This ecotour is now over.
If you are a student at UNI and are interested in this course, here is a sneak peek at the itinerary for this amazing learning experience:
Day 1: Arrival to Managua, Nicaraga
Day 2: Visit to a beautiful artisan town with a lookout over a volcanic crater lake, where you will have the opportunity to participate in a ceramics workshop. Then travel to San Ramon and take a tour of the town to learn about everyday life in a typical Nicaraguan community. Settle in for your first night with a host family.
Day 3: Visit a rural, coffee-producing community, where you will tour a coffee farm and hear a little about what life is like for coffee-producing families. In the evening, enjoy a dance class where you will learn Nicaraguan and Latin American dance steps.
Day 4: You will visit a cacao cooperative, where you will learn about the chocolate-production process. Later, you will visit the city of Matagalpa, and finish the day with a cooking class, where you will learn how to make nacatamales, a traditional Nicaraguan dish.
Day 5: On this day, you’ll visit an indigenous weaving community, and see how they make a living making handmade woven products. In the afternoon, you’ll travel to Finca Esperanza Verde, a coffee farm and eco-lodge founded by Sister Communities, where you’ll be staying the night. You’ll take a hike in the cloud forest and a tour of a butterfly hatchery, and end the day with a bonfire accompanied by local musicians.
Day 6: In the morning you’ll have the option to go birdwatching, and later a cooking class to learn how to make traditional tortillas. In the afternoon, you’ll depart for Leon, and arrive at Rancho de los Alpes, where you’ll bring in the New Year Nica-style!
Day 7: Since January 1st is a holiday, you’ll have a chill day. On this day, you’ll visit a local church in a rural community to see how Nicaraguans celebrate the beginning of the new year.
Day 8: Do crafts and play with children at a rural primary school, then relax in the afternoon on the beach. In the evening, help release baby sea turtles into the ocean!
Day 9: In the morning, you’ll visit an orphanage to play games and do crafts with the children, and in the afternoon you’ll take a tour of Leon square and the basilica.
Day 10: This is the day you’ll get your hands dirty! You’ll be helping the Boy Scouts of Leon to repairs some old desks for a rural schools called Triolo.
Day 11: As your trip winds down, you’ll get to have the amazing adventure of volcano boarding – it’s like surfing, but down the side of a volcano! You’ll finish up the day with your last night at El Rancho.
Day 12: In the morning, you’ll say goodbye to Leon and head back to Managua, where you’ll do a tour a famous historical sites in the city. You’ll check in to your hotel in front of the airport, where you can relax by the pool.
Day 13: With a tearful goodbye to Nicaragua, catch your flight home!