Located on the slopes of Maderas Volcano, in the middle of the gorgeous Ometepe Island nature, it was all built from the beginning (in 2006) to be energy self-sufficient, and to smartly collect and filter grey water and waste. From these good basics and essential practices, they developped a whole sustainable program including the Totoco Foundation to support local development and the Totoco eco-farm to produce their own organic fruits and vegetables and offer volunteer programs.

For an account of Florie’s experience, follow the link below:
Totoco Eco-Lodge, deep in the volcano island biosphere

Good practices for a better tourism implemented by Totoco Ecolodge :

Agriculture & Catering:

• The restaurant produce come from local and organic surrounding farms (a part comes from the Totoco Ecofarm itself)
• Totoco Ecofarm includes 2ha with 500 fruit trees & 500m² diversified small-holding using draught tolerant tree species, planting nitrogen-fixing cover-crops, driping irrigation in the herb & vegetable garden, animal husbandry, processing crops to add value, applying natural pesticides, volunteer program.
• Current Projects in Totoco Ecofarm: producing organic honey, aquaponics, processing facility, developing a learning center.

Waste Management:

• Separation and responsible disposal of 100% of all waste in 7 categories:
  • Organic is composed of 3 categories: 80% goes to the pigs (and compost is done from pigs manure), quality compost (from coffee, eggs shells…), low quality compost (used for mulching for example);
  • Metal is a resource which is then sold;
  • Main of the Glass is on deposit and goes then back to the company, or donations are done to reused them, and broken glasses can be mixed with cement for example.
  • 2 categories of plastic: high quality one is recycled in Managua, a plastic shredder collect it on the island, bad quality one is collected and stored cautiously waiting for solutions.
• Current Project: develop homemade natural cleaning products.

Water Management:

• Cleaning and reusing 100% of grey water through biofilters.
• Exclusive use of dry (water-free) composting toilets.
• Draught tolerant tree species and drip irrigation.

Energy:

• 100% renewable energy, Totoco Ecolodge is off-grid: energy production through solar panels (very occasional use of the generator), energy savings (half LED and half halogene bulbs, no air conditioning, no TV, heat water using gas and compost system).
• Current Project: produce clean cooking gas using a biodigestor.

Local Development:

• Employ 19 full-time staff and are training some of them to get managerial positions in the future.
• Focus on the 3 main-core activities of the hotel (accommodation, restaurant and bar services) and empower independent entrepreneurs to provide all other peripheral services (activities, transport, etc…).
• Current Project: Aim to slowly introduce an employee-share-scheme.

Social Responsibility:

• Totoco Foundation supports different local development programs as: micro-loans (colateral-free and low-interest) for 26 small start-up businesses, express transports for students, fully equipped and staffed clinical laboratory for a local public health center, 2 community libraries with over 2000 books, remedial classes programs using licensed nicaraguan teachers, promotes and sells handcrafts from Ometepe Island families establishing relationships directly with the artisans.
• 100% local labor laws are proactively enforced (social security, paying vacations time, respecting working hours…).

Construction:

• Designed the different structures with passive cooling in mind.
• Worked exclusively with very local labor from Balgüe and Madronal.
• Used local and renewable material when possible.
• Actively planted future construction material (for example palm trees for natural thatch roofs, cedars trees for wood, specially imported construction grade bamboo species).

Travelers’ Awareness:

• General information in the hotel leaflet, on the website, during the Totoco Tour.
• The General Manager makes a lot of effort to engage the guests and shares its experience.

Local Heritage & Biodiversity:

• Present the guests with a wide range of activities and tours, such as a cultural tour where people go with Patricia (Foundation Director) visiting the community, petroglyphs tour, local wildlife and biodiversity tours, etc…

Transports & Green Mobility:

• Offer hiking tracks, horse back riding tours, bike rental.
• Current project: introducing a carbon offset program for our hotel operations (including guests flights).

Welcome to Nicaragua,

We look forward to welcoming you !