Welcome to Fruit Haven!

This page contains useful information such as how we communicate, how to get food (and fruit! of course) how to use the kitchen, bathroom, shower, safety information and more below. Please read it all….

Join us on telegram! We use it for group communication and community discussions, intercommunity, events, meetings, gatherings etc.
Click the linked groups here to join them:

  • Fruit Haven Ecovillage group: here
  • Gualaquiza Permaculture Communities group: here
  • Other related public groups: Vegan Ecovillages  and  Raw Vegans + Fruitarians
  • For awareness check out the document Dangerous Insects and Reptiles: Poisonous things that can hurt you
  • Emergency phone number is 911 – works even without having a balance on your sim – best service is on claro sim card
  • WiFi (hours depending on community or private lot) get password from the owner/manager of your property (if available)

Permaculture:

Getting food

  • Please respect all fruit trees that are not on public spaces including community areas and private lots. Do not harvest any fruit without permission from the owners or community leaders.
  • Generally, communal fruit is shared fairly among their respective community property residents, members, volunteers as well as guests, owners and neighbors if there’s enough to share equally. For anyone staying at FH1 see FH1 welcome page
  • Private lots selling fruit, check the telegram groups above for buy and sell or food topic.
  • Weekly food order and markets nearby:
    1. Chuchumbleza – dock (bridge) market on Friday morning – the village shops usually open every day, morning to night
    2. Gualaquiza – market day on Saturday – shops and market are open every day, morning to night
    3. El Pangui – market day Sunday – shops and market are als open every day, morning to night

Kitchen

  • There are communal kitchens or priate lots (rules and guidelines up to the owners of each kitchen)
  • Leave the space clean after use
  • Dry dishes with a towel and put away immediately (please do not leave them on the drying rack)
  • Water comes from the stream (different at each community/private lot), sediment filter for dish washing, 10 micron filter and 1 micron ceramic charcoal filter for drinking (fill the water from the 10 micron filter).
  • Note: Bear with us and remain patient when there’s outages, heavy rain can clog up the intake and there can also be temporary outages during system maintenance/cleaning (we are working on improving this).
  • Please label your food or it will be considered communal food (see sharing shelf) otherwise abandoned food will be composted and for anyone leaving rotting food will be fined (see security deposit policy).
  • Compost bins for fruit/veg scraps, paper/cardboard and anything organic, please take it to appropriate location and do not scatter around the community area to avoid attracting wild life which can be dangerous (mice and rats which then attract snakes)
  • Plastic trash bin for anything non-compostable (wrap any glass/metal that is sharp with something), ideally taken out to the bridge trash bins
  • For incense or other smoke or burning in community areas, please check if everyone agrees to it before doing it.
  • Quiet hours between 10pm to 8am, be considerate of people around – ask first

 Common Area

  • Please respect and keep common areas like the hallways and seating areas clean

First aid kits

  • Check the stock in each community and report to managers or in the telegram group if there’s shortage of anything.
  • Snake bites – go to Gualaquiza hospital (See pictures of dangers here) – call taxi, they are fast to arrive at the bridge and ask them to go to Gualaquiza hospital
  • For other injuries El Pangui hospital ($5 taxi from the bridge, ask driver to go directly there)
  • Emergency phone number is 911 – works even without having a balance on your sim – best service is on claro sim card

Library

  • Books  – please write down what on the checkout page what you’d like to borrow and return in a timly manner.
  • Please care and respect books and instruments (for lost or ruined books please purchase or provide the cost + shipping to replace them see security deposit policy).

Bathroom

  • Using the dry toilet, add a little sprinkle of charcoal (if available) and 3 scoops/handfuls of wood shavings to the bucket after use.
  • Butt spray/bidet with flush toilet or the dry bucket, reduce toilet paper use.
  • Peeing in the bucket is fine, around fruit trees is encouraged (drip line, not trunk)
  • Please clean up after yourself, leave everything better than you found it.

Shower, Pool and waterfall

  • Shower – to use hot water heater: turn water on, turn switch to the right
  • Nudity is permitted at waterfall  – with respect to locals (be aware of public path/workers since they can be sensitive to nudity if they come from religious background see our bylaws)

Laundry

  • There are laundry mats at nearby cities like El Pangui and Gualaquiza that can use your own soap if you ask them and bring it with you.
    Useful pages: