Our goal for a Nicaragua program came to fruition last summer when Katherine Dayton, Spanish Language Programs Coordinator, traveled to Central and South America. She met with potential project partners and other folks to lay the groundwork for Nicaragua and for the new Ecuador sites as well. Katherine also re-connected with friends and partners in Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica. A bit about Nicaragua and Ecuador follows.
Nicaragua
The second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti, Nicaragua is the largest of Central American countries, although the least densely populated. Surprisingly, perhaps, the country contains 7% of the world's biodiversity and the second largest rainforest in the Americas after the Brazil Amazon. Twenty percent of Nicaragua is protected as national parks or biological reserves. Nevertheless, Nicaragua has experienced mass deforestation in the central region due to cattle, coffee production, and cutting for firewood. Efforts are underway to build an ecotourism industry, and other nonprofits are tackling deforestation and other ecological threats.
VISIONS Nicaragua is home-based in the province and city of the same name—Jinotega—well known for its coffee production. The city nestles at the base of a forested mountain range that nearly surrounds it. Pines and cloud forest species mix to gorgeous effect. A short drive to the north is Lake Apanas, a massive body of clean clear water for swimming and good for fishing, too. The climate in the highlands is cooler than in the lowlands. Travelers, and certainly tourists, are uncommon to Jinotega. For this reason VISIONS Nicaragua participants truly will be ambassadors as surely as volunteers in service in tranquillo traditional Nicaraguan communities this summer.
Ecuador and Galapagos Islands
Ecuador is no bigger than the state of Nevada and yet, despite its size, Ecuador is home to a variety of rich indigenous cultures and spectacularly diverse dramatic landscapes.
VISIONS Ecuador will unfold in two segments; half the program we will live on a Galapagos Island and the remaining time in an Andean village. The primary industries in the Galapagos Islands are fishing, tourism, and farming. Therefore, our projects will focus on related endeavors; additionally, we will organize activities for young school children. It goes without saying that recreation on the Galapagos will include exciting excursions to explore the unique wildlife around the archipelago.
Our home base in the Andes is Chaupiloma de Paraquia Tupigachi, under two hours from Quito. It is a classically beautiful Ecuadorian area situated on one of the many agricultural hillsides of the Andes. The views are sweeping and breathtaking with the clouds above rolling in and out. The villagers are kind, genuine, and open. As with so many places of the Andes, Chaupiloma is magical. In addition to helping at the community's organic farm and with other agricultural projects, other service will include a construction effort to help expand and complete work on the community center, organizing a campamento and teaching English to local school kids, and participating in a reforestation project near the headwaters of the spring that supplies water for the area. Our hosts will organize a week-long minga (all hands on deck for work projects) to work side by side with VISIONS participants