trees – MEMANTA

Since our move to Venecia in December 2018, there has been a lot of stuff happening. We have been preparing for the construction of the project infrastructure, adapting to our new life in remoteness, planting a lot of trees, discovering some native animals during the dry season and saving our very first turtle nests. But just see for yourself!

New challenges

Following the big move to our house, there was still a lot of work to be done. We planted a good amount of fruit trees, set up some small irrigation systems, further deepened our well, built an artisanal biofilter to treat our sewage water, improved the fence all around the property and found a nice spot up on the trees where there’s some good internet connection 😉

Melvin getting started on the biofilter

biofilter: up and running

just look how our plants grow!

young bay laurel tree

Continue reading “Living in a lonesome paradise” →

Our beautiful piece of land is situated on one of the northernmost beaches on the Nicaraguan Pacific Coast called “Playa Venecia“. This beach stretches from the Padre Ramos estuary, a protected zone with lots of mangroves and critically endangered Hawksbill turtles, aaaaaalllllllll the way to the fishing village of Mechapa.
Despite some local houses, small fincas and a few expat homes, it is still considered a virgin beach with lots of native vegetation. This kilometer-long and conveniently wide stretch of sand is an important nesting ground for Olive Ridley sea turtles and maybe also for other types of sea turtles… the thing is: we don’t really know the details yet.

Venecia is one of the last spots on the Nicaraguan Pacific Coast which you would call “untouched”. It is at least untouched from tourism, but there have always been people from the local fishing communities living here. As one of the first businesses bringing tourism to this zone, we want to demonstrate that development per se isn’t bad for the environment, and that it can fit into highly sensitive coastal ecosystems if it is done right. Hopefully, we can act as a role model for any future building projects taking place on this very special peninsula, being an example for best practices when it comes to the coexistence of tourism development, community welfare and conservation efforts.

Continue reading “May I introduce… the future MEMANTA site!” →