Natural Filtration

The swimming pool has water! There is plenty of work to do still but this past Monday, as the pool was still filling, our eager intern Ernst inaugurated it with a graceful dive. Since then Chris and I have been installing the different filters that will work to keep the water clean. At the moment there is plenty of algae which was in the water stored in the rain capture tank but this will provide an excellent opportunity to learn how to manage our pool naturally before we drain it in order to paint it in about 10 weeks and give it the official launch.

The filtration process is a combination of aeration, plant filtration, sand filtration and special disc filters designed to capture algae. The next few weeks will teach us much about the effectiveness and maintenance requirements of the different elements of the system.

In the area of marketing it was scary to see my own clean-shaven face on television as part of the 'Destinos' program on CNN en Español. The whole show was about Nicaragua and Ometepe featured heavily. The part about TOTOCO focused on our sustainable practices and of course the 'priviledged' view as they called it. When we get a copy of the show I will be sure to make it available to anyone interested.

Moving on to the TOTOCO Farm, recent efforts to promote our volunteer program are bearing fruit and we have recently welcomed Quinn & Alex from the US who are eager to learn about organic farming as they travel through Latin America looking for a place to start their own farm.

To anyone using Facebook, we invite you to become friends of TOTOCO Eco-lodge!