Hacienda Merida – a vacation from our vacation

The town of Merida (probably about 200 souls) is on the far side of Ometepe.  You can only reach it with a very sturdy four-wheel drive, a mountain bike, the chicken bus, or by boat.  It is truly nestled in the jungle and surrounded by water.

Most of the inhabitants of the town (or island for that matter) survive by farming (plantains, rice, and tropical fruit), fishing, livestock, or a tourist related trade.  One popular new industry is to open your farm to tourists who want to live with a Nica farming family for a bit.

The Hacienda Merida is owned and operated by Alvaro Molina.  He is a Nica, but is also a US citizen and lived many years in Florida before coming home to set up an environmentally conscious hostel and English school.  You cannot be at the Hacienda for more than fifteen minutes without Senor Molina showing you photos, telling stories, or showing video about his passion – improving Nicaragua (and we know – we heard him do it every time a new visitor straggled in!)

Hacienda Merida

Senor Molina, like all people, is multifaceted.  He is friendly, passionate, but headstrong and opinionated as well.  He loves to visit with guests as they pass through his hostel, but can be bossy with his staff and can often be heard ordering a simple cup of coffee instead of walking a few feet to get his own.  And when Senor Molina speaks to his staff – they run.

But he loves his country - and he is very ingenious.  He will not serve beef in his restaurant because he feels that beef is causing deforestation.  All of the meals are wholesome and made from scratch.  Fresh fruit, stone ground wheat, and cold beer. 

It doesn’t take but a few minutes in Nicaragua to see that people just throw their trash where they please – and it’s ugly, smelly, and draws insects and illness.  Senor Molina pays local children $C 20 ($1) to fill liter water bottles with trash (solving two problems at once).  He collects these and then incorporates them into projects requiring concrete.  He just uses the bottles as part of the filler.

Senor Molina also believes that Nicaraguans will dramatically improve their positions if they learn English (we have repeatedly seen that this is true).  So, he offers reduced cost lodging and meals to people who will commit to teach English to young children during a multi-week stay.  The program appears very successful and we saw it in action several times.  Many local kids (including his own ADORABLE daughter Itzel – are learning English and Spanish at the same time).

Itzel Molina - 3 Years Old

We had a great time getting to know Senor Molina and observing him building his dream.  Who says one person can’t make a difference?