La Mariposa News – more upbeat – come on down!

La Mariposa has students and reservations – We have been busy with students at the Mariposa Spanish School and Eco Hotel. First a family of 5, including Cheyanne, 3 years old, stayed with us for 6 weeks over Xmas – they helped us release 30 iguana back into the wild. It was very hard to see them go as they had become part of the Mariposa but the same day a group from the USA arrived to stay in the hotel, take classes and do trips. This group included another family with a child of 8, she enjoyed her one on one teachers, the cooking class and of course our animal life.

It seems from talking to members of the group that people feel safer coming here with an organised group than travelling alone.  This one was co-led by Brian Peterson, an old friend of La Mariposa and of course our wonderful staff were on hand to arrange anything from a special outing to a room change. The success we had with this group made me think we should do it again! Also worth remembering that La Mariposa has many years of experience working with groups of university and high school students at the Study Center which is available and much cheaper than the hotel…….SO if any of you are in a position to recruit a group, of any age group, let us know. Or indeed if you know anybody who might be interested. The work on your side really involves mostly the publicity – we can do the rest and as we employ excellent tour guides you are welcome to be a group member rather than leader once here. I attach the flier we used for this trip…..If you can bring 6 or more, we will offer a special price and YOU get a free place!
2019 Nicaraguan Adventure Brochure (1)2019 Nicaraguan Adventure Brochure pg. 2 (1)

We are now offering our FULL program of afternoon/weekend activities from live volcano, beach & colonial city to horseriding & salsa classes! As well as one on one Spanish with trained and experienced teachers, accomodation in delightful natural settings and great, mostly vegetarian, food. You can volunteer…below Mark leads a horse on our equino therapy project for disabled children. We very much welcome families with children of any age – they also have one on one classes or activity sessions with specially trained teachers. 

We do currently have a scattering of reservations throughout the year and it does seem as if international tourism is beginning to make a slight but noticeable recovery. It is important to stress that Nicaragua is SAFE for tourists and, in spite of the deteriorating economic situation here for many people, ordinary crime has NOT risen. And please note that the UK, USA and Canadian governments are still advising caution but not against travel here.
Read and pass on our reviews from December 2018 and this year.
https://www.tripadvisor.com.mx/Hotel_Review-g551472-d677852-Reviews-La_Mariposa_Spanish_School_and_Eco_Hotel-Masaya_Masaya_Department.html
La Mariposas SKYPE class initiative has also been going well and kept several of our excellent teachers employed. At $12 per hour they are great value. Contact us on lamariposaspanishschool06@gmail.com for details.
News from Asocacion Tierra and the projects – ALL of our projects are up and running,and we still have 60 employees, though clearly we have cut back on outgoings in general and most are on half time. Chispa de Vida, the equino therapy, the hydro therapy, the community based children’s reading and play centers, the English class project in Panama are all still going strong. We are maintaining the nature reserves and are planning a lot more reforestation in the coming year. The crisis has also had the positive result in pushing us to grow more of our own food – so we now produce more of our own organic coffee, beans, fruit, eggs as well as veggies. We had a huge harvest of mandarins this year.

You will probably all think us crazy – opening a new community based childrens project when we have no money. Two reasons – the need is obvious, around 100 kids and their parents turned up for the opening.
Second, this is in a barrio commonly referred to as El Chirigete which is highly offensive and means ‘dirty’ – it is the barrio everyone else blames for thefts or when anything goes wrong! Ignored in general by the authorites (except the police), the people of San Pedro were very involved in the opposition to the government and the building of roadblocks. Most of the young men fled from this barrio during ‘Operation Clean Up’ and are now in Costa Rica.
So the idea of this project was to contribute to the process of reconciliation – I have been invited 3 times to join the local Council of Reconciliation and have always accepted the invitation with great enthusiasm. But as far as I know, it has never actually met so we decided to go ahead and do our bit anyway.
It seems to have worked – you can see how many kids showed up! A message of hope and a future for the kids of this community.
If you would like to contribute, please donate via www.masmariposas.org

 
Although we have cut back on sterilization clinics, we are still helping animals. A  magnificent two toed sloth arrived at the gate. We normally resist the purchase of wild animals for obvious reasons but sometimes the need of the individual animal takes over. They are in danger of extinction and now rarely seen around here. Our vet Sergio happened to be around and he pronounced her very healthy so she was taken to join our male (as luck would have it) at the Canada Honda nature reserve.
We have also taken in a few abandoned puppies and kittens- below they are being bathed and deflead by Sergio.


We have also undertaken a number of environmental projects including regular street cleaning with the Ministry of Health and building ‘pozos’ in backyards to clean soapy water….we are trying to persuade local people to join us!


Lots of people – students, staff, interns – have helped us enormously to stay alive and keep some employment and hope alive in our community. Too many to thank everyone individually – below is Michelle doing a fundraiser for us.

Wish us all luck and if you would like to help us help the environment and people of our community, especially the children, and our animals then please contribute on www.masmariposas.org THANK YOU!