The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia

Permaculture has put me on a journey that is still unfolding today.

Even now, ten years after my Permaculture course and hundreds of projects later I still learn new things every day, there is always more decisions to take and errors to make, and its never boring.

On the year 2002 I took a Permaculture design course with Gur Rotem in Nir Moshe, Israel. At the time I had very little experience with Gardening or anything related to agriculture. I was so fascinated with it, that I have decided to stay, I put up a Tipi tent that I made and through myself into the waters of Permaculture living.

In this time we have tried to put into practice what was described in the literature, what we thought that might work and made infinite mistakes.

The farm was for the most part a bare wheat field when I got there, and took part in the establishment of most basic systems, like wind power, Gray water treatment systems, Gardens, Composting toilet, Cooperative store, Earthen structures from straw-bale, cob or “wattle and daub” techniques, participating in several permaculture courses that took place there and even teaching some modules within courses. The place grow to be a fascinating school for Permaculture experiments that is still alive today.

At that time I felt like more professional guidance was needed to go further and went to learn with John Jeavons the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method from first hand. Johns system gave me a lot of grounding and answers about how to grow food, not so much experimenting and getting more results.

My encounter with alternative movement in California inspired me very much, OAEC with Brock Dolman, the Bioneers conference with all the influential talks and encounters, and the life changing meeting of Melina, that is today my wife and mother of two kids, through my studies in Ecology Action.

My fascination with Permaculture only grew deeper and the magnificent opportunity to travel with the `Sustainable Solutions Caravan` through central America, with Stephen Brooks, Zack Zaidman and others exposed me to a whole new horizon of Permaculture design, lifestyles and possibilities.

Our last destination – Punta Mona farm, was a love at first site, and most of my learning of large-scale design and management, tropical agriculture and living off the grid happened there, through the time spent with Stephen Brooks, Padi Blass Martinez, Bruce Hill and my wife to be – Melina Hurtado.

In most of these projects I throw myself into the water, digging Chinampa systems or in later projects, like the design of the productive landscape of `La Aldea` in Medellin, Colombia.

I feel like the most intense learning experience that I had took place in the two years that I have worked for `Kopali Communities`, being the biggest and most involved project that I have ever took on up to day, and where infinite mistakes took place, and therefore so much learning and growth.

On the year 2008 My family and I moved to the spiritual community Pachamama where we lived and worked for a year on the establishment of productive systems, we set up a composting operation to divert the massive amounts of kitchen scraps to organic compost, we started a vegetable garden, planted food forests and field crops, along with educational activity to the community and personal growth by our involvment in the community spiritual quest.

While in Pachamama I established “Symbiosis Eco Design”, an independent consultancy company, where I was consulting and conducting different projects all over Costa Rica, of different scales, from peoples back yards, through productive landscaping, leading Permaculture courses and workshops, and up to the creation of a master plan for an ecovillage (Sat Yoga Ashram).

Today we live in a small Ecovillage called Fuente Verde where we grow our children, Nevo and Alma, grow fruits and roots, nuts and vegetables and grains and animals.
We provide Permaculture design services and system establishment on all scales.
to see our work visit our website:
www.symbiosis-eco-design.com