Totoco Foundation

TOTOCO organization is composed of the Totoco Eco Lodge , the Organic Farm and the TOTOCO Foundation. It is a registered Dutch foundation and it is working since October 2009. The Foundation activities are developed in Balgue town and its surroundings, in Maderas volcano, in the most remote part of the Ometepe island in Nicaragua and are managed by our full time coordinator Patricia Pillet.

Our philosophy is based on the idea that the projects respond to needs identified by the local community. With the goal that the local people see it as their duty and take charge of their own development and futur. The Projects of development take time, presence and patience and with that come many rewards but also frustration.There is a lot to do in Nicaragua, and if we can be part of a positive change then all the effort will be worthwhile.

For more information please visit www.totocofoundation.org

Ometepe Tourism updates

The yearly Nicaraguan tourism board meeting was held on Ometepe (end of June) and we are happy to announce that the construction of the airport (ETA Q1 2012) has been confirmed by all government authorities. They also confirmed that the road construction will first go to our Balgue community (ETA 2-3 months). This means that as soon as the road is there their would be only 800m of bumpy roads to reach us compared to 10km just 5 months ago. Bear in mind it is election year!

The first planes will be coming from Liberia (Costa Rica) which is a tourist hub for the region. Liberia – Ometepe is a 25 minute flight. Nature air from Costa Rica which specificaly aims at internal tourism flights has also shown interest to expand to Nicaragua. They just made a deal with the Managua airport and they are now looking at Ometepe and Corn island in the caribean. (http://www.natureair.com/).

Additionally, a new company has been set up that will bring Aquaplanes to Ometepe and opportunities to visit other Nicaraguan tourism destinations. http://nica-wings.com/eng/eng_index.html

All of this will directly lead to more tourism. There are some fears that an airport does not benefit Ometepe Biosphere Reserve but we believe that it will have a positive impact.

Neighbours

In this BLOG I would like to turn the attention to some of the other projects being developed in our surrounding area which is helping to make the Maderas volacano of Ometepe such a unique destination for people interested in sustainability.

Project Bona Fide (www.projectbonafide.com) is a non-profit organization working toward sustaining culture through organic agriculture, community correlated outreach, and re-forestation projects in Nicaragua. They have a 17 hectare farm here in Balgue where many thousands of trees have been planted over the past 8 years. Local workers and foreign volunteers help to further develop the project and every year an intense 3-week course on Permaculture is taught. The same organization also own the Mano Amiga community center where some of the TOTOCO Foundation projects are running.

El Zopilote (www.ometepezopilote.com) is a hostal and organic farm with space for 30 people that has been operating for almost 10 years now. They produce their own chocolate, jams, bread, tobacco and a range of other products. They employ various sustainable practices such as grey water recycling, renewable energy, waste separation and various eco-building techniques.

Finca Magdalena (www.fincamagdalena.com) is a locally owned and operated cooperative of farmers managing hundreds of hectares of coffee plantation and a large hacienda that houses a hostal. The coffee is grown organically and the cooperative is trying to expand the use organic techniques to other farming operations.

Inahnitah (www.inahnitah.com) is a new project specifically incorporating spirituality into the development of a model of sustainable living that includes organic agriculture as well as alternative building techniques.

Together with our neighbours we hope to continue stimulating the development of this volcano along sustainable lines.

Developing

The intensely busy December / January period is behind us but occupancy has remained high. Nicaragua welcomed over 1 million visitors for the first time in its history in 2010 and the economy in general has suffered less from the current global economic crisis than most of its Central American neighbours.

Other exciting developments in our area include the start of work on a new water system for the communities of Madroñal and Merida. TOTOCO is part of the Madroñal water system and although due to our elevated position we will not be directly connected to the new system it will hopefully improve service for ourselves as well as the rest of the community.

Elsewhere on the island heavy machinery has resumed work on the paving of the road towards our side of the island which had been stalled for almost three full months and was beginning to make me fear the worst! With elections planned for November however, I should have realized its probably just a case of timing the finish of the project just right.... We have made some repairs to our own private road by filling-in the worst parts with a special kind of sandy gravel.

Down at the TOTOCO Farm work has begun building a pig enclosure including a trough, a shelter and even a piggy pool! Everything to make sure our pigs are happy and content and therefore also extra tasty after 6 months of eating all the kitchen scraps from the restaurant. Liza from New York and Sam from Mexico have been our volunteers helping out over the past weeks.

High Season

We have yet to have an empty lodge so far in 2011 as the high season is proving to be just that- high. The additional option of the pool has added an extra dimension to the TOTOCO experience that will be even more appreciated as the temperature slowly increases over the coming months.

We are happy to have another Foundation volunteer staying on the Farm who is helping Patricia develop an ambitious health project. Hannah was a Farm volunteer who stayed with us for a short while and left on the day Steven arrived who will be with us for a few months. The coming months will see us expand Farm activities to include animal husbandry (pigs & chickens) which will be an exciting development .

Pool Party!

Finally, after much slow but steady progress, the TOTOCO swimming pool was finally successfully inaugurated this past Sunday! A week ago the pool was painted with 3 coats before final work on the waterfall feature was completed last Friday and now only some very minor details remain which will be completed over the coming days.

We have to wait for our reserve tank to fill again over the coming weeks before we can run the pool through the natural filtration system we have created but in the meantime our guests can enjoy swimming in what must be one of the most spectacular pool locations in the country. In the meantime we are forced to maintain water quality with traditional pool chemicals.


Martine & Courtney were our only two Farm volunteers after Emma left in November and they both stayed until the first week of December. We have been without volunteers since then but are expecting one girl to arrive this weekend and possibly another couple early next week. The Farm accomodations havn't gone unused though since Katerine, our latest intern helping up at the Eco-lodge has been staying there also for the past 2 months.

Painting, paving, plumbing and planting

As I am writing this we have started to slowly drain the swimming pool while taking advantage of the water for doing some heavy irrigation around the lodge. Early next week will see us cleaning the now cured cement after which we can apply three coats of special pool paint. Then it will need 7 days to dry before we can refill again.

We will have the missing elements in the pool's filtration system installed and ready to go before the refill so that the water quality can be optimally maintained from the start. This includes the installation of a 'solar slow pump', plumbing together 4 regeneration ponds and finishing the waterfall feature where water is reintroduced to the pool. Other outstanding tasks include paving the paths and terraces around the pool, placing a 'wash down' shower and planting ornamentals.

There has been a consistent flow of volunteers down at the TOTOCO farm over the past month; Emma (pictured with a sample of her already legendary homemade chocolate) and Stefan have formed an excellent team. They have put a lot of effort into inter planting the garden beds while expanding the production of edible greens, spinach and yard long beans. Pablo meanwhile has been busy with the weed-whacker in the citrus orchard where some heavy mulching will be needed for the trees to survive what looks likely to be a long dry-season.

Remodeling

In order to take some advantage of the October low-season, we are doing some important remodeling in the kitchen in order to make room for a larger and more appropriate oven & stove that has been invested in with financial help (50%) from the CEP program (with major financing from the Dutch embassy) we are enrolled in.

This is the same program through which 4 of our staff are receiving training and which is now providing financial subsidies for helping businesses make improvements in various areas. As a result we have moved the kitchen into the dormitory temporally.

Our team of 6 working on the pool project are finishing work facing the outside pool-wall with slate and are also well advanced on the landscaping of the areas surrounding the pool. Before the high season we plan to have at least 3 attractive 'umbrella' style natural thatch shade structures completed along with all the main paths and terraces as well as the feature ornamental plants and flowers.

A long awaited project that has recently been completed in the volunteer area at the TOTOCO Farm is the installation of a compost hot-water system. The impulse for this is the fact that Patricia's parents will be staying with Patricia an I in our house for a full month in November and we want their 'jungle experience' to be as comfortable as possible.