morgan's rock eco-retreat

mm
By: Teresa Bergen

If your idea of a vacation is falling asleep in a gorgeous bungalow made from exotic wood, listening to ocean waves, and waking up to monkey calls and excellent coffee from Nicaragua’s Matagalpa region, a stay at Morgan’s Rock in southwest Nicaragua may be for you.

Each bungalow has a spacious indoor living area and outdoor patio that’s sure to please traveling yogis. This is one place where you’ll never have to figure out which poses you can manage in a tiny space. And if you like outdoor yoga, then why not do your sun salutations on the private beach?

A huge nature preserve surrounds Morgan’s Rock ecolodge. You’ll share space with white-tipped deer, howler monkeys, two-toed sloths, iguanas, colorful land crabs, toucans and macaws. You can hike the grounds on your own, or set out with Bismar Lopez, the tour director who is a fount of knowledge of local flora and fauna.

Despite the isolated location, vegetarians need not worry. The dinner menu includes at least four veg entrees, plus salads and appetizers. Choose from pasta, vegetable lasagna, veggie kabobs, or other fresh and expertly prepared foods.

The land surrounding Morgan’s Rock is part of a 1,000-hectare reforestation project and 800 hectare private nature reserve. It’s one of the last big natural sanctuaries on Central America’s Pacific coast. In the past eight years, the Ponçon family, who own Morgan’s Rock and the surrounding nature reserve, have overseen the planting of more than 1.5 million hardwood and fruit trees.

The ecolodge follows a whole list of green practices. Workers recycle paper and plastic and compost food. They heat hot water via solar panels and treat the pool with salt rather than chlorine. Gray water is filtered and used for irrigation.

All these responsible practices can assuage your guilt about spending the day sitting on your patio, drinking the Nicaraguan coffee. This is a place to slow down, a land of wake-up knocks rather than wake-up calls. And the slower and quieter you become, the more you’ll hear the jungle all around you.

Read next >> qi palawan


| | Email |