Origins Cacao Tour Application 2024/2025
Hello and thanks for your interest in Soul Lift Cacao's group tours! Our tours are a one-of-a-kind opportunity to learn more about historic cacao cultures first-hand.

To maximize the synergy of each group, we have potential participants fill out this application.

ALL POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS MUST FILL OUT THE APPLICATION SEPARATELY – including both people in a couple.

Select applicants will be invited to a live phone call with tour host Nick Meador.

If approved, the final step will be registering for the tour with a deposit or the full cost.

After registration, there's a participant info guide (required reading), tour waivers (signed digitally), and a participant info survey to collect your flights, dietary preferences, etc.

Your responses will be emailed to you for future reference. If you have questions, please email hello@soulliftcacao.com!
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Email *
Full Legal Name (First Middle Last) *
Phone Number (with country and area code) *
Address of residence (number, street, city, zip code, country) *
Which tour(s) are you primarily interested in?
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Required
Did someone refer you to this cacao tour? If so, what's their name?
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What's your age?
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How tall are you?
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NOTE: Those taller than 6' 2" might have trouble fitting into some vehicles. For example, leg room is limited on buses in Latin America.
Do you have heritage in the place where the tour is taking place? (City, region, or country)
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The tour will primarily be presented in English. Parts of the tour presented in Spanish will have live translation into English. In order to create cohesive group flow and to make sure you understand all aspects of the tour plan and "container," participants are required to be fully fluent in English. Which languages do you speak fluently? (click all that apply)
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Required
Do you have access to international cell phone coverage?
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NOTE: This is recommended (but not required) in order to help the group stay in communication during the tour. It's possible to get a local SIM card, however participants would be responsible for obtaining one on their own before the tour starts.
Which lodging type would you prefer? *
Payment can be all at once or in 2-3 manual installments. However please note that the ShopPay auto-installment feature is not available for the tour. Payments by credit card, Paypal, or Venmo have a 2.9% service fee added. There's no service fee added for payments by Zelle or wire transfer. The full tour balance will be due a month before the start of the tour.
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Please share a bit about yourself – your work, passions, hobbies, spiritual practice (if any). Do any of your spiritual practices or ways of processing involve sound, movement, etc that could affect other people? What do you see as your shortcomings or things you're working on about yourself? What are your triggers or pet peeves?
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Do you believe more in an internal or external locus of control? In other words, do you believe that you are in control of life or that life just happens? Do you believe in fate or destiny? What do you do when things don't go your way?
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In general are you early, on time, or late for appointments? How do you feel about following a schedule created by someone else? How do you feel about traveling with a group of strangers? There will likely be some flexible time blocks, but we will also take long day trips where participants are expected to stay with the group and listen to presentations by our daily hosts without being disruptive. During the tour it might not be possible to feel totally caught-up on rest. Participants are expected to do their best to be polite and respectful with other guests on the tour. That also means not giving non-consensual personal or spiritual advice to others on the tour. Also, due to the size of the group, it won't always be possible to pick a specific plate for a meal. However all dietary restrictions will be accommodated. How do you feel about all of this? Please explain.
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What calls you to join this tour? What do you hope to get out of it? What are you most looking forward to? What would make you upset if you don't get it on the tour? Why do you want to go on a group tour rather than traveling to the place on your own? *
What is your experience so far with ceremonial cacao, cacao circles, indigenous ceremonies, Latin American holidays, etc? What about your experience with other kinds of therapy, self-development, ceremonies, or transformational work? Do you consider yourself informed about trauma and consent? Have you done work to build awareness about power and privilege involving nationality, race, gender, or other identity categories? (NOTE: All tour participants will be required to complete a cross-cultural primer and group-dynamics orientation that could involve a video, some reading, and a short quiz.)
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On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the most), how much do you know so far about the culture and spiritual practices in the tour destination?
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Not at all
I'm an expert
How familiar are you about the history of colonization and inquisition in Latin America and the way it affected and still affects local indigenous cultures? Please explain.
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No prior knowledge is required.
Have you traveled in so-called "developing nations"? It can involve certain challenges like the possibility of intestinal parasites, slower/bumpy roads, wavy boat taxi rides, lack of air conditioning, biting insects, etc. We sometimes sit on the ground or stand for long periods of time. Especially tours that involve visiting cacao farms can mean going in more hot and humid weather than people from temperate climates are used to. While the tour guide(s) would do their utmost best to keep you safe and comfortable, do you accept the general nature of this type of travel as described above? Are you willing to sign a liability release stating that you're fully responsible for your health and well-being? Please also explain how you would resource yourself or seek assistance if you feel challenged while on the trip. Participants are expected to ask for help if they're struggling with anything: physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. *
Are you willing to sign a photo release saying that Soul Lift Cacao has permission to take photographs and videos of participants and to use them in the future for marketing and related purposes?
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NOTE: We won't take photo or video during sensitive moments that might occur, for example in ceremonies.
This tour is produced by Soul Lift Cacao and will share information about cacao production intended for personal enrichment and/or to inform your facilitation/teaching practice. On the tour, Nick Meador takes participants to meet his sourcing partners, which is a sensitive matter. Are you willing to sign an agreement stating that you don’t currently own or work for a cacao company (production, warehousing, shipping, or sales), that you won’t for at least two years from the date of the trip, and that Soul Lift Cacao would be involved in any professional collaborations you might want to explore with the groups we visit on the tour (also for two years)? Explain if necessary. *
The places we go have fewer accessibility accommodations than the United States and other Western countries. It's possible that in some places we'll have to navigate stairways, narrow passageways, uneven terrain, etc. Are you living with chronic pain, illness, or a physical condition that could prevent you from navigating these things and/or walking for 1-2 hours a day? Are you willing to take medication for issues that might arise such as motion sickness or digestive distress?
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This tour is led by Nick Meador, who identifies as straight cis-male American of mixed European heritage. Because Nick is not of Latin American or indigenous Mesoamerican descent, he puts a lot of effort into making sure his work is ethical and responsible. However it could still be challenging for some to participate in a cacao tour led by someone who isn't from the place we visit. It wouldn't be possible for Nick to fully hold space for all emotional challenges that could come up, for example if people have heritage in Mesoamerica. While emotional healing could very well occur on the trip,  this is essentially a tour to learn about cacao, not a healing retreat. Pariticipants are expected to take responsibility for their well-being, avoid drama, and only come if they're really "resourced" enough to do so. With all this in mind, do you think this is the right tour for you? Please explain. *
Going off the last question, although some tours do include ceremonies, it's important that potential participants understand that the main focus of this tour is on practical matters of ceremonial cacao cultivation and processing, and learning about indigenous culture. We stay in consensus reality, not venturing into mystical realms. At the same time, the tours can be intense and sometimes bring unexpected emotions to the surface. With respect for everyone's individual path, these tours are not a good fit for people who regularly experience spontaneous altered or extreme states of consciousness, extra-sensory perception (e.g. hearing voices), vertigo, seizures, loss of selfhood, who have had recent traumatic experiences (accidents, abuse, etc), those who have recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or PTSD,  and/or those who are in a particularly intense period of their healing journey (i.e. a "spiritual emergency" or similar). Please describe a bit about your mental state going into this tour, whether you are currently taking or have ever been prescribed psychopharmaceutical drugs, and anything else that would be useful for the tour guide(s) to know. Not disclosing this type of health information could result in removal from a tour without a refund. *
To be approved, participants must be able to commit to staying on the tour from start to finish. That means also using the ground transportation provided on the tour. Are you okay with that?
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NOTE: No one is forced to stay on the tour, especially if unforeseen circumstances arise (i.e., a family emergency). But no one will be admitted late, unless it's a circumstance out of their control like a cancelled flight.
Participants are asked to refrain from using recreational drugs, psychoactive plant medicines, and excessive alcohol on the tour (except mezcal tasting offered on the Oaxaca tour); from using tobacco or hapé when around the group (unless tobacco is specifically offered in a ceremony); and from doing anything else that would greatly interfere with their ability to be present for the group and for the cacao workers we'll be visiting. That would also mean going to bed at a reasonable time each night (unless a specific tour activity involves staying up late, like for Day of the Dead). Are you okay with these requirements?
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Participants are HIGHLY ENCOURAGED to purchase travel insurance that will cover both medical emergency AND the cost of your flights and tour registration in case you are unable to attend due to unexpected circumstances. The participant guide will have recommendations, but the tour organizers are not responsible for anyone missing the tour, and registration costs are nonrefundable.
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Anyone who repeatedly interferes with the experience of other participants or puts themselves or anyone else in danger will be subject to removal from the tour without a refund. *
Is there anything else you'd like us to know?
A copy of your responses will be emailed to the address you provided.
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