Selva Negra Coffee Plantation
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2006
1
92
110
Trip End
Apr 01, 2008
Matagalpa,
Nicaragua
Saturday, June 7, 2008
After a trip to the ATM to get Nicaraguan "cordobas," although everyone calls them pesos, a 40 minute cab took me blessedly uphill to lush rain forest (some called it cloud forest, which it appeared to me to be) at around 4,000 feet above sea level. I never found out how many acres the estate, resort and mountain trails covered but it was big. The guided tour by truck (although slow) took an hour. Enough acres of coffee to produce 500,000 pounds a year, primarily for export. Plus, they grew flowers, had a worm farm for topsoil production, raised cows, pigs, goats, chickens, turkeys and quail, had several lakes with fish, cured hams, salamis and leberkase, made their own cheese and butter, and had horses for riding. There are over 250 full-time workers on the plantation (including their families, a school, and a communal kitchen) and another 250 temporary workers are hired for the three months of coffee harvest. Unsurprisingly, they are about as eco-sustainable as possible. All electricity is generated by rain water runoff. Every part of the coffee bean is used, including the inner membrane to make methane, which is used by the staff for cooking. Even human waste is treated, composted, and used as fertilizer.
The place had detached bungalows, a building with hotel-type rooms, and youth hostel-style accomodation. Plus, a large restaurant sitting on the main lake (with its gaggle of barking geese), chapel, conference rooms, a playground, and weddingesque places. It is a bavarian style since it was started by German immigrants, hence the "Black Forest" name, and their decendants still own it. The food reflected that heritage, serving mostly German dishes made with the livestock, cured meats, eggs, cheeses and vegetable made on the plantation. Unfortunately, they had no cow tongue available the night I requested it, but the marinated quail eggs were excellent.
Further, it has several miles of trails through the forest on the mountain above the plantation for hiking which contain howler, spider and capuchin monkeys, coatis and sloths. I didnīt see any, although I did hear the howler monkeys above me somewhere. I, however, did see a couple of quetzals, several agoutis, and another large rodent slightly different than the one I wanted to eat in Guatemala (but I was told they donīt eat them here) and lots of big, fat frogs. Regardless, the forest is interesting in and of itself because of the staggering variety of the flora (and insects). Plus, because the forest is, not only rained on a lot, but often shrouded in mist and cloud, many of the plants such as the ferns and bromeliads get their moisture direct from the air rather than through roots. As a result, the trails could be a bit of a muddy slog as they winded up and down over rushing brooks and runneling rain.
Otherwise, there was not all that much exciting about what I did. There were only two other groups of guests as far as I could tell, one family from Vallejo and a backpacking couple. In what is sounding redundant, in between short but torrential rain storms, I hiked around, read, ate, tried several of the different vintages of the Nicaraguan rum - Flor de Cuba - which I like much more than Cuba's Havana Club, wandered the plantation, and smoked local cigars on the deck overlooking the lake and geese. Oh, and I was frequently awoken by those same geese, and their friends the frogs, at night and in the early morning when they would all start honking at once. As best I could figure it out, geese can only say one thing - "Me too, me too!" I never quite figured it out why, but once one started, all the others would flock to it saying - re whatever it was - "Me too, me too!" But, then again, I was only here about 36 hours to work on these burning questions of nature. Next is:
Granada, Nicaragua.
A View From the Restaurant Patio
