Finca Esperanza Verde
FEV is south of El Jaguar and east of Matagalpa. Near the town of San Ramon, FEV, like El Jaguar grows coffee. It is indeed a finca, or farm, with farming a big part of what happens there. All veggies eaten on site are grown on site. Fruit trees provide too.
FEV is run by an NGO out of North Carolina. It was started with community development principles firmly in mind. These principles are enacted through donations to the community of San Ramon, building schools and other activities. All employees at the Finca are from San Ramon, except for Giff, the administrator.
I stayed for three days, wandering the forest and trails, visiting the mariposaria (butterfly house), and talking with Giff. A sloth hung from a tree near the parking area. Bananas hang between two trees attracting birds. Convenient rocking chairs on the hill above the bananas made for easy bird watching.
The cabins are comfortable and small seemingly designed to encourage you to be outside as much as possible. The local brick makes the cabins very cozy as the temperatures cool at night.
Benjamin guided me around the Finca, through Sendero Amarillo winding through the topography to the reserve borders and back deep in the forest to a Cascada Manakin. Benjamin is an eager, enthusiastic guide, learning the ecology, birds and plants of the Finca. We spent some time learning how to use the bird guide books, matching plates to distribution maps to identify birds and where they live in Mexico and Central America. No one had taught him how to do that. He was an avid student and his future clients will definitely benefit.
Benjamin is in an interesting situation at the Finca. With a university degree he is considered an outsider in San Ramon, even though it is his home. His lack of knowledge about using the guide books may be a result of the other guides deliberately not teaching him. They may see him as a threat. He will be a very good guide if he can make a go of it at the Finca.
Norlan (l) and Benjamin (r) rest on the Sendero Amarillo.
FEV is run by an NGO out of North Carolina. It was started with community development principles firmly in mind. These principles are enacted through donations to the community of San Ramon, building schools and other activities. All employees at the Finca are from San Ramon, except for Giff, the administrator.
I stayed for three days, wandering the forest and trails, visiting the mariposaria (butterfly house), and talking with Giff. A sloth hung from a tree near the parking area. Bananas hang between two trees attracting birds. Convenient rocking chairs on the hill above the bananas made for easy bird watching.
The cabins are comfortable and small seemingly designed to encourage you to be outside as much as possible. The local brick makes the cabins very cozy as the temperatures cool at night.
Benjamin guided me around the Finca, through Sendero Amarillo winding through the topography to the reserve borders and back deep in the forest to a Cascada Manakin. Benjamin is an eager, enthusiastic guide, learning the ecology, birds and plants of the Finca. We spent some time learning how to use the bird guide books, matching plates to distribution maps to identify birds and where they live in Mexico and Central America. No one had taught him how to do that. He was an avid student and his future clients will definitely benefit.
Benjamin is in an interesting situation at the Finca. With a university degree he is considered an outsider in San Ramon, even though it is his home. His lack of knowledge about using the guide books may be a result of the other guides deliberately not teaching him. They may see him as a threat. He will be a very good guide if he can make a go of it at the Finca.
Norlan (l) and Benjamin (r) rest on the Sendero Amarillo.
posted by Michael at 4:58 PM
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