A Nomadic Communities Immersion Season
The founding season of a new conscious community on 200 hectares of tropical forest in the volcanic foothills of Chicacao, Guatemala — south of Lake Atitlán.
November 15, 2026 – February 15, 2027 · Arrive any time
Formerly known as Tierra Fresca
The story of the land
For years, people have circled this land, sensing what it could become. Two hundred hectares on the southern slopes below the Atitlán volcanoes — home to some of Guatemala's last standing tropical forest, endangered monkeys who still move through its canopy, waterfalls that pour off the mountain, and springs that feed fresh water to the valley below. A vision gathered many hearts around this place, waiting for the right moment of birth.
That moment nearly didn't come. When the land went up for sale, it was days away from becoming cattle pasture — the forest cleared, the watershed lost. With almost no time to decide, its current steward stepped forward and said yes.
Now the real work begins. A new team is forming on the land, with Nomadic Communities bringing a decade of community-building practice alongside. This is the first season of what this land is becoming: a place of protection, stewardship, and conscious community.
Those who join this year aren't visiting something finished. They're helping birth it.
See the land
"What would it feel like to belong somewhere?"
This November, for the first time, Nomadic Communities comes to Finca Arabia. There has never been a season on this land before — and we make no promises about what comes after. What exists is this one: this land, this winter, this gathering of people.
For three months, Finca Arabia opens for a season of intentional community — mornings of movement and practice, hands in the earth, shared meals, honest conversation, and the slow, real work of becoming people who can live well together.
This is not a retreat you attend. It's a life you step into, for as long as you're able to stay — and a container that supports you exactly where you are, whether this season asks you to build, to learn, or simply to rest and receive.
Why people come
When you're ready to create something new in your life — to let go of something, to realign yourself with where you truly want to go — one of the most powerful things you can do is place yourself in a space built to nurture that intention.
This is that space. Some arrive in a transition. Some simply need a break. Some come for a spiritual recharge, and some just know it's time. Whatever brings you, the elements of this life work on you quietly: days lived in the forest, a daily practice, nourishing food, cold clean water, honest company. Together they become a deep cleanse — spiritual, physical, emotional.
A place to rest, recharge, realign, and re-inspire yourself.
Not through effort, but through environment. The space does the work; you simply live in it.
Leave your email and we'll keep you close to the season as it unfolds.
Simple living, real comfort
Finca Arabia is rustic by intention. This is simple living in connection with the earth — permaculture values, living off the land, and a life where community matters more than convenience. We live by permaculture systems here, from the gardens that feed us down to the composting toilets that return everything to the soil.
We say this plainly: if you measure comfort the traditional way — climate control, room service, polished surfaces — this season isn't built for you. But there is another kind of comfort here: a body tired from good work, meals grown close to where they're eaten, cold river water on a hot afternoon, and the deep ease of being truly known by the people around your table. It can be comfortable. It will be. Just not in the way a hotel means it.
And because this is the founding season, you'll find us mid-renovation — the whole space is being remodeled and brought to life over these months. Those who come now aren't stepping into something finished. They're helping shape it — and they'll be able to say they were here when it began.
The basics, held in common
Every Nomadic Communities space is built on the same foundation. When the basics are held in common, something opens: everything beyond them becomes intentional. What we build past survival, we build on purpose — together.
Everything beyond WAFFLES is desire: beautiful and welcome, never enforced. Participation here is always by inspiration, never coercion.
The foundation
Healthy community doesn't happen by accident — it's held by rhythm. These are the five foundational rhythms of every Nomadic Communities container, drawn from a decade of living them and explored fully in the book The Rhythms That Root Us.
Two community meetings each week: one logistical, where we coordinate the practical life of the place, and one feeling-based, where we tend the relational life beneath it. Communication is the nutrient cycle of collective life.
Communication in its oldest form. Three times a day, the table gathers us. The kitchen is the heart of the village.
Everyone is encouraged to keep a centering practice — in the shared morning session, or in your own way: river walks, meditation, journaling, quiet time. Consistency matters more than style. Whatever returns you to yourself.
Where the season gets rich. Everyone is invited to bring their passion and gifts to the space. Offerings bloom from overflow, never obligation.
Every arrival is a prayer, and your mere presence is worth gratitude. You don't earn your welcome here by what you produce or perform — you are received simply for arriving. The first day in a new place determines whether a nervous system anchors in openness or defense, so we welcome one another well, every time.
Communal offerings
No two seasons carry the same offerings, because no two gatherings of people do. Among the organizers and those gathered you'll find deep skill across many worlds.
A day in the season
Every day is different, and no schedule survives contact with real community life — this is a sample day, not a fixed timetable.
All times are Guatemala time (UTC−6, no daylight saving).
How you fill the rhythm is yours. One person spends a month going deep — personal practice at dawn, three workshops a day, every gathering. Another spends her mornings working and learning on the land — permaculture, plants, building — takes one afternoon workshop, and spends the other at the river, journaling her own transformation. A third participates in almost nothing beyond the table and the meetings — reading, resting, letting the forest do its slow work, waiting for the moment that feels in alignment. All three are living the season fully.
Meals. Three vegetarian meals a day are shared in community and included in every way of joining. Participants are welcome to shop for and add anything their own diet needs.
Arrival. The season runs November 15 – February 15, and you may arrive at any point within it. We encourage arriving on the 15th of a month — November 15 or December 15 especially — so you enter alongside others beginning their stay.
Who holds this season
Every Nomadic Communities season is carried by a core team — roughly seven people who hold the container for the entire three months. While participants come and go, the team stays, holding the pillars of the container:
All the fundamentals are covered so that you can arrive and simply be held in your time of regeneration.
This season's team is anchored by Ticon Storay, founder of Nomadic Communities and author of The Rhythms That Root Us, and Krista Critchley, Co-Director of Nomadic Communities — alongside a devoted core team carrying years of lived community experience, from Costa Rica to Guatemala.
Want to meet us before deciding anything? Join Seed of Life, our free weekly online gathering — real people, real conversation, no introduction needed.
Three ways to join the founding season
A tree grows from its nodes. Branches extend from them. Leaves arrive, catch the light, and let go. The difference is depth and duration.
Everyone in the season shares the rhythms that make the community: meetings, meals, participation in the kitchen, and our weekly mop day — a few hours together caring for the spaces we share. Beyond these, everything is invitation. How much you take part is yours to choose, in your timing, from your own alignment.
the founding crew
For those who want to weave into the working life of the land. Nodes offer around 20 hours of general support each week — nonspecific and varied, whatever the season asks: gardens, grounds, gatherings, the daily needs of a community being born.
$500 / month suggested contribution, alongside weekly support
A small number of full work-trade places exist for specific dedicated roles — kitchen, building crew — by application and conversation.
Join as a Nodea month or more
A month is where community stops being something you experience and starts being something that changes you — where the rhythms get into your body and the mask you brought can finally come off. Twenty or more movement sessions. Dozens of workshops. Ninety shared meals. Space to process, imagine, and crystallize your pathway. We struggle to imagine a greater gift a person could give themselves.
$1,000 / month shared space · suggested contribution
$1,500 / month private cabin · suggested contribution
a week or more
For those visiting for a shorter while — one week minimum — to taste the life of the season and discern what's calling them.
$400 / week shared cabin · suggested contribution
$600 / week private cabin · suggested contribution
We never want the suggested contribution to be the reason someone called to this season cannot come.
Scholarship places exist in every way of joining — reach out and apply.
Who this season is for
This season is not about everyone participating in everything. The meals and the meetings are what make the community — beyond those shared rhythms, everything is invitation, never expectation. Fill your days with workshops and work on the land, or participate in almost nothing: read, rest, work on yourself, spend whole days by the river waiting for what feels in alignment with your highest. Both are honored here. Your presence is enough.
Many people are waking up right now with the longing to create community — some already carry a vision, a project, even an organization of their own. To them we offer a permaculture truth: before you tend any land, you tend zone zero — yourself.
This season is that tending. A container to root yourself energetically, spiritually, and physically before (or while) you build — and to gather what no plan can give you: lived experience of community from the inside, real bonds with others walking the same path, and the learnings that will shape what you're called to create. If you aspire to build community in a regenerative and transformational way, the first step is here.
Questions people ask
Yes. Many who join are digital creators and entrepreneurs, and the container is genuinely good for them — grounded days, clear rhythm, and space and time to work on your projects. Bring your work; the season will hold it. Ask us about connectivity on your call.
Composting toilets — we're a permaculture site, and everything returns to the soil. Simple, clean, and well cared for.
Fly into Guatemala City (GUA). We help facilitate transportation from the airport to the land, and full travel guidance is shared once your stay is confirmed.
November through February is the dry season — warm days, cooler nights in the foothills, and the forest at its most alive.
No. And if you'd like to learn, Spanish is one of the season's offerings — including the Spanish of emotions.
A full guide is shared once your stay is confirmed. The short version: simple clothes you can move and work in, a headlamp, and an open heart.
Glimpses of the land
How to begin
Joining the season begins with a conversation. Share a bit about yourself and what's drawing you, and we'll discern the right fit together — for you and for the community. No pressure, no obligation.
Not ready yet? Leave your email and we'll keep you close to the season as it unfolds.
Leave your emailSchedule a call. We'll listen to what's drawing you and discern the right fit together.
Schedule your callAlready sure? Choose your way of joining and step into the season.
Join the seasonNovember 15, 2026 – February 15, 2027 · Finca Arabia, Chicacao, Guatemala
Begin the conversationLeave your email and we'll keep you close to the season as it unfolds.