We offer inexpensive stays to people willing to work at least 2 hours per day. In addition to a significant discount on lodging, we offer credit for every hour worked. An 8-hour-work day earns free dorm bed and 3 meals.
Welcome backpackers — we’ve missed you during the COVID years!
Please check for availability before coming as space is limited.
We are serious about our efforts as a true, self-sufficient Ecolodge, and providing community support through our presence here, and we want to help travellers engage witth with and contribute to the community here.
Completed and On-going Ecolodge and Community-Support Projects
- Passive solar heated lodge, insulated to Alaska standards.
- Window sealing
- Spring water system, year-round running water
- Artisan support by using traditional stone building, wood-paneling, door making, furniture making, and traditional symbolic painting; also through sales of traditional products through our Khampa Nomad Arts Cooperative.
- Biogas tanks installed, but not working (see below)
- Solar voltaic electric system (2 systems throughout the lodge for back-up power)
- Wind-power installation
- Heating from dung
- Sustainably-built sauna, which allows bathing when power is not sufficient to heat water
- Garden for salad, herbs, and potatoes
- River and Roadside recyclable clean-up, done by children
- On-going, low-key Environmental Education for nomads
- On-going, low-key Hygiene and Sanitation education for nomads
- On-going medical help for nomads, as requested
- Support for similar eco-friendly building projects around the area (for example, meditation huts)
- Cold frames for outdoor garden
- Hanging bridge to ease crossing (cold in winter, dangerous in summer)
- Cheese cave to age cheese for winter use
Planned Projects and Improvements:
- Wood-heated hot tub
- Seeding biogas tanks with phychrophilic (cold-loving bacteria)
- Chickens for eggs
- Second greenhouse warmth and insulation
We welcome donations for the following projects:
— please write to angela@definitelynomadic.com if interested
- Further solar power (particularly to allow for heaters in wintertime)
- Hanging bridge*
- Trash clean-up projects in nomad areas and at sacred natural spots (these also act as low-key environmental education
*no longer active, donation sufficient (thank you!)
We welcome volunteer help with the following projects:
— please write to angela@definitelynomadic.com if interested. We provide either partial or full room and board.
- Hot-tub building
- Gardening
- Daily operations (cooking and cleaning and hosting)
- Website improvement and design
- Photography (requires portfolio)
- Gathering cold-loving bacterial in high altitude swamps
- Mapping and making points for hiking trails for further travelers
- Yoga and Mindfulness Teaching, other skills (requires advance planning)