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.