VISITING
FINCA ESPERANZA VERDE IN SMALL GROUPS
" Supporting a rural Nicaragua community - one visit at a time"
Trips for groups originating outside Nicaragua
Ecotourist trips to Finca Eperanza Verde and San Ramón are an opportunity not only to enjoy the stunning beauty of the mountainous Matagalpa region of Nicaragua but also to meet local people. On a typical group trip to San Ramón, you will spend four days at Finca Esperanza Verde and three with a host family in town. You will come away with an understanding of what life is like for people in underdeveloped countries and especially the wonderful people you have met.
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Your guide will greet you at the Managua airport and escort you to the public bus stop where you are immediately part of the local scene. When you arrive at Finca Esperanza Verde the staff is ready to show you what they have accomplished in developing the farm's lodge and cabins, shade grown organic coffee, butterfly farm and camp ground. Before you can put your bag in your cabin, you will be planning outings to search for leaf cutter ants, howler monkeys, toucans, migratory birds from North America and waterfalls. After dinner you may star gaze, take a hike in search of nocturnal creatures or listen to a talk about organic coffee farming. For those who would like to help out, there is always work to do on the farm picking coffee (December to March), gathering food for the butterfly caterpillars or repairing hiking trails. Local groups come in the evening to sing and to perform traditional dances. On request, local farmers will take you on horseback rides into the countryside. |
Ecotourists can pick coffee and learn
about the coffeee production process while visiting San Ramon. |
Members of the Tourist Guide Club |
Host families, the Tourist Guide Club, farm staff, and cultural performance groups greatly appreciate the income ecotourism brings them and their economically depressed community. In addition, 10% of the trip fee is designated for projects which improve health care, education and cultural arts for the people of San Ramón. |
You
will spend three days as the guest of a host family, where you can
try out your Spanish, learn to wash clothes Nica style, or accompany
a family member to the mill to have corn ground for tortillas. Young
people, members of the San Ramón Guide Club, will introduce
you to small town life and take you on walks to the honey factory,
the local schools and to view The Sister Communities of San Ramón ,Nicaragua, also has a variety of ecotourist trips to San Ramón
tailored for groups wishing to concentrate on (follow links for sample
itineraries):
- high
school exchanges
- cultural
immersion
- all about
coffee
- herbal medicine
- birding
- reforestation (May – August)
- family reunions and retreats.
January 13-20, 2008
Counter Culture Coffee Ecotour. Special tour for
Counter Culture Coffee's coffee buyers.
Trip leader Kim Bullock.
kim@counterculturecoffee.com. 919 361-5282.
Feb 10-17, 2008.
Flora and Fauna, Coffee and Culture Ecotour.
Space available! Please contact trip leader!
Trip
leader Tracy Morris, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer-Honduras. "Tracy
Morris" pcvhonduras@yahoo.com, 919-271-7465.
A Raleigh, NC based group of acquaintances (with some hailing from
Maryland and New York) will be traveling to San Ramon and Finca
Esperanza Verde to experience flora and fauna, sustainable coffee
farming, and Nicaraguan culture. You are welcome! Please join us!
Feb 17-24, 2008
Eno River UU Fellowship and friends. Cultural
Immersion Adventure: Suppporting a rural Nicarguan community one
visit at a time.
Leader Lonna Harkrader. Phone 919 489-1656.
lharkrader@mindspring.com.
Feb 29-March 6, 2008
Nicaragua Bird Banding Trip-EcoQuest Travel
Leaders: John Gerwin and John Connors, 919-733-7450.
EcoQuest Travel is offering an opportunity to meet and partner with local biologists in Nicaragua as they band birds in the Matagalpa mountains. We will assist in the 4th year of banding at Finca Esperanza Verde during the week of Feb 29-March 5, 2007. The Finca is a shade-grown coffee farm/ ecotour destination in San Ramon, Nicaragua . Honestly, there is no telling what we will catch in the nets... the Finca is a 'birdy' place and last year's efforts netted many species of birds that had not yet been recorded at the Finca. In addition to three days of banding, the group will travel to other good birding sites in the region and across the Pacific slope including: Selva Negra, where we expect to see Three-wattled Bellbirds and possibly Resplendent Quetzals, and dry tropical forest near Granada, a colonial city on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. It isn't essential that participants have experience banding birds. John Gerwin of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences will coordinate the banding experiences. Part of the fee for this excursion will help support the bird banding research in Nicaragua.Click here for a typical itinerary for a bird banding ecotour.
I have been leading trips to San Ramon for the past 7 years as a means to help the local Nicaraguan community diversify its economic base through ecotourism, to train local staff, and to enhance local appreciation of the rich natural resources at their doorstep. It has been a grand experience.
John Connors @ NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NCApril 6-13,2008
Nia in Nicaragua!
Space available! Please contact trip leader!
Leaders: Kate Finlayson and Irena Brezenski
kate@naturenia.com
dancenia@gmail.com
Blackbelts in Nia
919 545-0737 or 919 599-2355
Trip Flyer
SCHOOL GROUPS
"My trip to San Ramon, Nicaragua has changed my life. Not only did it
improve my Spanish, but it taught me valuable lessons I will never
forget. I saw first-hand the effects of poverty on the people and the
land. I would strongly recommend this trip to others; I am confident
it will change their lives as well." Barrett Williams, Raleigh
Charter High School student. Click
here for a typical itinerary for a high school group.
May 17-31, 2008
Appalachian State University, Department of Technology.
"Bringing technology to San Ramon".
Trip leaders: Ray Sinclair
"Raymond Scott Sinclair" rs78102@appstate.edu, 828-265-6169 and
Jeremy Ferrell jf71703@appstate.edu 828 773-6124.
March 9-16,2008
Durham Academy
Leader: Jordan Adair
jadair@da.org
home: 919 967-6605
school 919 490-0193 ext 471
March 23-30,2008
East Chapel Hill High School
Leader: Sandy Williamson
swilliamson@chccs.k12.nc.us
home 919 732-2991
school 919 969-2482 ext 269
March 14-20, 2008.
Bird Banding and Experiential Learning. EcoQuest
Travel/The Putney School.
Digital video of FEV and our ecotours
Use either of the following links to view a digital video of Finca Esperanza Verde and of our ecotours:
- 56K
modem
- high speed
The all inclusive trip fee excluding air fare per person is: $830 for 7 days in Finca Esperanza Verde and San Ramón. Airfare from the US East Coast ranges from $635 to $750 round trip. The only additional expense is the Nicaraguan entry visa of $5 which you purchase at the airport. If you have enjoyed your trip, we suggest tipping the staff at Finca Esperanza Verde $20-40. The trip fee includes meals, lodging, transportation, and a full schedule of organized activities and cultural performances. The trip price is low because the organizers in the U.S. are volunteers. Ten percent of the trip fee funds water and education projects in San Ramón. In 2001 and 2002, ecotourism income provided $5000 to build a rural elementary school near the farm, in 2003, 2004 and 2005 $6000 for a community built, gravity-fed water system in the La Pita Coffee Cooperative near the town of San Ramón and in 2006 and 2007 $14,783 for construction of the municipal water project for the town of San Ramón.
Reservation form and liability waiver
Download the reservation form and liability waiver for our ecotourism
trips:
- Reservation form: word
document or Adobe
Acrobat PDF
- Liability waiver: word document
or Adobe Acrobat PDF
Travel agents who have worked with Sister Communities of San Ramon and Finca Esperanza Verde
Mary Hernandez
305-668-4524 direct
Int'l. Group Travel Consultant
2250 Southwest 3rd Ave.,Ste 200
305-285-2822 direct
877-311-7331 toll free
Fax: 305-854-422
www.mtstravel.com
Brazilian Travel
Group Desk -Speak with Alex
http://www.braziliantravel.com,br>
Ph# (212) 579-1639 (direct line)
Group trips are organized by volunteer trip coordinators who go for FREE, including a $600 allowance for airfare, when they recruit 10 or more people or earn 50% of their trip cost when they recruit 7 – 9 people to go on an ecotour.
Working in the community and service trips
All trips include a rich array of activities and interactions with the local community. For those wishing to be of service to the community, here are some suggestions of activities tourists have enjoyed sharing with schools and community groups:
- Teach English in small groups to high school students in their classroom.
- Teach a children's game or art project to preschool-K children.
- Carry out a science experiment in a high school class room.
- Read a children's book in Spanish to K-3rd grade. Donate the book to
the class.
- Teach chess to children in the Municipal Library.
- Plant trees under the direction of Finca Esperanza Verde staff.
- Help out at the herbal medicine garden and pharmacy.
- Teach a child to play a band instrument.
- Lend moral support and/or expertise at the Los Pipitos Center for Handicapped
Children.
- Teach school children to play field sports.
Bring all equipment and supplies you will need and, when possible, donate them to the school or group you have worked with. Prepare written instructions in Spanish describing how the game or activity is carried out and leave them with the teacher. If you do not speak Spanish, we will try to provide a translator.