May Update

Happy May to you,

We were busy last month, and nearly forgot to feed Solo.



Actually, these two are great friends and they have a steady diet of leftovers. These are rice and bean eating critters. They are also very opportunistic and will eat just about anything. I haven't seen a finicky pet in Nicaragua. I haven't seen any fat ones either.




We fixed a problem we had last rainy season when water was coming off the Gigante road in front of Selva Del Mar, and was making a muddy mess across our entrance road on its way to the creek. So now we are helping it along.










Now the runoff will go under the road















and move through the channel to the creek.













Here is the channel running to the creek.















In this picture, we are looking toward the entrance and the Gigante road. I like how we built around the tree.













Special thanks to Rick and Segio for all their hard work. Doing a development project is complicated in the states and Nicaragua has an extra layer of sneaker sets one must duck dive. They are shouldering most of the load for project supervision and doing a great job while navigating some tricky but very promising waters.
















The entrance road has been surfaced with crushed rock, so we are ready for May's rains, and the beginning of green season.




The creek crossing is done. Here is Rick, trying it out.















We also put crushed rock on Calle Monte de Oro. We left trees in the middle of the road near the rotunda (cul de sac)













We added a few more gaviones up near lot 1, so it will be safer to turn around up there.

We are still working to reduce costs and refine the design for the Bamboo project. You can only cut the bamboo on a full moon, so our next window is late May. We have obtained an appraisal for the front property and have a pro forma for those of you who are interested in investing in our bamboo project. If you would like more information, please email me at lincolngardner@sdmnica.com


Selva Del Mar and one of our lot owners, Joe Gilbert, are helping Gigante to revive their baseball team. We are helping out in the preparation of the local baseball field and we are supplying uniforms and other baseball related goodies to the team. Our local sales agent and community leader, Zacharias, who is an excellent player (he was given a major leagues tryout) is organizing the team (that's Cody in the picture, not Zach). If you would like to contribute to the program in any way, please let us know by sending me an email at lincolngardner@sdmnica.com.

Saludes!

April 2088 Update

Greetings from Selva del Mar. Dry season means howling offshore winds. And April usually means a couple of good swells. If you've been following nicaraguasurfreport.com, you know that March had some really good surf. Keep it coming!

The dry season is also a good time to get infrastructure work done at Selva Del Mar. We've been trucking in lots of rock, sand and cement.

The creek crossing uses a lot of the rock.

If the water gets to the top of the posts, driving across would be sketchy. So it's good to have a gauge. If it gets that high, you might want to use the planned footbridge. This rarely happens, though October is a pretty good bet for high water. Any other time of year, and the water level, if any, will nearly always be low enough to drive across. When it does get that high, it typically subsides within a couple of hours.

A lot of crushed rock is being graded into the roads so they won't get too muddy in the rain.

Here's what Calle Monte de Oro looks like after the upgrade. The road for lots 29-43.

House construction on this street should start soon.

Up on top of Selva Del Mar, the drainage system below the gaviones is in place.

This pictures looks toward the coast. Lots 4 and 5 are on the knoll.

Wishing you the clearest of tidepools,

Aloha.

March 2008 Update

Hello from Nicaragua. This is where our Guadua Bamboo has been growing, 375 miles from Selva Del Mar. It rains 10 months a year in this area, so there is an ample supply of large Bamboo.
We are close to starting our Bamboo project. Pepe and Panta Leon have found the closest quality source for the Guadua Bamboo. The planned date for the cutting is March 29th. Apparently, cutting them right after the Vernal Equinox helps encourage them to regenerate.

Inta, The Institute of Agricultural Techniques has given us the ok to buy the Guadua.

Here is Pepe, checking out some amazing bamboo.

Faithful Bamboo visionairies.

Pepe has entered the design for Bamboo Casa #1 into an architectural ecohabitat competition. If you would like a pdf of his presentation, send me an email, and I will reply with the file. lincolngardner@sdmnica.com

Meanwhile, back at Selva Del Mar, we are improving the entrance, the entrance road and we are building the creek crossing.

These pictures were taken during a past rainy season. Partners Bob Nealy, Greg Ozimec, our old caretaker, Mario, Pepe and I are checking out the lower part of Selva Del Mar from lot 7 or 8. Our other partner, Rich Brown, was behind the camera.

Lot 5 has been sold. But we still have several panoramic ocean view lots available.

Aloha

February Update

Hi Folks,

I just got back from Nicaragua. It was another great trip, starting with the surf. You don't expect to see too much south swell action during this time of year. Prime surf season is April to September. But sometimes you can really score, and this time we did. For three days straight, we surfed two of southern Nicaragua's best beach breaks with nobody out and head high plus barrels. At one of them, the left wedge was really working really well, with Gray backdooring the peak repeatedly and just completely disappearing, only to emerge with so much speed that it was hard to turn (especially with the sore ankle he got trying a 180 chop hop the week before). At the other beach break, we rode speed shack rights from north of the NSR house to the rio and beyond. Wow. Don't anyone pinch me. It's still hard to believe. Nobody even on the beach . But you can't expect to get those conditions all the time. By the end of week, it was back to knee/waist high. Sorry, no pictures, so if you don't believe it, that's ok. Gray didn't want me to say anything anyway.

He didn't want me to post any pictures of his beautiful local girlfriend either, but trust me...

Here are some pictures from Yolanda's, where we had post session lunches, and where the ladies tended to Gray's sore ankle. Yolanda, her daughter Ivania, and grandaughters Ingrid and Rosa are all sweet people and a real pleasure to be around. When you come to Yolanda's, there are lots of hugs and kisses.

Even the monkey wants in on the love.

Back home at Selva Del Mar, the dry season has arrived.

There are now only pockets of water in the once full creek.

The trees are starting to lose their leaves, but they are starting to flower.

The howler monkeys have been in the big Genizaro tree in front of the Casita, eating the pods.

This Kingfisher is also a resident of Selva Del Mar

When you stay at Selva Del Mar, you eat very very well. These are Papayas










Here is Gray with a ripe Papaya

Chitomas (bell peppers)

Tomatos

In this picture, Vidal is showing us a fearsome looking but very tasty Macarella that Zach's buddy caught for us. With chicken and beef already in the fridge (nearby Rivas is one of Nicaragua's best beef cattle areas), we had to turn down neighbor Angel's offer of freshly caught lobster. The boys made some great salsa using some of our own veggies.

As always, the platanos are going off.

The homegrown oranges don't look ripe, but they are. They are the best I've ever tasted anywhere. I ate more oranges in a week at Selva Del Mar than I do in three months at home. Every morning, Vidal brought over freshly squeezed juice, sometimes blended with homegrown melon juice. Heavenly. One morning, we ran out of milk for our (of course, Nicaraguan) coffee, so Gray and Vidal went up the road a quarter mile and bought a liter of milk still warm from a neighbor's cow for about $.45. You can eat very healthy and very fresh here at Selva Del Mar.

But you don't have to give up the sweets. Vidal picked this Oyote and Gloria cooked it down with some brown sugar into a delicious preserve that we spread on some of the baked goodies we bought off the bakery truck.

I love fresh coconut milk. When its empty, you split the shell in half and enjoy the meat.

That is Marie in the background. There aren't too many world traveling female surfers from Montreal. She is truly unique. You meet some very interesting, fun loving people in Nicaragua.

Avocado tree.



















If it's not already growing at Selva Del Mar, you probably won't have to go far to get what you need.

The veggie truck stops right out front. So does the bakery truck.

And the beer truck.

That's Gloria in the foreground watching Gray exchange his case of empty liters for full ones.

We have baby mango trees in our nursery.
We also have baby Caobo (mahogany), Genizaro, Jocote, and other trees, ready to be planted.


The young trees that have already been planted are doing well.

Here is a young coconut tree.

We planted King Palms along the fenceline next to the road to the beach.

Infrastructure improvements continue at Selva Del Mar. Water lines have been laid for Calle Monte de Oro, so we are ready to go for the house Joe will soon be starting there.












When you go for a walk at Selva Del Mar, you can usually count on Solo, Vidal's dog, to accompany you.

He could come in very handy, given that Vidal spotted a panther at Selva Del Mar one night.

It was way in the back, where the green space is, but still...

This horse lives across the road from us at Zacatan, where biologist Robert Dull has an eco reserve and reforestation project.

I bought a 3 year old gelding for $270. He's a gentle, easy to handle horse. I'm looking forward to riding him down to Amarillo for some surf picnics. Or maybe Manzanillo. Or La Redonda for some diving. Or just to the top of Selva Del Mar to take in a sunset.

Next time, I will shoot a picture of the boys partying before I join in. I wish I hadn't been swaying, because Zacharias has a great smile and I wanted you to see it. Zach is one of our sales agents. He's a boat captain, and a very knowledgeable surf and fishing guide. Zach was just elected President of the Pueblo Gigante CPC a local form of community organization recently introduced by the Sandinista President Daniel Ortega. Some are worried that these organizations are extralegal political tools, but their focus seems to me to be on local issues like trash removal, preparation for events like Semana Santos, etc. It's really more a decentralized informal local government than anything else, despite worries by some that the CPC's can be mobilized for more revoutionary purposes. In Gigante, I just don't see that. And Zach is a great spokesman for the local people. He interacts well with locals, tourists and businesses and speaks English. That's Gray and his buddy Ryan, joining in the festivities with Zacharias. Ryan is an aerospace engineer and a licensed, instrument rated pilot. He also rips! I saw him get some amazing tubes and airs.

No sunset shot is complete without a pig silouetted in the foreground....

But surfing and hanging out in Gigante aren't the only things to do. Guys, here's your chance to show your girl how romatic you are. Spend the night at Norome, on the shore of Laguna de Apoyo (a lake inside a dormant volcano). Maybe rent one of the watercraft and paddle or sail the lake. It really is breathtaking.

Then take her down into nearby colonial Granada (one of the oldest cities in the America's, on the shore of Lake Nicaragua) to visit park central and take in the traditional architecture, people, music and action. Sample the various juices from the park vendors. I like the Tamarindo and the Calalla.

Take a horse drawn carriage from Park Central to the water where you can hire a boatman to take you through the isletas, more than fifty small islands formed when nearby Volcano Mombacho blew its top and deposited it in the lake.

If you are not the romantic type, take in a baseball game at the stadium at Rivas, where the background is the perfect cone volcano Conception, rising majestically out of Lake Nicaragua from Ometepe Island.

But I feel most tranquilo when I am back home at Selva Del Mar, just living the dream. No hurries no worries.

We are offering a promotion for the next 3 lots sold. The deal is 30% down, with the balance paid monthly for two years, interest free. Pretty good deal, verdad?

We hope you can visit Nicaragua soon. Until next time, buenos ensuenos...

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