Buga Mama

General Information

Restaurant Name: Buga Mama
Location/Address: Livingston, Guatemala

Contact Information:

Barra Lampara, Río Dulce, Izabal, Guatemala
Tel/fax: 502-5908-3392, 502-5908-4358, or 502-5303-9428
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.aktenamit.org
Price Range: 25-200Q

Types of Payment Accepted:

Visa x
Master Card x
American Express x
Travelers’ Checks x
Cash Only x

Description

Located right on the water in a beautiful, colonial-style wooden building, Buga Mama offers breathtaking views of the river, delicious and eclectic food, and the chance to contribute to a very worthy cause. All the workers at Buga Mama are students at a local, community-run eco-tourism school, and by eating at the restaurant you are directly contributing to the Ak’Tenamit organization. They also have wireless internet, a real espresso machine, a wonderful fair trade handicrafts store, and some of the best food in town.

Type of Food : Local specialties, seafood, Thai food, fresh pastas
Is there a bar? Yes
Entertainment (Is there live music or events? Please give details): There is sometimes live music and the staff is happy to arrange a concert for large groups with advance notice.
Is there a take away service? Yes

Sustainability:

Buga Mama Restaurant is run by the Ak’Tenamit community organization, and students from the Ak’Tenamit professional school work at the restaurant as part of their training. Ak’ Tenamit belongs to the villagers it serves, who must donate four days of labor per family per year, mostly for construction brigades, maintenance, and kitchen help. Villages that fulfill this requirement can elect one man and one woman to represent them at annual General Assemblies, when they elect Ak’ Tenamit’s Board of Directors from a list of village representatives, staff, and students – the statutes require that the board be 100% indigenous, half male and half female. The Board hires and oversees an operations (site) manager, an administrative (financial) manager, and various program managers, who are assisted by international volunteers.

In conjunction with the Guatemala’s parks department – CONAP – Ak’ Tenamit has run campaigns to discourage hunting and deforestation in the area. The project’s education program has also produced a “Teacher's Guide for Environmental Education” that was approved by Guatemala's Ministry of Education and is being used in our region’s schools. All students learn about the importance of the environment and the need to use natural resources wisely, and they share that information with their parents and neighbors. Just as important is the fact that the project’s income generation program has helped groups of men and women to set up artisan cooperatives that make handicrafts from corn husks, palm seeds and other renewable materials, and has helped one community open a small ecolodge, all of which provides sustainable economic alternatives to cutting the forest and hunting.

Ak’ Tenamit has helped two villages start a community lodge, which travelers visit as part of a hiking tour led by local guides. The lodge and guiding fees provide needed income for those villages and motivate people to protect the forests and wildlife that are part of the attraction for visitors. Ak’ Tenamit’s sustainable tourism program is preparing Q’eqchi students to launch similar businesses in their communities, which will increase family incomes while decreasing dependency on slash and burn agriculture, hunting and logging.