Before sneaking off to bed around 10:30pm – impossibly late by our Nica lifestyle standards, unbelievably early by anyone else’s – we told a few stories of what life is like for us – our thatched roof 18’x18’ cabana with composting toilet, the dirt roads, the cows on the beach, the Surf with Amigas Adventures – and still the picture felt impossibly incomplete. How can this guy working 60 hours a week, who raised his crystal glass of champagne to toast while wearing salmon-colored shorts with a blue-striped long-sleeved button-up have any sort of clue what we’re talking about. We speak different languages. We live in different worlds.

I do understand him a bit better than he probably understands me. I also grew up in that culture, thinking for a time that I’d enter that world myself in the footsteps of my father. Fortunately surfing took me to remote places for extended periods at a young age, opening my eyes to other worldviews and lifestyle possibilities. After dutifully completing my higher education requirements, I set off on a 10-year itinerary of whirlwind travel, chasing waves and excitement in far off places. “Give me 2 days notice and I’ll go anywhere!” Until I finally found somewhere that I’m happy to call home. I found a place where the climate suits my clothes, where dirty holey-kneed jeans and a faded t-shirt are acceptable attire, where tree frogs hang upside down while stuffing themselves with cicadas as if they were subway sandwiches, bees roll leaf “cigarettes” and fill them with pollen, puppies run leash-less on the beach, and even the nagging itch of a scorpion sting, the constant thorns in my feet, and nearly nightly acquired mysterious spider bites are so much more appealing than the hustle-bustle-shuffle of the “real” life of the North.

Kim grew up as a nomad, the offspring of nomadic parents with a love of the Middle East he spent his early years in Yemen and Lebanon, finished high school in Connecticut then moved on to 7 years+ each in Alaska and then Thailand. For him living in Nicaragua is hardly even an adventure, its just living.

The waves within walking distance may not be world-class but they are fun, warm, and un-crowded. Lemongrass and lemon basil, habaneros and jalapenos, papaya, and squash are harvested from the garden for dinner. Dogs paddle back and forth across the estuary then sleep in the sand while we surf ‘til it’s time to “go home”. We sit on the porch sipping homebrews as chickens pick protein from the compost pile and the fireflies dance their messages of love. People ask if I miss living in the States. What do you think?

Accessing the palm fronds for the thatch roof turned out to be one of the easiest things we’ve had to do so far. There’s a property nearby owned by a friend full of the right kinds of palms, so we simply had to have a chat with the caretaker there and negotiate a fair price for the 2.5 fletes we needed to cover our roof with thatch. Each flete costs 1,900 cords so 2.5 plus tractor transport ended up costing about $250 US. The palm fronds get hand woven along the varilla in tight rows and when done correctly will last about five years.

Francisco preparing the palm fronds for installation

Rudy installing the fronds on the varilla

After four hours they are half-way done!

We added an extender in the front to give a little more sun and rain protection.

Another added feature, a window for extra air flow (and hopefully no rain leakage)!

The house progresses rapidly. It’s amazing how quickly the eucalyptus posts can be assembled into home shape.
Our nine supporting pillars were bought, cut, delivered, and cemented into place within four days.

For the rest of the roof structure we needed thinner diameter eucalyptus and drove a few Kms down the main highway towards Chinandega to an enormous eucalyptus plantation totaling 300 – 600 acres depending on whom you asked. The jefe wasn’t around despite the fact that he said he’d be there at 9am. We waited from 9:30am to about 11am before we finally heard a motorbike roaring up through the quiet. Off stepped a very smiley guy in a long sleeve, pink, buttoned up shirt, fancy leather shoes, and a dark black dyed hairdo.

waiting for the jefe...

Our main man Orlando had already walked through the plantation and marked the trees he needed so as soon as the jefe showed up the chainsaw went to work. Mr. jefe asked if we’d seen the hilltop and then hardly waiting for an answer started leading us upwards. When we reached the base of the rocky summit he said, “It’s a race” and charged up the steep trail at full speed. He won of course, there was no room to pass him on the trail, and when he got to the top triumphant he asked how old we were then revealed that he was 50 and the secret to health was drinking a lot of fresh natural juice daily – that and his relationship with Dios.

Mountain top with the jefe

the view from the top

After the Christ talk he explained his plan to eventually build a hotel for tourists up there, starting with a big rancho and swimming pool. He was just waiting for his kids to finish their university training and for a little more capital to get it started. That led to the political discussion.

First religion, then politics. It’s interesting to get the opinions of relatively wealthy educated Nicaraguans on the topic of Daniel Ortega. He said he’d fought with the Sandinistas during the war in the 80s, but after Daniel took power he disagreed with the policies and began supporting the other side. I asked him about the upcoming November elections. (Nicaraguan presidents get 5-year terms and are allowed to hold office more than once but not sequentially. Daniel used creative tactics to change the constitution allowing presidents back to back terms, and is now running for the top office again. The people will decide November 6th.)

Like most other educated people I’ve polled he said that Daniel will win fairly or steal the election (as he stole the mayoral offices elections in 2009), and will remain president for another five years regardless. He told me that while he doesn’t agree with those tactics, he doesn’t mind Daniel. “All politicians are corrupt,” he said, “Daniel is no different. But Daniel gives roofs to the poor, fixes the roads, builds schools, and supports hospitals. He has done more good work in the last five years than any of the presidents before him. When he was a young man with no money he took land from the rich. Now he is a rich man with a lot of rich friends. He knows that Nicaragua needs business and foreign investment in order to improve. He’s not redistributing land anymore. Nicaragua is a good place to do business.”

With that we cruised back down to tree level, paid him 4,040 Cords (about $184 US) and gave 800 Cords ($36 US) to the big truck driver who would deliver the wood to the construction site. So, about a week into construction with all the materials for the main structure pillars and roof beams we’ve spent 10,038 Codobas or about $456 US (not counting labor).

making sure it's level

our man Orlando has the most awesome mustache!

a careful machete pass as the roof takes shape

Sunset surf right out front of Coco Loco

measuring a coco loco cabana

my journal entry with design sketch

Our cabana will be slightly bigger – with an 18’ x 18’ footprint that includes a 7’ x 18’ porch and 11’x 18’ interior. We included an 18’ x 7’ sleeping loft to allow the entire downstairs to be used for kitchen and living space. The roof support and pillars are locally sourced eucalyptus, with a palm thatch roof, and concrete floor. We are still trying to decide between pine and guanacaste for the walls. Guanacaste is a local beautiful hard wood that is more expensive than pine, but also forest harvested, whereas pine is cheaper and probably more sustainable since it is grown in plantations.
We got a cost estimate from Orlando the Coco Loco caretaker and chief of building operations for just the roof and wall structure to be about $643 US to build.
For the eucalyptus pillars, we drove out to farm up the road that was lined with a eucalyptus fence. We walked the fence looking for trees with the right trunk diameter, length, and straightness and picked out nine winners.

the eucaluptus delivery

“There’s the price of your lot, and then there’s the price of your well….”
Gary Gardiner, the mustached realtor whose name adorned the most for sale signs in the area broke the news to us that $5k for 2.5 beautifully wooded acres was just as it seemed – too good to be true.

sweet photo in the realtor's office

We’d been thinking about getting a cheap piece of land in order to establish a US base and were looking at Northern California and Southern Oregon primarily. While camping in the half finished cabin of a friend in Klamath Falls, South Central Oregon, we looked into land prices and were drawn to advertisements of large lots for less than $10k.

Totally ignoring the fact that we were considering buying land a full five hours (at least) from the coast, we drove through old growth pine forests in large lot developments divided up back in the 60s and were amazed at all the for sale signs on empty lots. We saw a few houses, a few trailers, and some big barns.

While stopping to look more closely at a for sale sign, a white bearded potential neighbor pulled over to see what we were up to. It turns out the problem is water. Land is so cheap because the wells are so expensive. Friendly white beard warned us it may cost a minimum of $50k to reach the life sustaining liquid, and perc tests for a septic system could also be a problem in the rocky earth.

No problem, we figured. We’ll catch rainwater and use a composting toilet. Back to the earth, sustainable living. Eco-friendly and cheap too!

Then we visited the county planning office and were told about the permitting process. “First you need a well, then you need septic, then you can think about building.” We thought about trying to camp out on the land in a yurt or straw bale structure, but were told the rules against camping even on your own land were being enforced much more strictly than in the past. You can build a 200 sq ft. “shed” un-permitted and we figured we might be able to live in that and use it to store our stuff temporarily, but it wouldn’t be a permanent solution.

Helpful cartoon for visualizing 2.5 acres

Why can’t we catch rainwater and compost our waste? You’d think the city would be encouraging those practices. But of course, it’s the lazy or just incompetent that were incapable of doing those things correctly that had to be protected from themselves by the city and the rules.
We did see a few nice houses with what looked like water catching systems and wondered how they got around the rules. We were tempted to buy something and figure it out later, but it just seemed not worth the hassle, especially considering it was so far from the ocean. Maybe it would be better to buy something where the rules aren’t so strict.

One of the main thing we learned was that you need to start with the right kind of bamboo, not just any type will do.  Guadua!  This big stuff is native to Central America,and when cut and treated right will last a long time and be very strong, besides awesome to look at.  There are other types of bamboo that will work (eg. Bambusa genus native to Asia), but in the Americas, Guadua is king!  It should be locally available in Nicaragua and so we’re on the hunt. When it is found it needs to be harvested correctly to make it last. First, it needs to be cut based on the moon cycle at the right time of year (end of the rainy season I think).  All this to limit the sugar and starch content that the bugs love.  Treating it right to make it last, means aging it and soaking it with borax (sodium borate) or other salts to further thwart the hungry bugs.  After its dried it can be used for building.

Building lines can be fluid and arcing, forming lines that are more like what you see in nature.  However it requires different building techniques compared to wood.  It can be combined with other natural building materials such as clay and thatch for the roof to create a really natural, low cost and beautiful structure (Super Steve’s awesome bathhouse on the Osa Peninsula shown below).

While visiting the Rio Muchacho farm we met a silvaculturalist (tree specialist) named Noah who suggested we check out the Jama-Coque Ecological Reserve. He gave us some vague directions and we followed a dirt road through some squishy mud, left our rental car in the care of a pack of pigs, and hiked into the reserve with a backpack full of a change of clothes and some PB&J fixings. To see what we found, click “play” below.

Whether you compare the color to Shrek, the Jolly Green Giant, or halloween-costume witch face paint, the color of the Ceibo tree is impressive. We wanted to try to harvest some seeds to bring back to Nicaragua and went on a search to find some.

After much research (dissecting a Ceibo flower) it was determined by the Hip-E Habitat lead scientist, Kim Obermeyer, that the Ceibo tree reproduces without seeds! During the investigation we also meet Shrimp Boy and give a tour of the “Bam Boom-Boom Ecolodge”.

For all the action, press play below…

Hi Holly,
I wanted to clear up the confusion surrounding the reproduction of the Ecuadorian Ceibo tree we found and also uphold my responsibilities as Hip-E Habitat Lead Scientist. From “Trees: an illustrated identifier” by Tony Russel and Catherine Cutler (Anness Publishing 2004): The fragrant flowers appear in spring when the tree in leafless (if deciduous). They are15cm/6in across, woolly and white. The fruit (seed) pod is 15cm/6in long, narrowly elliptical, leathery and dark.

There you have it. Just on a side-note, the Ceibo tree is the source of kapok (which is actually the fluff attached to each seed in the above-mentioned pod) which was the main stuffing material for life-jackets, pillows and mattresses back in the day. Fascinating, huh? OK, hope I didn’t over do the nerdy-biologist thing there.
Kim