Selva Negra rocks

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Bonnie - We have been visiting Selva Negra for two days, outside of Matagalpa. This place is a preserve run with extremely up-to-date sustainable practices. it's an organic coffee plantation with workers who live here and earn the going rate but with free housing, 3 meals a day, medical care, school, etc. on top of that. The leftovers from the coffee shelling and husking process is composted with red worms, and used on the plantation.

There are accommodations for 230 people at various costs, the restaurant serves organic food grown here on site. Lights are all CF's, etc. Outside our door is a lagoon with birds, including rather rambunctious geese. Howler monkeys sound like a pack of alligators. There are hiking trails and the forest is old growth (significant because much of the area around Matagalpa is deforested).

Today we hiked in the morning, then sat on the trail in the afternoon and watched the monkeys scampering around high above us. The people that we have met in Nicaragua are an interesting mix of ethnicities. Many in this area were German who intermarried with Nicaraguenses.

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Photos

local muchacha
she was swinging higher than anyone else

g´s artsy side
how to turn a duck pond into an abstract work of ....

selva negra chapel
built in 2000 - you´d never believe it. fairy tale charming.

our little bungalow
just go around the fire pit, past the duck pond, the cosmos, the sego lily field and you´re there