Takalik Maya Lodge

As a result, there were many negative impacts on the land in this region. These low altitude coffee plantations began environmentally unfriendly practices, or were adversely converted into cattle pastures. These events also proved disastrous to the people whose livelihoods depended on the coffee plantations; thus leading to an increase in poverty, immigration to the United States and migration to bigger cities. Inevitably, the community began searching for alternative processes, and they decided to introduce new options to the plantation farmers, including the cultivation of macadamia nuts and rubber trees. They also worked toward the formation of an ecotourism company.

One of the main goals of the Tak'alik Maya Lodge project is to improve the quality of life for the families that live off the farm and the surrounding communities. The idea for Tak'alik Mayan Lodge emerged as a means for utilizing the potential of the natural and cultural resources of the area. In addition, one of the main goals of the Tak'alik Mayan Lodge project is to improve the quality of life for the families that live off the farm and the surrounding communities.

In 2003, the process of strengthening the community began, assigning functions to the community´s pro-improvement committee. By their own initiative, the community formed work commissions in different areas. Presently, twenty-two families, which are organized into the Communal Development Counsel (COCODE), have representation in the Municipal Counsel in the departmental government of Retalhuleu. Since the beginning of 2004, the counsel has been co-owner of one of the sections of the farm and consolidated as the community of San Antonio Canton Barrios, the community of former coffee plant workers.

This is pioneer project in Guatemala, unique because a private sector has collaborated with a local community in the tourism industry.The idea for Tak'alik Maya Lodge emerged as a means for utilizing the potential of the natural and cultural resources of the area.

Tak'alik Maya Lodge is a private enterprise that emerged from the proposition to diversify the agricultural production for the company AGRECO S.A.This is pioneer project in Guatemala, unique because a private sector has collaborated with a local community in the tourism industry. The surrounding coastal area of Retalhuleu had been primarily a coffee producing region from the first half of the twentieth century. Historically, coffee production was the economic center of the region and had established an important influence over the culture of the agricultural population that lived off the coffee. In the 1990s, the international price of coffee fell, negatively affecting the economy of this region. The saturation of the low altitude coffee market signified, for a country like Guatemala, the inevitable fall of the prices of coffee cultivated at an altitude less than 1500 meters above sea level.