast, Playa Viva stopped hosting guests as travel came to a halt for our international and domestic markets, but we kept our farm fully functional. The key was to maintain production in a manner that kept our workers safe and food production hygienic. While the hotel rooms were vacant, the chickens were still laying eggs, the pigs still needed slop, buds were coming out on the trees, and veggies still needed to be harvested. Having this related but tangential business allowed us to keep our staff employed and fed while we focus more energy on the farm, while other areas of our business can wait. By relocating resources, one system could be strengthened while the other sits “idle.”

While hindsight is 20/20, and it will be more so after the events of 2020, we can learn some quick lessons from COVID-19 that we can all hopefully apply to our endeavors.

Siga leyendo para ver el artículo completo en Viajes regenerativos sobre "Por qué regenerativo, por qué ahora: Cofundador David Leventhal sobre Ethos, Servicio y Lujo."

Debido a la crisis COVID-19, se estima que 9 de cada 10 niños en todo el mundo están actualmente sin escolarización.. For most students in the U.S., this means distance learning, with students studying online on tablets or laptops.

Here in Juluchuca, school is also out of session, but with little technology to support distance learning. It’s easy to wonder, what are these children doing all day?

Por Qué El Aprendizaje A Distancia Es Un Desafío Aquí

When Mexican quarantine measures were put into place on March 20, schools were notified five days prior that classes would be cancelled through the Easter holiday. Those measures have now been extended until April 30.

In Juluchuca, school closures included our four local schools—the kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and high school. The government’s advance notification gave teachers time to prepare printed homework packets for students to work on during the closure. Though some families in Juluchuca have wireless internet in their homes, few have more than a smartphone to work with, which makes any formal online learning programs virtually impossible.

Further up the watershed, there are three additional elementary schools, also without online learning. In communities like La Ceiba and Las Placitas, there is no phone service or wireless internet at all. For this reason, school leaders have resorted to printed homework packets for students to work on during the closure.

Cómo Los Niños Están Pasando Sus Días

Como todos sabemos, los niños sólo pueden sentarse y hacer sus deberes durante tanto tiempo. En Juluchuca, esto significa que una gran parte del día de cada niño se pasa afuera, ya sea jugando canicas en la calle o rebuscando en el reciclaje de materiales para construir una cometa casera. Otros niños están aprendiendo a montar en bicicleta o jugar loteria, a local card game, with their cousins. The teenagers can often be seen biking to our local beach to test their luck fishing in the lagoon or the ocean.

While many parents are trying to keep their children socially distanced, it’s proving challenging in a small, close-knit community like Juluchuca. This is a place where neighbors and families are used to spending a lot of time together.

For parents who are fortunate enough to still have jobs, their children are often seen tagging along as they head off to work. This is the reality for

Brayan and Luis, two brothers whose parents both work on a nearby mango plantation. All four of the family members pile onto the family motorbike to head to the huerto, o granja, cada mañana. Brayan, que está en sexto grado, ayuda con la cosecha y mantiene un ojo en Luis, que está en el 1er grado. Tanto Brayan como Luis están en nuestro Programa Adoptar un Estudiante,, an initiative Playa Viva started this past October to support students and their families who struggle to pay school inscription fees, afford school lunches and manage other associated expenses.

Another student, who is also in our Adopt a Student Program, Sara, is using this time to practice her reading and her English. Sara is 13 but only in the 5th grade since she didn’t attend school for several years. Thanks to generous donations from Playa Viva guests, we had several teen novels in Spanish to give to Sara to keep her occupied. Ariel, our education coordinator, often passes by Sara’s house and shouts his greetings.

Her response? A return yell full of the details about what’s going on in the books she’s reading! As for English, with our usual language classes cancelled, Sara didn’t want to forget what she had learned so far. By using the internet at her neighbor’s house, she was able to download an English language learning app on her small cellphone, full of games and activities to keep her mind active.

Más Tiempo En Familia: ¿Suena Familiar?

Para otros estudiantes, este capítulo de cierres escolares significa más tiempo en familia. Significa comidas más largas, juegos de cartas y tardes en la playa. Para las familias de la cuenca hidrográfica, significa que tienen a sus hijos alrededor para ayudar con las tareas del hogar como lavarse las manos, moler maíz para nixtamal to make fresh tortillas, and tending to their farm animals. For everyone, it means more hammock time.

With the recent Easter holiday, families still gathered to share a meal and give thanks for what they have. While families remain optimistic and are taking advantage of this time to spend together, the economic impact of this crisis is still causing stress for many residents.

For those school children enrolled in our Adopt a Student program, we are supporting their families with a monthly food basket since there are no longer school lunches. For those students who will be graduating this year and enrolled in the Adopt a Student Program, we are still able to cover the graduation fees thanks to so many generous sponsors in the program.

If you would like to learn more about our Adopt A Student Program, you can email Colleen at colleen@playaviva.com. During this difficult time there are many other residents in our community who would benefit greatly from a food basket, so we also are working to expand their distribution.

And if you would like to purchase a food basket for a family in need for $40 USD, please visit nuestra página de donación goFundMe haga su contribución. Al donar, Colleen le dará seguimiento a la información sobre la familia que está ayudando a apoyar. Gracias por sus esfuerzos y contribuciones hacia los estudiantes de Juluchuca y sus familias.

For anyone who has been to Juluchuca, it’s easy to tell that it’s a vibrant town for a community of just 500 residents. The morning rush is usually the busiest time of day, with parents shuffling their kids off to school and heading to work themselves. Then there’s always the midday lull when the sun is hottest before things pick back up in the evenings with youth soccer practices, English classes and adults running errands around town.

As has happened in towns and cities around the world, COVID-19 has upended daily routines and community interactions in Juluchuca. At first, many residents didn’t believe in the virus or take it seriously. With mosquito-borne illnesses such as dengue and chikungunya a relatively common occurrence around here, people saw COVID-19 as just another affliction to add to the list.

Yet over the past few weeks as the number of cases continued to rise globally, locals have begun to view COVID-19 more somberly as a potential threat to their community. And this is despite not having a single confirmed case in the nearby cities of Zihuatanejo or Petatlan, which speaks to the communication channels of our era. Mexico isn’t necessarily following the same path as the U.S., but there are parallels to be drawn.

THE REALITY RIGHT NOW FOR JULUCHUCA RESIDENTS

Today, our local stay-at-home measures are very similar to those in most of the U.S. In Juluchuca, the new government guidelines have forced all nonessential businesses to shut down, including the coconut candy factories and many of the roadside shops along the highway. Many of these shops sell local products such as artisanal salt (harvested just down the road) as well as local honey, coffee, and homemade tamarind and sesame sweets. With less traffic on the highway, there are fewer potential customers.

While there is not much enforcement of the quarantine measures in small towns like Juluchuca, the community is taking the guidelines seriously by generally following the recommended precautions. Local schools and universities are all out of session. Our local beach, Playa Icacos is closed, with a few exceptions made for those who need to fish or those who do exercise on the beach. A few local dinner restaurants are also still open, with most of the customers opting for takeout. Tourism, both international and local, has come to a complete halt, affecting the livelihoods of many. This includes our beloved Johnny, who recently started his new tourism business, Johnny Adventures, and the Gutierrez family who received income from Playa Viva tourists who would visit their cacao and coffee farm.

How You Can Help Feed Families

With no unemployment insurance, families facing job insecurity are struggling to get by during this hard time. A number of previous Playa Viva guests recently reached out asking, “How can we help people during this crisis?” Our response: Sponsor a dispensa (food basket) for a family in need. With your $40 USD donation, we can order these dispensas from the local grocery store and supplement them from our permaculture farm. Colleen, our social impact manager, will work with the mayor of Juluchuca to make sure these get to the families who need them most. Colleen will also make sure you get a photo of the family who received the dispensa.

These food baskets include nonperishable items, such as rice, beans, milk, sugar, coffee, cereal and cooking oil. There is enough of each item in the basket to feed a family of four for one month. And with the addition of products coming off our permaculture farm, such as eggs, fresh greens, tomatoes, and eggplant, we will bolster the dispensas for these times.

In fact, the first of these baskets were distributed last week. They only included some of the farm products heading into the community, but we were able to introduce residents to new types of greens, such as arugula and kale. People here are eager to try new immune-boosting foods while also adding color and flavor to their regular diet.

Resiliency Remains Evident

It is in these small, now socially distanced interactions, like distributing the dispensas, that we feel most like a community. While we may not be bumping into each other on our morning commute, we are still saying hello from afar, checking in with our neighbors to see how they are doing, and sharing the harvests that we are especially grateful to have at this time. Like many communities grappling with changes due to COVID-19, Juluchuca is not so different. People are losing their jobs and losing income while prices of basic goods are going up.

At the same time, however, we know our community is resilient. Residents remain optimistic at this time. They have been through hurricanes, earthquakes, and financial and political crises before this. People here come together to support those who need it most. Residents are out harvesting mangoes and coconuts, and fishing on our local beach. Our mayor is already applying for government funding for dispensas for residents who lost their jobs. But we are not sure when this government support will arrive. Another uncertainty added to the list.

In the meantime, if you would like to be part of this movement to lend a helping hand, residents of Juluchuca and our other impact communities up the watershed would be incredibly grateful. To sponsor a food basket, please make a donation via our GoFundMe page for feeding Juluchuca’s families during COVID-19.

Together we can fill the gap until government assistance hopefully arrives. Let’s keep our communities strong, resilient and optimistic during these challenging times.

Juluchuca es el hogar de uno de los únicos programas de reciclaje en la Costa Grande.   

¿Por qué es así? Primero, como con varios servicios que muchos residentes de las ciudades modernas toman por sentado; la realidad de una pequeña comunidad en las zonas rurales de México es que los residentes locales deben unirse para organizar servicios para sí mismos que podrían brindarse en cualquier otra parte. Segundo, Juluchuca tiene este programa de reciclaje gracias al trabajo insaciable de los miembros de su comunidad. 

Nuestro proyecto, llamado Juluchuca Limpio fue desarrollado en conjunto con Ernesto “Pato” León Sandoval, un defensor del medio ambiente en la Costa Grande que reside en Troncones, un pequeño pueblo de surf a aproximadamente 1,5 horas de Juluchuca. La meta no es solo limpiar y recoger los desechos del área; también se busca generar consciencia sobre los desechos que se generan y como se puede reducir el impacto sobre el medio ambiente. Llegando al 2020, Juluchuca Limpio está prosperando!

“Hay mucha menos basura en las calles,”

En el último año hemos:

• Reciclado más de 675 kilos (1400 lbs) de botellas de plástico de nuestras comunidades de impacto.
• Desarrollado 12 talleres ambientales, 
• Organizado más de 40 limpiezas de basura en playas y comunidades; 

 También hemos organizado en conjunto, varias liberaciones de tortugas y limpiezas de playas que terminaron con una visita a Playa Viva. Un componente clave de Juluchuca Limpio es también la creación de arte — utilizando materiales 

usando materiales reciclados para hacer letreros que ... crean conciencia sobre la basura y el reciclaje. 

Actualmente hay más de 20 contenedores para el reciclaje de botellas de plástico en Juluchuca, Rancho Nuevo y La Ceiba. Los residentes las utilizan de manera regular, y entre 1 y 2 semanas las llenan hasta el borde superior. Adriana Palacios es nuestra líder local del proyecto. Ella y su familia se dedican a vaciar los contenedores y a almacenar las botellas hasta que hay una cantidad suficiente para ser vendida a una planta de reciclaje. Ella y su familia, cuentan con el apoyo de otros tres miembros de la comunidad, Cándido, Lázaro y Tomás, que trabajan en Playa Viva a través del Programa de Gobierno de Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro. Ellos también ayudan vaciando contenedores, limpiando el pueblo y asegurando la venta del plástico. the Jovenes Construyendo el Futuro Government Program. They assist Adriana and her family with emptying the bins, cleaning up the town, and making sure the plastic gets sold.  

El ingreso de la venta del plástico es reinvertido en el proyecto, varias veces incluso, es utilizando para la compra de materiales de construcción de los contenedores, y pintura para los letreros. Cada 3 meses se logra un ingreso aproximado de 40 USD de la venta del plástico. Los demás gastos operacionales de Juluchuca Limpio se cubren gracias a la ayuda de generosos donantes de la comunidad de Playa Viva. 

Otro componente importante de Juluchuca Limpio es la vinculación de la comunidad joven, buscando así inspirar una nueva generación de defensores del medio ambiente. En el 2020 planeamos continuar con el objetivo de Juluchuca Limpio de reducir el desperdicio de plástico a través del reciclaje mientras se enfatiza en la importancia de reducir el consumo de plástico de un solo uso. Lorenzo (Coordinador de Voluntarios del Santuario de la tortuga) y Ariel (Coordinador de Voluntarios de Educación y Comunidad) están trabajando en las escuelas para enseñar "las tres R": reducir, reutilizar y luego reciclar. Cada grupo escolar llega a Playa Viva para visitar la granja, el santuario de tortugas y ver las instalaciones del hotel. En este sentido, Juluchuca Limpio comienza involucrando a los estudiantes con la importancia de la limpieza en las comunidades, para luego progresivamente basarse en esa idea para mostrar cómo las comunidades limpias están conectadas con lograr cuerpos saludables, ecosistemas saludables y un planeta saludable.

En el último año, los residentes de Juluchuca y Rancho Nuevo han tomado nota de los avances y resultados del programa. "Hay mucha menos basura en las calles," dice Eli, la jefa de limpieza en Playa Viva que vive en Rancho Nuevo. Su hija participa en limpiezas semanales de basura en su ciudad con Ariel y los otros niños de la comunidad.     

Con Juluchuca Limpio, hemos observado que el progreso a veces es lento y no-lineal, pero con el apoyo de varios grupos locales, estamos empezando a ver un cambio de mentalidad y acciones en nuestras comunidades. 

Colleen Fugate es Gerente de Impacto Social y Ambiental en Playa Viva. Ella vive en Juluchuca. Aprenda más sobre su trabajo involucrando a nuestras comunidades locales a través de nuestros programas de impacto social.