view59December 2006

The Nest Trust

Nicaragua English and Sustainable Tourism
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Communities with or supporting rural tourism, where volunteers may be needed for local projects or to teach English 

Cafe Luz and Hostal Luna, Esteli, a great place to stay, eat and find information. A social enterprise supporting local projects and often looking for a range of volunteers.  

UCA San Ramon, Matagalpa  is a coffee cooperative with English speaking guides; there are coffee tours and facilities for visitors. 

UCA Soppexcca, Jinotega is a large coffee cooperative with 650 producers. 

 UCA Tierra y Agua, Granada  have a community-based tourism programme linked with three of their co-operatives.  

Community Tours,  El Ostional, San Juan del Sur, on a beautiful beach of the Pacific coast, south of San Juan del Sur, offer homestays, fishing and turtle watching. 

Ometepe Island has well developed rural tourism and a number of projects - see guide books.

UCA Miraflor was the first community to have an English for eco-tourism project and is where most of our work has been..


Cafe Luz and Hostal Luna, Esteli,
Established in 2007 by an ex-volunteer, Juanita, this great place is a hub for locals and travellers.
Cafe Luz
It's a social enterprise with projects and dreams encompassing renovation of schools, environmental education, a travelling library, an English club and much more in northern Nicaragua around the thriving town of Esteli. You'll meet like minded travellers and locals. There are always opportunities, in Miraflor and in and around Esteli for volunteers who can stay several weeks, even months.

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UCA San Ramon, Matagalpa

UCA San Ramon has a rural tourism project based in four communities in the beautiful coffee growing region of Matagalpa. Each community has a few  young people training as guides and around 8 families who offer accommodation.

view at volunteer's family

NEST Trust volunteers began teaching here in  2006 and will finish in 2009.

Volunteers have lived in  La Reina, a  community close to San Ramon., in San Ramon and in Matagalpa.

family members
More information

A welcoming host family

UCA Soppexcca, Jinotega.

Jinotega is a small country town set in the bowl of an ancient volcano. UCA Soppexcca have a good cafe in town (great expressos and capucchinos) and two rural stay locations.

In 2008 a volunteer taught some office staff but interest was limited at that time. Classes in a rural community were more successful but the living conditions were not sufficiently developed.

Jinotega coffee labCoffee cuppers (the equivalent of a wine taster)   demonstrate how they assess the quality of the coffee, at harvest time and in storage. They can identify cultivation problems and help the farmers to gain a better harvest.

For tourists, there is a homestay run by Dona Flora in a nearby community. In 2004, 2005 and 2006 she came third in the national 'Tasa de Cafe' coffee tasting competition. Rural tourism is a new venture for this coffee exporting co-operative.

UCA Tierra y Agua (Earth and Water) 

UCA Tierra y Agua have an office in Granada and three communities involved with tourism, situated south of Granada not far from the Pan American highway.

community house La GranadilloNEST Trust volunteers taught here from 2008 to 2009.

UCA Tierra y Agua's tourism is communal. This is the community builiding in El Grandillo where women benefit from a rota for the cooking. There is communally owned accommodation in Nicaragua Libre. In both communities there are guides, and horse or bike rental. 

Aguas Agrias

The third community, at Aguas Agrias, provides a service for those who visit the beautiful clear, soft waters to bathe.

Community Tours, El Ostional, San Juan del Sur

The beach at El Ostional. Fishermen mend their nets during the day and set out to fish in the early morning. Beach_El_Ostional

The community wanted volunteers but we never had the capacity to place someone there.
ostional_family_kitchen







This is the kitchen in the house of a family taking in visitors and willing to host a volunteer.






UCA Miraflor

UCA Miraflor was the first community to have an English for eco-tourism project. Volunteers taught there from 2002-2007.
Click above to learn about UCA Miraflor tourism and find contact details.

You can view the comments of past volunteers here.
The project newsletters give you a feel for living in a community on the Miraflor Nature Reserve, and for the work and life of  volunteers. If you're thinking about volunteering, read some of the volunteers reports to get a feel for the experience.

For several communities, consumers buying fairtrade / fair trade coffee assists in raising their quality of life. Soppexcca can sell just 60% of its coffee at the fairtrade price, because that's all the demand there is from us at the moment. From their social premium they gain around $30,000 to invest in education and health programmes each  year - giving families opportunities for the future. And the farmers themselves get $18 extra for every 100lbs of their coffee that is exported. Fairtrade makes a difference to these people (it's not the full answer - that will be all trade being fair: www.makepovertyhistory.org ). Please buy Fairtrade goods whenever you can www.fairtrade.org.uk and support the Trade Justice movement www.tjm.org.uk.