This ecotour is now over.
Trip Itinerary
Day 1: Arrive to the Managua airport and depart for the colonial city of Granada. Have lunch at a restaurant overlooking a volcanic lake, and then take a tour of the active Masaya Volcano. Later, check in at the historic Colonial Hotel in downtown Granada, with dinner at the Garden Café.
Day 2: After breakfast, take a boat tour of the tiny islands in Lake Nicaragua. Then, after a lunch downtown, stop by the traditional Masaya market before heading north to San Ramón. Upon arrival to San Ramón, meet the SCSRN staff and take a tour of the town. Then settle in with your host family, enjoy a family dinner, and then go to your dance class, where you’ll learn traditional Latin American dances.
Day 3: After breakfast with your host family, visit your sister school, El Jicaro #2, for games and crafts. Then return to town for lunch with your host families, and birdwatching hike that ends with a swim in a local community. In afternoon, you’ll get the opportunity to buy local crafts at the craft market, and after dinner, a local dance troupe will perform for you at the library.
Day 4: Once again, visit your sister school to spend more time with the teachers and students and learn more about their community. In the afternoon, attend two workshops to see how some local crafts are made: recycled paper stationery and jewelry made from seeds. In the evening, a cooking lesson to learn how to make traditional nacatamales, and then a dinner accompanied by musicians.
Day 5: After breakfast, visit a local cocoa cooperative to see the entire process of making chocolate. Have lunch in the neighboring city of Matagalpa, and then visit a lookout point to get a bird’s eye view of the city and surrounding mountains. In the afternoon, you’ll receive a short talk about the history of San Ramón from a local historian, and then in the evening you’ll attend a farewell party with your host families in the park.
Day 6: After breakfast, you’ll say goodbye to your new friends in San Ramón and head up into the mountains to Finca Esperanza Verde, an organic coffee farm and eco-lodge. After settling into your cabins and enjoying a delicious lunch, take a hike through the tropical cloud forest. In the evening, meet the staff and play some board games.
Day 7: Wake up for some early morning birdwatching, and then after breakfast, take a tour of the coffee plantation. You’ll get to pick some coffee yourself! Then in the afternoon, take a cooking lesson to learn how coffee is traditionally roasted and how to make corn tortillas. Then enjoy a hike at dusk to see all the animals that come out, like monkeys and sloths.
Day 8: Do a little birdwatching, and then go for a tour of the organic garden to see where the majority of FEV’s food is produced. In the afternoon, go on a hike and visit the butterfly hatchery. Enjoy your last day at FEV, and finish up with a bonfire and live music.
Day 9: Get your last birdwatching in, and then after breakfast, say your goodbyes and head to the airport!
The cost of this trip is $1,260, and includes all in-country transportation, lodging, and scheduled activities. It does NOT include airfare to and from Nicaragua.