Day 2: El Porvenir

Another day in Nicaragua and it was rather long. It is great to wake up naturally in our dormitory, with the sound of birds and far off roosters outside. The light pours in through the mosquito nets and there is a remarkable sense of calm as nearly 30 people sleep in the same small room.

Today we traveled for about 3 hours to the top of a moutain to get to El Porvenir, which translates to "The Future."The trip there and back was rough and long. Half of our bus ride was through an old dried up arroyo/river bed and I was shocked the bus made it! El Porvenir is a coffee cooperative in the Los Maribios cordillera (mountain range). We learned about organic coffee farming and saw traditional shucking and harvesting from the coop. Rene, the vice president of the coop, told us how there were 286 inhabitants (in 45 families) living and working on the coop land. They provide education up to the 11th grade which I thought was awesome as the average Nica has a 4th grade education. We hiked to vista maravillosa where we could see Honduras and the smoldering Volcan La Casita.

My internet time is up for now, but here are a few vocab words:
oveja - sheep
abono - fertilizer
pala - shovel
piocha - pick axe.

Oh, and Aunt Rita, our tools yesterday were only shovels, pick axes and a tractor. Oh and 30 people.... :)

Hasta!