All around the world our sacred forests and jungles are being devastated. Due to the innate biodiversity of a mature rain forest, once it is gone it is irreplaceable - its flora, fauna and who knows how many unlocked secrets and cures are at risk of being lost to us. Yet, when we are clear about our intentions, fate sometimes steps in and deals us a new hand. What would you do if you found yourself suddenly gifted 1500 acres (600 hectares) of untouched land deep in the Peruvian rain forest? We found ourselves in exactly this situation.
Canto Luz ( Spanish Canto - song, Luz - light) is a tree house retreat center devoted to self-healing, environmentalism, supporting traditional plant medicine practices (eg. Ayahuasca), eco-tourism and sustainable living. Dreamed into life by Mariya Garnet and Sara Mason, their passion for conservation and transformational healing united them in preserving 1500 acres of Peruvian Amazon through shamanic practices of the jungle. Canto Luz's goal is to protect and celebrate the jungle as well as to spread the message and tools of conservation to the community beyond.
Canto Luz is a collective of people united by similar goals and dreams. We are reaching out to like minds and hearts to connect in our healing capacity TOGETHER. We are building our life among the trees of the Amazon and welcome all visitor as family. The Jungle is our host. We invite you into our dream and welcome your input! Your support in our development is crucial. We express gratitude to you and Pachamama by ensuring that sustainable practices are employed on this land, our connections with you are maintained through regular vivid updates and that Canto Luz's services will be openly accessible for your long or short term, thoughtfully designed adventures.
![prelimenary design]( "common house")
Canto Luz will offer unique sustainable tree house lodging, uniting everyone with nature. A bird's eye view! We anticipate this immersion will inspire others to adopt more sustainable and conscious-living practices as well as to resonate with the knowledge and culture of the people populating this delicate region.
Canto Luz will offer a chance to grow the rain forest rather than seeing it destroyed. With conservation at heart, we extend personal healing and responsibility to the planetary level by protecting 1500 acres of land from illegal logging, mining and hunting. We are currently working with 2 bio-researchers whose aim is to better understand the inner workings of primary rainforest. Together we are developing various programs for re-integration of endangered species into their natural habitat. As a way to preserve the traditional knowledge of this outstanding jungle library we are working to offer exchange programs between herbalists of the Western world with indigenous Amazonian curanderos (shamans).
![Mariya Garnet]( "Mariya Garnet")
Mariya Garnet is the Founder and Director of Canto Luz. She was born in Russia and her voyage into the world of healing shamanism started in Siberia, continued in North America and, through India, led her to South America - first Brazil and then Peru, where she presently lives.
Mariya has been apprenticing on the plant-spirit shamanism path since 2007 and leads her ceremonies in various countries. Mariya's work in Sacred Healing circles has helped hundreds of people. You can read some of the testimonials about her work here.
![Sara Mason]( "Sara Mason")
Sara Mason has been practicing various healing modalities be they via music, drama, dance, yoga, meditation or energetic therapies (Reiki). She can often be found being silly, exalting in her yoga practice or bowing to various teachers of the Plant Kingdom. Sara is an IET Master Instructor as well as a RYT (regestered yoga teacher). She is interested in traditional multicultural end of life rituals and experiences. Sara arrived from Canada to join the project in September 2012. She is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Canto Luz.
![Reyna]( "our curandera")
Reyna Luz Edery Flores is the main curandera (shaman) working in Canto Luz and is an integral part of the project.
Reyna has been working with ayahuasca and other medicinal plants for the last 25 years.
Her strong leadership of the ceremony has a feeling of being embraced by Mother. Reyna is famous for her beautiful icaros and gentle, loving energy.
You can hear her beautiful singing HERE
![Ayahuasca inspired textile]( "Shipibo textile")
Translating from the Quechua language, Ayahuasca means "vine of the soul" or " vine of the dead". The tradition of drinking Ayahuasca is native to countries of the low-land Amazon, such as Peru. Many patrons of Ayahuasca proclaim the spiritual and emotional healing effects of Ayahuasca surpass conventional modalities and a deeper environmental sensitivity develops. We are all interconnected and function as part of one living and breathing eco-system.
Heal the Earth by healing Yourself!
How serious are we?
We have personally invested $30,000 to propel the first part of the vision but this dream is tremendous! Our investment has brought Step 1 to life: We are close to completing the construction of a four bedroom + living room ground level guest house, a 4 bedroom worker's quarters, a kitchen, a maloka (round, ceremonial house), 3 compost toilets and a shower.
Where YOU come in!
Step 2 consists of building 3 double occupancy tree houses for our guests, a large two level "common space" tree house featuring dining, lounge and office areas on the first floor and an observation deck reaching 8m into the trees.
With your generous support we expect to finish Step 2 by Fall of 2013.
Canto Luz is an organization that depends on donations of its patrons. These donations can take many forms such as skilled expertise or currency and we are grateful for all of your support.
What We Need & What You Get:
By donating to Canto Luz you will become a member of this community, receive unique Artisan gifts and discounts. Your actions and encouragement will help to generate effectual healing to Mother Earth through regular ceremony and propagation of her ancient wisdom as well as to sustain our efforts to protect the land we have been entrusted with. YOU are PART of the SOLUTION!!
![sun shining through the tall trees]( "jungle sun")
Your generous donation will help this dream transform reality by:
-
Protecting 1500 acres (600 hectares) of the Amazon previously open to depredation from poaching, illegal logging and gold mining by hiring permanent caretakers to monitor our territory
- Creating a safe space for people from all around the world to experience authentic physical and emotional healing and to host independent retreats
- Developing a space and opportunity for respectful knowledge-exchange between local curanderos and Western practitioners
- implementing cultural exchange programs that will help preserve local traditions (textiles, agriculture practices and permaculture, food preparations, plant medicines etc.)
- Empowering local women by offering them work on our organic farm and elsewhere at Canto Luz, providing them with an independent income
Building tree houses in the jungle is a unique challenge requiring a lot of work hours, resources and imagination. The process of constructing 4 tree houses will take approximately 2 months of non-stop work in difficult rainforest conditions
This is how your donations will be spent:
-
Airfare from Canada to Peru for our tree house architect and one assistant who are donating their time and skills to build Canto Luz tree houses $2000
- Construction of the tree houses:
-Machinery and hardware required for tree house construction (chainsaws, wood buffer, compressor, generator for power tools $4000
- Milling of lumber found on the land $2000
- Supplementary building materials (beyond locally sourced/ milled lumber such as interlocking floor boards, extra large supports for tree houses, thatched roofs etc.) $2000
- Fair wages for our local team and provisions for volunteers $5000
- Specially manufactured hardware for tree house compression system, pulleys system, custom brackets and bolts $2500
- Carpentry ( beds, tables, sofas, shelves etc.) $1000
-
Indiegogo fees and cost of perks $1500
If we do not reach our goal, the money raised will be spent on above mentioned tasks in order of importance.
If we surpass our goal, the money donated will be spent on our organic forest garden and solar energy.
![river madre de dios, amazon headwaters]( "Madre de Dios")
What's in it for you?
While Canto Luz always welcomes your contributions or donations, we are presently offering benefits that will only be available during this crowdfunding campaign.
You can consider your monetary donations as pre-payment for your visit to Canto Luz. Let's admit it, don't we all dream of spending time in these tree-houses in the jungle?
- Discounts for Canto Luz services ranging from 25% off to lifetime free access to our facilities*
- Special edition memberships with reward points that bring your closer to complimentary visits to Canto Luz, including a beautiful membership card, specially printed, laminated and mailed to you (unlike regular membership, which will simply be digitally registered in our database)
- Unique hand made native Shipibo textiles inspired by Ayahuasca visions
- Fruit or medicinal trees planted with your name plaque
- Your name engraved on an honourary plaque at the entrance to Canto Luz
- Handwritten Thank you card with a photo of completed tree houses
Becoming a member of Canto Luz:
![Renaco tree]( "renaco")
We found that the easiest way to organize membership is through reward point system, where every visitor automatically becomes a member and receive points for each visit, or for every friend referred to Canto Luz.
Each member receives benefits for contributions to the community, ultimately resulting in reciprocal exchange of energy, such as extended stays, medicine work or the potential to use Canto Luz land and facilities for your personal or academic research.
For each 14 day retreat you complete, you receive 3 points
For each 7 day retreat - 2 points
For each friend referred - 1 point
~ therefore ~
4 points = free 7 day retreat
6 points = free 14 day retreat
You can also visit our site for full explanation of reward point system and membership rules.
Together we go further
Other Ways You Can Help
We have dedicated our lives to conservation and healing. We understand that every dollare counts.
Donations of any denomination are welcome! Our Canto Luz dream comes to life one dollar at a time…conservation flourishes one dollar at a time.
If a monetary contribution is not possible for you at this time you can help us by spreading the word about this campaign through Indiegogo share tools and word of mouth!
What if you could tell just five other people about our cause? What if you could tell ten people? What would that mean for the environment?
The easy answer - Everything!
![burning sun over the trees burnt for planting corn]( "burnt forest")
Every day we see the forest being devastated - we fight illegal loggers and miners off our territory on a regular basis.
Deforestation and pollution of water sources are a real danger to our land. We need your help.
The time to act is NOW.
Please feel free to use the Indiegogo share tools to share this campaign anyway you can. Let everybody know.
Hashtag your communications about the campaign with #CantoLuz
Share This on Twitter Share on Facebook
Join our Facebook group and invite your friends to join
Email this campaign's link http://www.indiegogo.com/cantoluz/x/1930397
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*Perk notes:
None of the perks are transferable once purchased, but donations can be made in someone else's name if you would like to make a gift to someone special.
Discounts and reward points can not be combined
Only one complimentary member per retreat (or a combination of discounts, for example two 50% off members)
All the physical perks (textiles, Thank you cards and membership cards) will be mailed once the construction is finished. ETA Fall 2013
*** REGARDING lifetime access perks ~ If you would like to make a donation that would give you complimentary access for life, please email us personally beforehand to discuss. Thank you!! ***
Non Pay Pal users: If you dont have access to PayPal or choose not to use the service, you can still make a donation by arranging an Electronic Bank Transfer or Western Union wire to our US$ Canto Luz account.
Canto Luz will offer unique sustainable tree house lodging, uniting everyone with nature. A bird's eye view! We anticipate this immersion will inspire others to adopt more sustainable and conscious-living practices as well as to resonate with the knowledge and culture of the people populating this delicate region.
Mariya Garnet is the Founder and Director of Canto Luz. She was born in Russia and her voyage into the world of healing shamanism started in Siberia, continued in North America and, through India, led her to South America - first Brazil and then Peru, where she presently lives. 
We found that the easiest way to organize membership is through reward point system, where every visitor automatically becomes a member and receive points for each visit, or for every friend referred to Canto Luz.
