Our second stop was Teopantli Kalpulli, a beautiful and historical ecovillage in Jalisco, Mexico. On 70 acres of land, 150 community members live. The village bases most of their practices on Nahuatl and Huichol traditions of natural building and sacred practice. The heart of the land and place of prayer is the sacred Ceiba tree planted on top of an original kiva. The first Huichol sacred seed storage space that was built outside of a Huichol community exists on this land today and is used for storing musical instruments and sacred corn seeds.

The children of the village go to school in the community schoolhouse and each adult takes a turn teaching to share the responsibilities. Their gardens grow native plants like white sapote, corn, guava and amaranth and chile. The area of Jalisco, Guadalajara has been a market-place for Obsidian trade between North and South America since time immemorial. Obsidian was everywhere in the village beneath our feet. A member of Teopantli Kalpulli event built an Obsidian shining and polishing workshop, which sustains him financially.

Teopantli Kalpulli is looking for hands to help renovate a beautiful lime plaster structure into a youth hostel, build a community garden and renovate their schoolhouse. We were honored to be welcomed into the community for a one-day tour and left with delicious honey, yogurt and cookies from their food co-op. We invite you to contact Levi for more information about visiting or volunteering at Tepantli Kalpulli-levisrios@hotmail.com