Yurts are the hottest thing at Itínera these days. Let me rephrase that, since we are in a pretty hot place ourselves: Yurts are the coolest thing at Itínera these days!
What started out as a quirky side-project by one friend helping us out with the construction, has gradually evolved into a lucrative commodity. After all, we all need money to function, including this very rootsy, barefoot, down-to-earth theater group. Fortunately, the town of Mazunte has the potential of a gold mine in terms of offering accommodation. It is a tourist hot-spot after all, frequented by visitors from all over North and South America, as well as Europe. And since part of what makes this place so attractive is the overall surfer-hippie vibe, most guests are perfectly fine with solar showers and composting toilets. In fact, many actively seek them out. So sleeping in a yurt can be easily considered glamorous: It's glamping, baby!
The first yurt already raised the comfort level dramatically from simple tenting. You could stand up inside, store your belongings in more than just a sack, sleep on an actual mattress, and reduce the mosquitos to a minimum, while enjoying the refreshing breeze. In case of rain a tarp would keep you dry. Since this concept worked so well for members of the theater group, the next logical step was to rent them out.
So far six yurts have been built over the years, and each season they were improved on. The mosquito netting received self closing magnetic doors, power lines were laid to offer electric plugs and esthetic lighting. This year it's the floors we are overhauling, changing wooden floorboards to a solid brick floor. To be honest, I am surprised they even took the effort to implement wooden floors (using anything other than tropical hardwood, which even here is a big no-no), since virtually everything wooden gets eaten up by termites in literally no time at all. But bricks are great, which I can attest to. They feel nice under my feet, look amazing, and are guaranteed to last ... well, at least more than one season.
Of course, these new floors have to be built first. We got plenty of sand, so now we're just waiting for the bricks to arrive. In the meantime we dismantle the yurts that are to be overhauled, and do some maintenance on them. They are amazingly sturdy, by the way. The one in the pic above was struck by a falling tree, which it ended up supporting entirely. Sure, it sustained some minor damage, but had I been sleeping inside it when it happened - let's not kid ourselves, I probably would have gotten scared shitless.
To improve the general appearance, we started setting up a small pallet fence around each yurt, adding a bit of privacy around them. The drying rack is more utilitarian, as it offers each occupant a place to dry their towels and bikinis, which has always been in great demand.
There may be more yurt themed posts coming, at least when we start doing the floor work. Though the idea is floating around that we could also organize a workshop where we'd teach building flex-yurts while putting together a seventh one. I hope it will happen, let's wait and see. As always, you can see the rest of my related posts in my series Earthship Theater Build in Mazunte.