Garden maintenance in Bocas del toro, Panama

The experience

The day begins at 8:00 AM in the yurt, where the farm manager and volunteers meet to discuss the relationship between communal spaces, activities, and daily farm operations. Typical tasks during the dry season include watering plants across the property, gathering cut plant material for the shredding pile, and placing wooden debris in the burning pile, which is processed once it accumulates sufficiently.

What you offer

25 hours of help per week

Cleaning: Help clean the kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms and common areas.

Building & Repairing: Help with a wide range of repairs or building.

Farming: Plant crops, sow seeds and help in outside tasks.

Gardening: Help grow plants and cultivate gardens

What you get

2 days off per week

Private Room: You will have a bed in a private room. In other words, a room just for you.

Shared Dorm: You will have a bed in a shared room, which means you will share the same room with other travelers.

Discounts on Restaurants: Get discounts at nearby restaurants.

Free Laundry: You can use our laundry room freely.

Use our equipped kitchen: Feel free to use our kitchen and make your own delicious food.

Basic Internet Access: Basic speed internet for you to work remotely

Requirements

Beginner English or Beginner Spanish

Between 18 and 60 years old

Welcomes solo volunteers, couples, and partners of volunteers

What's not included

Flights, Travel Insurance, Internal Transportation and Visa

Program Details

Volunteers work five days a week in five-hour shifts, from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Accommodation includes private rooms or shared spaces in yurts with friends, couples, or fellow volunteers. Communal areas include the kitchen, bathroom, and shower.

Staple foods, provided by the owners, include rice, sugar, salt, oil, beans, lentils, pasta, chickpeas, flour and fresh farm produce like maracujas, coconuts, bananas, papayas, lemons, and various edible leaves. Volunteers source any additional food they prefer from local markets or stores.

Each volunteer receives one free load of laundry per week, completed by Monique on their first day off work.

Activities & Shift

Every morning at 8:00 AM, the farm manager meets with volunteers to discuss their experiences, recycling efforts (with seven sorting buckets), and the tasks for the day.

During the dry season, the first task is typically watering plants in different sections of the property. Key group activities include shredding day, where green plant debris such as palm fronds, banana leaves, and branches are processed into mulch to nourish the plants.

Another regular task is cleaning the chicken coop, which is done a couple of times a month to maintain the health and wellbeing of the chickens on-site. Additionally, burning days involve disposing of cardboard, thick wood, and dry palm branches in a controlled burn, handled by one or two people depending on the pile size.

These are just a few examples of the collective activities that keep the farm running smoothly.

Rules

There are many little rules to comply with while living in shared space that you will learn after coming here, but the most important aside from always clean after yourself, is one is about the dogs.
There are 7 dogs on the farm. 2 sleep at the yurt and 5 sleep in the main house. 2 are very protective and not so friendly to newcomers. These 2 are taken for walks twice/day early morning around 6:30 to 7:30and and late afternoon around 5pm to 6pm these outings are announced on our WhatsApp group and we ask that during that time you do not walk around the farm. Stay inside in the yurt, including outside area of yurt, and you can always enter and exit the property through the door to the road.