Conservation areas

Nicaraguan Alphabet Part Two: N to Z

Posted on by stevenicaragua

This is part two of my Nicaraguan Alphabet, posted after I finished three years living in Leon, Nicaragua. If you missed Part one, A to M, its the previous blog-entry.

N is for NICARAGUANS

 We have enjoyed spending three years with the ordinary people of Nicaragua – kind, generous people, valuing family, not in a hurry, time to chat, enjoy a good time, not too worried about timekeeping, babies who don’t cry, families who sit in rocking-chairs, chatting every evening, men who lie in hammocks, women who sell goods on their heads, everybody eating snacks, people asking each other for change, very uncommon to show anger, lycra roly-poly clothes, Leoneses a people of faith & tradition, very honest, enjoy fiestas & processions, three on a bicycle, youngsters kissing after school in the plaza, teenage pregnancies, overweight bored police, tedious politicians who give speeches, resilience.

And since April this year – people marching, in their thousands, and since August a few brave people continuing to march in spite of government repression.

N

O is for OBESITY, & also for OMETEPE

Sadly, O is for Obesity which is also a scourge of many other Latin American countries as well. One study found that 22% of Nicaraguans were obese & 33% more were overweight. When I first visited Nicaragua in the early 1980’s malnutrition was a problem – but then people were under-nourished. Now as the population has become more urban, & eating modern processed foods, including much fried food, many people are over-weight. Women are especially affected.

O is also for OMETEPE, a beautiful volcanic island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. We visited twice & enjoyed fantastic views of the two majestic volcanoes.

O

P is for PAVING STONES & PROTESTS

Nicaraguan streets are made from paving stones & these have played an important part in the country’s turbulent history. In 1979 the people used barricades made from paving stones in the successful uprising that finally toppled the Somoza dictatorship.

Now in 2018 the country went through another burst of revolt, this time aimed at the current Ortega government. After the protests began in April, and were fired upon by the police, people spontaneously built over 400 barricades all over Leon where we lived. For four weeks we couldn’t drive, we couldn’t really work, food & petrol became in short supply. The street barricades were ultimately unsuccessful, & were knocked down by government forces in July.

P could also be for PHOTOGRAPHY – I enjoyed three years taking photos of fiestas, processions, schools, protests & wonderful nature. See many nice photos on Instagram (@Owstonlewis)  https://www.instagram.com/owstonlewis/?hl=es

Roadblock in Leon, built from paving stones, 10 June 18, credit Steve Lewis

Q is for QUETZALS (& OTHER LOVELY BIRDS)

The Quetzal is a very rare & emblematic colourful bird in Central America. We tried & failed to see one in the rainforests of Nicaragua but we did see one in Costa Rica having got up at 4.30am and walked till 7am. (Couldn’t get a good photo though). In Nicaragua we saw lots of lovely birds , from tiny humming birds to big herons & waders in the mangroves. (This photo is not the Quetzal because I am too proud!)

Q could also be for QUESILLO which is a rather unusual food eaten around Leon, made of tortilla & molten cheese with onions.

Q Yellow window bird from behind

R is for RAINFOREST

We loved walking in the rainforest & seeing sloths, monkeys, birds, marching ants & wonderful plants. Congratulations to tourist enterprises that have preserved some of the rainforest & made it accessible to visitors, for example Selva Negra & the highly recommended homestay villages outside San Ramon, Matagalpa. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to take photos in the dark dank rainforests. The country needs to actively preserve the large reserves like Bosawas.

R

S is for SISTER CITY

I have worked for the last two years for Project Gettysburg-Leon . PGL is a Sister-City, a twinning link. In the UK we call them Twin-Towns. PGL has done fantastic work since 1985. A small dedicated group of people in a town 2000 miles from Leon have supported social & development programmes for the last 35 years. Our most recent programme, during the emergency, has been supporting homework clubs for kids who have missed out on their schooling, like Mario in the photo below. PGL – Good Luck & keep up the good work.

S is also be for SALSA DANCE, or SOMOTO CANYON, another great place to visit.

S

T is for TOURISM

In 2016 & 2017 tourism was on the up & up in Nicaragua. Everyone was talking about it, new hotels, different restaurants, the best homestays etc. Kath & I were well immersed, visiting many of the places with delegations & visitors. We especially tried to promote tourism where the profits funded social programmes . The uprising since April, & the violent response from the government, has killed off tourism. Eighty percent of hotels have closed, & 10’s of thousands of people have lost their jobs.

T is sadly not for TENNIS or TABLE TENNIS in Nicaragua (We like both these sports, but they don’t play either. Too hot!) This photo is Tourists at Somoto Canyon.

T

U is for USA

A famous saying from the region was ‘So far from God, so close to the United States’. The USA has had a huge influence over the last centuries, from trade patterns to political interference. Among other things the USA supported the Somoza dictatorship for decades, & funded a vicious contra war in the 1980’s. Central America will be better off with more respect & less interference from the big neighbour in the North.

U

V is for VOLCANOES

Nicaragua has 19 volcanoes many of which are active. In some you can see live lava bubbling away beneath you from the crater. Kath and I would regularly climb volcanoes with our visiting friends & PGL students.

V is also for VERY HOT IN LEON. It was!

V

Looking across from ‘El Hoyo’ to Momotombo & Momotombito

 

W is for WATER PROJECTS

Many villages in Nicaragua suffer acute water shortage in the long hot dry season. Imagine having to walk for 20 minutes to have to bring back a bucket of water on your head to wash in or to cook with. I worked on various projects during my three years where NGOs worked with communities to install piped water. PGL is in the midst of supporting a project in Talolinga village. A long & difficult process so far with various setbacks. Hopefully my successor can lead it to completion.

W IMG_20160309_163509 (2)

X is for XUCHIALT

 Xuchialt Community Arts School are a great organization in Leon, run by unpaid young artists & members of the community. They provide art, music & dance classes for children in the community. I worked with Xuchialt for two years in Leon, as part of my work with PGL, the town-twinning link. Keep up the good work Xuchialt.

X

Y is for YOGA

Not very many Nicaraguans do yoga, but plenty of expats & tourists do. The beach communities in Nicaragua have a lot of surfing & yoga camps, & most big towns have yoga. It was part of the booming tourism industry before April this year. This photo shows Laguna de Apoyo.

Y

Z is for ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz……..

 Z is for a long sleep on the plane back to England, at the end of three years in Nicaragua. It was a busy & tiring stint, what with job-changes, insurrections, a lot of travel, Kath’s illness, & lots of good work with PGL. Now I am getting re-established in the UK (in Lewes), & starting job-hunting again.

Z is for ZUMBA, which we did in the heat of Leon & maybe didn’t do Kath’s heart much good. Z is also for Leon ZOO which was very run-down, but good for photography.

Z

Please share this blog. You can also write comments below – what have I left out, what would you have included?

Many more beautiful photos of Nicaragua can be seen on my Instagram site – follow @owstonlewis

 

How your travel can benefit Nicaraguan social organisations

Posted on by stevenicaragua

After two years living and travelling in Nicaragua I have seen that just by staying at certain hotels you support the education of needy children. And by eating in some restaurants you can provide jobs for adults with special needs. A number of tourist ventures in Nicaragua are now ‘social-enterprises’ which dedicate their profits to charities, or programmes that benefit the local community. But many of these ventures are not well publicized, and some towns seem to be missing out. I wonder if we could make a ‘portal’ or site where Nicaraguan social enterprises can easily be found?

You kayaking trip can benefit children’s education on Ometepe island

I work for a ‘‘Sister City’ programme  that regularly brings delegations of visitors to Nicaragua. There are many organisations who bring groups of visitors to this wonderful country, from  ‘Global Glimpse’ to brigades of deaf teachers, or Church Mission groups. Not forgetting  normal groups of tourists enjoying what the country has to offer. If each of these groups stayed in hotels which are Social Enterprises then we could bring large amounts of new income towards school and social programmes. I try to take my groups to one of these Five Favourite Places, but I also try to spend our hotel and restaurant budget in Social-enterprises.

A Social Enterprise is a company, like a hotel or a café or shop, which channels its profits to a non-profit or Non-Government Organisation (NGO). Across Nicaragua Social Enterprises are now raising large amounts of funding for poor communities and local charities. Let me give some examples…

I stayed at Hacienda Merida on Ometepe which was a great place to relax and  watch the sunset views. But the best thing was knowing that the profits go towards building a primary school for the local community. The hostal income allows them to build a new classroom each year. (the classrooms are built partly out of recycled bottles which is also beneficial). The owner, Alvaro Molina, began years ago with a dream. Now this self-supporting project has allowed the building of four well-equipped classrooms and dozens of children receiving a bilngual education. All paid for by the profits from happy travellers.

The lovely primary school supported by Hacienda Merida

Esteli is the town in Nicaragua that is best served by Social Enterprise hotels. Casa Vinculos is a lovely hotel that directly supports Fundacion Vinculos, which promotes Early Childhood Education. When I take delegations to Esteli we take over all nine rooms in Casa Vinculos and enjoy their good food and crafts shop whilst knowing that our funds benefit local children. Esteli also has the more upmarket Hotel Los Arcos, which supports a health centre, plus SONATI, and Hostal Luna which cater for the backpacker market and support environmental work and a mobile library.

Granada has Hotel Con Corazon  which supports education programmes. Hotel Con Coraon is interesting because its publicity positively emphasizes the social benefits supported and its name reflects this. Unfortunately since it is always booked up well in advance I have never stayed there, and so far I have not heard of a second similar hotel in the town. Since Granada is the heartland of tourism in Nicaragua, with over 100 hotels, I believe there is plenty of scope for more hotels that could be added to Hotel Con Corazon and take up more of this market segment.

NGOs and non-profits aim to encourage a love of reading for pleasure. Nicaraguan schools and homes have a major shortage of books

By contrast, in terms of social-profit hotels, Leon and Managua are disappointing. In Leon the SONATI hostal does good work with the backpacker crowd, raising awareness on environmental work. But in terms of a hotel, for better off clients, I don’t know of a single hotel in Leon or Las Peñitas or Poneloya that dedicates all its profits to social programmes.  Of course there are some hotels that will give a donation now and then to a charity. But I am talking about hotels that exist to raise funds for the social good. If you exist, then let the world know. I bring groups to Leon 4 times a year and would love to place visitors in a hotel on the model of Casa Vinculos or Casa con Corazon.

In Managua there are hundreds of hotels. Like Leon, if one exists like the examples above, then you don’t advertise widely enough. Hotel Europeo does support a foundation but it is not clear from the website what % of the profits goes to the charitable work. I would also love to know if a hotel with social benefit exists in San Juan del Sur or other towns.

Cafes and restaurants can also be Social Enterprises, such as the wonderful Cafe de Las Sonrisas in Granada, which employs deaf staff

The tourism sector can support more Social Enterprises – not only hotels but also restaurants, language schools and other services. Esteli has Café Luz which raises funds for the mobile library.  Granada has the wonderful Café de la Sonrisa  where deaf young people work. Also of course there are shops and crafts. In Granada there is a Hammock workshop next door to Café de la Sonrisa which provides  employment opportunities for differently-able young people. In Leon or Managua, is there anything similar?

To learn Spanish you can visit the Mariposa Language School. To climb  a volcano from Leon then go with  Quetzaltrekkers which raises funds through providing tours and guides. Quetaltrekkers provide funding for a range of Leon NGOs such as  Las Tias and NECAT, to pay the salaries of teachers and social workers in deprived areas of town.

If you want to climb a volcano, go with Quetsaltrekkers, who devote their profits to support NGOs such in Leon

So these tourist-orientated ventures are providing a great service. But they could be better known and there could be more of them. How could tourist-orientated social enterprises in Nicaragua be better publicized? I would love to find a one-stop shop where you could easily find information for every town in the country. How could this be set up?

My dream is to be able to always stay in social enterprise hotels when I bring groups here.  To spend most of our budget with services like Quetaltrekkers and mainly eat in cafes or restaurants like Café de las Sonrisas. Do you think that will be possible? And how could it be set up?

 

Photos by Steve Lewis. Follow Steve on instagram at @owstonlewis

Community Tourism in Nicaragua – Get Off the Beaten Track & Do Good!

Posted on by stevenicaragua

 

‘As the sun came up I lay in bed listening to the howler monkeys in the forest…after a delicious ‘tipica’ breakfast with our host family we had a great walk through the coffee fields up to the rain-forest in the hill-tops. We saw sloths, oriole birds, wonderful butterflies and Nicaragua’s national bird, the guardabaranco. Community tourism in San Ramon allows farmers to diversify their farm-income and encourages all the community to preserve the environment. It’s a win-win for tourists and the local community together’.

Stay in local houses amidst the lovely nature of La Reyna, San Ramon

Although Nicaragua is still the second poorest country in Latin America, tourism is booming, with around 5% annual growth in recent years, supported by Nicaragua’s excellent record of peace and safety, and a growing economy. According to the World Tourism Council 2017 report tourism contributed $720 million in direct revenue to the country, amounting to around 5.3% of GDP in 2016. Tourism makes up nearly 4% of total employment, or 100,000 people. So things are looking good.

But there are flies in the tourism ointment. Land on the pacific coast is now selling for inflated prices and being snapped up by foreign buyers. Tourism is concentrated in two or three small areas of the country. Granada and San Juan del Sur are over-touristed, and are losing some of their Nicaraguan culture.  Much of the tourism industry is owned by large companies, and eventually by non-Nicaraguan private sector.

There is a way for tourists here to get off the beaten track, and see the real Nicaragua, by visiting rural villages and cooperatives that run community tourism initiatives. Community Tourism and Eco-tourism are ways to experience rural life, stay with local people and help preserve the environment. According to Martha Honey, author of Who Owns Paradise?, ‘ecotourism is travel to fragile and often protected environments, that strive to be low-impact and small-scale. It helps educate the traveller, provides funds for local conservations, directly benefits the economic development of local communities and fosters respect for different cultures’.

 

Community and locally owned tourism contributes more to a country than large scale package tours or high-end hotel chains. Globally the tourism sector that contributes least to local economies is the cruise-liner sector. It is estimated that if you buy a cruise-holiday, 90% of your total spending stays in the country of origin. Whereas back-packers, and low-impact travellers in Central America spend 80% of their total spend in the region.

When you are travelling in Nicaragua try to get away from the Southern ‘tourist-triangle’ (Granada –Ometepe-San Juan del Sur) and visit some of the small towns and rural nature areas. Travel on your own or, if you are in the USA or UK, sign up with a small group trip run by one of the  Sister-cities such as Gettysburg-Leon  or one of the Nicaragua solidarity groups. Here are five great ecotourism recommendations that we have enjoyed in the last 18 months:

1/ Stay with a rural family, Miraflor nature reserve, outside Esteli.

Beautiful countryside, nice hiking, and lovely waterfalls. Google UCA Miraflor Tourism to arrange to stay with a local family, and to go horse-riding or bird watching. Prices are very reasonable, at around $20 per day with meals included. By travelling on public transport you help to keep your environmental footprint low. Tourists who show their love for nature encourage local communities to preserve the forests.

2 / Volunteer in exchange for reduced lodging rates.

In Rancho Esperanza, on Jiquilillo beach in Chinandega, you can stay for a couple of months or longer and really contribute to the life of the local community. (It’s beautiful too). Volunteers work in a Kids Club with children. If you can’t stay that long you are still encouraged to support the local community by taking ‘tours’ such as line fishing, kayaking, or learn to climb a coconut tree.

3/ Somoto Canyon

The author, floating gently through Somoto Canyon

Somoto canyon is a must-do in Nicaragua, an adrenalin rush that will provide you with some of your best memories. Somoto is in Northern Nicaragua, so helps to get tourists to explore much-less visited part of the country. You can stay the night near the canyon, and make sure you use local guides with a good reputation. We have always taken groups with Henry Soriano, of Somoto Canyon Tours,  who are highly recommended for a friendly service with a good commitment to safety.

4/ Support Cooperatives

Around the country look out for the system of ‘co-manejo’ where local communities have joint control of natural resources with MARENA the ministry for the environment. In Las Peñitas, a beautiful fishing community outside Leon a cooperative of 12 local people  offer tours of Isla Juan Venado and the mangrove swamps. Between July and December they protect the eggs of endangered turtles, and at any time of the year you can stay the night in rustic cabinas on a very isolated beach.

In Las Peñitas and Jiquilillo community groups protest the endangered baby turtles

5/ Fair trade coffee villages

There is a wide range of options on offer, well-marketted throughout the North. Ask in any hotel around Esteli, Matagalpa, Jinotega and the Segovias.

In San Ramon a series of small villages and struggling cooperatives eke out a living from coffee production. After tough times under the right-wing government in the 1990s the co-ops have been supported to improve their incomes by CECOCAFEN  an umbrella body. The co-ops have now improved their shade-grown coffee, are moving to organic status, and have started homestays and visitor programmes. Support the fair-trade coffee villages and stay in a beautiful mountain community, enjoy fresh-roast home-grown coffee, and also visit gold-mines, viewpoints, cloud-forest, all the time surrounded by monkeys, sloths and butterflies.

For more information on all these areas the Moon Guide book is an excellent source of information. In this blog post they also recommend five rural cooperatives that get consistently high reviews  http://moon.com/2015/06/enjoy-sustainable-tourism-in-nicaragua/. Check them out and soon you’ll have your own list of favourites to share.

 

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Which are your favourite recommendations for low-impact tourism in Nicaragua or other countries you want to share? Please use the comments box below to share your recommendations.