Emma experiences Makengue

Te amo El Castillo!

Every day at Makengue was truly an adventure. We laughed and danced our way through the week as we immersed ourselves in nature, education, Nicaraguan culture, and a wide array of noteworthy experiences. I don’t think a single blog post can concisely put the entire trip into words, so I decided to choose a specific day to describe using pictures. Being in El Castillo was one of my favorite days and helped lay the groundwork for our community outreach endeavors.

1) Meeting the Pro Joven youth leaders (and dancing with them).

 

2) Views from the waterfront.

 

3) Visiting the Mariposa Reserve.

 

4) Visiting the local school.

5) Lunch at Border’s Coffee.

6) Souvenir shopping.

7) Exploring the fort.

8) Poorly representing Team USA.

 

9) Enjoying the vibrant town in its entirety!

The Technical

Getting closer; less than 9 days to go! It doesn’t feel real quite yet. I should probably start packing…

I’ve been working on the website and social media alongside Allie, and we’ve come up with a good plan as to what we’re gonna do. The most important part of website creation is the planning, it makes everything else run so much more smoothly.

The first thing we created was a plan listing out the necessary elements to setting up a site. We need a domain name, hosting, and then the actual site itself, which we’re building on WordPress. We chose wordpress because it can be easily customized and modified, but also simple to use for people not familiar with the system.

After talking with Angela, we decided to not make the site live (available to the public) until we had built it and shown it to Becky and Rito. This meant that we would wait to purchase a domain name and hosting.

The site is still being built, but on my servers. I’ve installed wordpress, and right now Allie and I are looking for a theme. We’d like to find one very picture oriented, because one of the draws of Makengue is the beautiful scenery.

The next step would be to plan out the layout of the sight and decide what the page structure will be. I think we mostly have that figured out. Lastly, we’ll add copy and content. We’re taking what last years students wrote as a base, but then modifying it a little.

The other thing Allie and I are working on is the social media. We have a variety of accounts from which we are going to publicize the reserve. We plan on having a single hashtag across all platforms as well, to create a unified social media experience. Lastly, we plan on also creating future content to be published after we leave the reserve so Becky has an easy job keeping the social media alive.

That’s all for now! I can’t wait to show off the site once it’s done!

Marketing in the Rainforest

First of all, I am so excited about our trip to Makengue!! I am in the process of collecting bug spray, mosquito nets, and everything else I will need to survive in the jungle. Last week we visited the National Botanical Gardens to get a glimpse of the types of exotic plants we will see in the rainforest, and we were able to talk to one of the directors about the Bioblitz and materials we can make and handout. Next week we will visit the Nicaraguan Embassy, so by the end of next week, we will have a good idea of all that we’re getting into!

I am in the Marketing group, so I am working closely with Dorian who is making the business plan. I’m specifically working on tourism and ways to bring attention to Makengue and how to attract them to come to the site to stay. I’ve looked into the ideas of bed & breakfasts, youth hostels, yoga retreat, ecotourism, Nicaraguan high season, college spring break trips, and church trips. Currently I am working on a Geocache for Makengue, which is a worldwide treasure hunt with random locations all over the world. We will set up the Geocache in the next week and begin to find various items to put into the chest while the organization sends us the materials. Then, we will take the Geocache with the items in it down to Makengue with us and hide it in an appropriate spot. Tourism, on a small scale, is important for Makengue so they can have sufficient funds to continue to operate. I’m hoping I can find a solution that will please the owners while offering a great experience for travelers.

While I am currently dealing with 10 inches of snow in DC, I cannot wait to be knee deep in mosquitos and alligator ponds. The jungle awaits!

My snowy woods in DC

The woods of Makengue

Meet Dorian