This ecotour is now over.
The leader of this trip, Carolyn Barrett, is a former Nicaraguan Peace Corps Volunteer, and has led many groups on ecotours across Nicaragua. The cost of this trip is $1,400, which includes all lodging, meals, transportation, and activities. It does NOT include airfare or COVID testing.
This itinerary is subject to change.
Day 1- Arrive to Managua, Nicaragua and spend the night in a hotel near the airport.
Day 2- Depart early for Selva Negra Coffee Farm and Ecolodge. After check-in and lunch, you’ll enjoy guided hike through the cloud forest with a trained guide and learn more about Nicaraguan flora and fauna.
Day 3- It’s an early morning for those who are interested in some birdwatching, but for everyone else, you can enjoy a slow morning simply taking in the natural beauty around you! Later in the morning you’ll take a coffee tour to learn how coffee is harvested and processed on the farm, and then later that day you’ll take a trip to a processing mill where you will complete a professional coffee “cupping”, or tasting, with trained cuppers.
Day 4- After breakfast we’ll depart for San Ramón. After meeting your host family, we’ll visit a center for children with disabilities, financed by SCSRN, and in the afternoon, we’ll visit some women’s cooperatives of local artisans to learn about traditional weaving and other practices that help these women provide for their families.
Day 5- Spend the morning at a rural elementary school, reading books and playing games with the children, while you learn more about life and education in rural Nicaragua. We’ll eat lunch at the home of a local coffee farmer to learn about his life and work. In the afternoon, you’ll visit the home of a local artisan for a workshop on jewelry-making, and end the day with a cooking class where you’ll make nacatamales, a popular Nicaraguan dish. Then you’ll enjoy a nacatamal dinner (made by the professionals) accompanied by live music.
Day 6- On this day we’ll say farewell to San Ramón, but not before first visiting a cacao cooperative and then a chocolate factory to learn about another of San Ramón exports: cacao. After lunch at the chocolate shop, we’ll continue on to the beautiful colonial city of Granada, where we’ll arrive in time for dinner and a walk around town.
Day 7- We’ll start the day with a boat tour of the tiny islands that border the shore of Lake Nicaragua, and then enjoy a lunch overlooking the breathtaking Laguna de Apoyo, a crater lake. After lunch we’ll visit the active Masaya volcano. The late afternoon is for doing your final souvenir shopping, and we end the day with a farewell dinner.
Day 8- Transfer to the Managua airport for departure.