Shift down a gear...
and appreciate life, travel, and learning at a slower pace in rural Nicaragua, one of the safest and least traveled countries in Central America. This trip is focused on the knowledge of medicinal plants of rural Nicaraguan farmers and coffee growers. This is a rustic and unforgettable experience in a place where few people travel. Those who do, leave changed forever.
You will spend most of the trip in areas with very little electricity, sparse phone service, and no running water. As a result, your will appreciate the challenge, but also the beauty, of the way of life of Nicaraguan coffee farmers. Arranged activities will include medicinal tea and plant workshops, tours of organic farms, medicinal gardens, and organic coffee plantations, forest hikes, and yoga for those who practice. You will have ample free time to reflect, meditate, explore the rural communities, or spend with your host family. You will also have time for your personal mindfulness practice, be it yoga, meditation, writing, or other means of reflection.
You should be in good physical shape as the group will do a considerable amount of hiking and walking on farms, pastures, and forests. If you wish to practice yoga, please bring your mat.
Day 1: Arrive to Nicaragua (Managua Airport - MGA) in the evening and meet other participants at a nearby hotel. Join your trip leaders for an orientation and introduction to the trip.
Day 2: Take a scenic drive to the Nicaraguan highland city of Estelí. You will pass volcanoes and open mountain vistas, and stop for a fresh corn tortilla and country cheese snack along the way. You'll have lunch in Estelí, and tour some of its hundreds of murals that depict historical, political, and environmental themes. Then drive more than 1500 vertical feet up to the pleasantly cool climate of Miraflor Nature Reserves, a model protected area featuring hundreds of bird species and three climate zones, including the cloud forest. Upon arrival you will meet your host family and the members of the rural women's coffee and tourism cooperative. The rest of the day will be free to immerse yourself in rural life and enjoy dinner with your Nicaraguan family.
Day 3: Follow optional sunrise yoga and/or meditation at a stunningly scenic overlook with a tour of the community and the coffee plantations. Zen out as you pick fresh coffee beans together with your local guide. You'll also learn about the rest of the coffee process by shelling it, drying it, and roasting it over a wood-fired stove. You will learn about the history of its cultivation in Nicaragua and the Miraflor Nature Reserve, including by the women's cooperative that will be hosting your visit. From the same women, you will learn about the difficult history of this region during the Nicaraguan Civil War of the 1980s. After a group lunch you will have some free time with an optional hike or yoga practice. Dinner will be with your host family. Feel free to participate in its preparation and clean up. Bed time here is soon after 8pm. Enjoy the rest.
Day 4: Milk cows as the sun rises then get into morning yoga. Afterwards, join a community leader and matriarch of one of the host families in a workshop on medicinal tea. You will learn how to cultivate medicinal plants at home and how to steep them into tea. Along the way you will learn between 5 and 10 recipes of medicinal tea. Like the day before, after lunch you have time to enjoy with your family, practice yoga, explore the community, or just lay in a hammock. You can also help prepare dinner and clean up.
Day 5: Rise early for a two-hour hike up to the cloud forest, passing farms, stunning landscapes, and tiny highland communities on the way. You might see many of the hundreds of bird species that live in the nature reserve. Part of the hike will be in silence to find a bridge between your inner self and the natural environment surrounding you. Upon arriving at a highland eco-lodge, you will rest and enjoy a delicious meal. After some free time in the afternoon for personal mindfulness practice, join a local chef to learn a vegetarian variation of Nicaragua's famous tamales.
Day 6: Continue your mindfulness practice in the morning before or after breakfast, then join a local medicinal plant expert for a walk through his garden and the surrounding cloud forest to identify and discuss medicinal uses of local plants. On the way you might see blooming orchids, walk along interpretive nature trails, and pass a coffee tasting laboratory. Enjoy free time in the evening for reflection or relaxation.
Day 7: After a pleasant morning of sipping coffee and/or herbal tea you will head back down to the warmth of the Nicaraguan low lands. Drive to the colonial jewel Granada, arriving in time for a healthy vegetarian lunch and then a city tour featuring beautifully restored colonial buildings, a pre-Colombian art and culture museum, and churches with 360 degree city vistas. You will say goodbye to Nicaragua and your fellow travelers during a delicious and healthy farewell dinner in one of Granada's best restaurants. This will be your best chance to reflect on the medicinal plant, tea, and coffee knowledge gained from the trip to rural Nicaragua and on any insights gained from spending nearly a week disconnected from the distractions of modern life. You'll head to Managua for your last night before your flight.
Day 8: Depending on the selected flight, you will likely have an early flight to return home with new insights and unforgettable experiences.
* This itinerary is subject to change.
What you will learn
From rural Nicaraguan farmers, you will learn a variety of medicinal tea recipes using easy to grow herbs and plants.
From a women's organic coffee cooperative, you'll learn by participating in the traditional process of harvesting, drying, and wood-fire roasting coffee in a rural Nicaraguan home, while also discussing coffee's medicinal qualities.
From a local expert, you'll learn a variety of plants that can be used medicinally while walking his farm and the nearby cloud forest.
From a dairy farmer, you'll learn how to milk a cow the old fashioned way.
From people who lived it, you'll learn about the Nicaraguan revolution and civil war which took place during the 1980s.
You'll learn to appreciate rural life with little to no phone, internet, electricity, or running water.
Amenities
Upon arrival and the last night before departure you will stay in a mid-range hotel in Managua. In the Nicaraguan highland countryside you will stay with a home stay family for three nights. Be prepared for a unique, rustic, intercultural experience, with no running water, very little electricity, a very limited phone service. You will also stay two nights in less rustic, more private, but equally disconnected cabins. Some accommodations may require multiple people to share a room.
Cost
$1480/person, $1380 early registration before June 30th, 2018
What's included
Includes: all meals, lodging in double occupancy accommodations, ground transportation, airport transfer, all activities, and guide/translator.
Excludes: airfare, health insurance, alcoholic beverages, $10 tourist visa (paid in cash upon arrival), and personal spending.
“From tree-top to tree-top flitting
The birds greet you with sweet lay,
Finding joyance in your beauty
Fairer than the birth of day;
And the haughty oaks and hemlocks
Bend their leafy branches green
Forming rustling, regal arches
For the passage of a queen.
All is perfume, song and radiance;
Flowers open and birds sing:
O Beloved, ‘tis the season
Of the Spring!”
