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"Agro-tourism is not something you describe - its something you experience."
Agro-tourism is a model of tourism practiced for decades in Europe. It allows tourists to share and learn about local communities’ traditional agriculture ways.
Over the past years, tourists around the world seem to be seeking a more authentic vacation, full of rich historical and cultural aspects, pertaining to the place they choose to visit. Morgan's Rock Hacienda and Ecolodge is exploring this new trend in travel and taken it to the next level. The product: a unique agro-tourism project in Latin America which combines tree farming and reforestation as well as organic and traditional agriculture. Nicaragua’s rich volcanic soil and tropical climate sets the perfect stage for this special project.
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Clemente Poncon. Owner of Morgan’s Rock and dedicated to conservation and reforestation efforts on his hacienda
Morgan’s Rock will take you back to the roots of our daily bread, reminding you that food doesn’t grow in supermarkets, but instead created by "Mother Earth’s” magic and the dedication of the people working the land. Savor nature’s flavors and enjoy eating our locally grown foods, where about 70 percent is grown on the hacienda. And a freshly caught fish is just a beachfront away!
While enjoying the local flavors, you will also engage in a vital learning experience about reforestation and tree farming, both practiced in the hacienda. What’s more, by becoming part of this pioneer project you can help save the last tropical forests both locally and ultimately worldwide.
Morgan’s Rock presents to you a colorful array of agro-tourism projects, ranging from trees, food and flowers to animal and insect-related projects. Below you will find a detailed description. For more information on our tours,
please refer to Tous and Prices
What exactly is the difference between tree farming and reforestation? Tree farming is strictly defined as the planting of trees for later commercial usage. Reforestation, on the contrary, implies planting trees that will never be cut, thus ensuring the restoration of prior, invaluable local tree species. Morgan's Rock Hacienda and Ecolodge practices both.
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Learn about reforestation and tree farming efforts in southern Nicaragua
Tree Farming
Morgan’s Rock has planted over 1.5 million precious, tropical hardwood trees in the past four years. These trees will be harvested in the next 7 to 15 years and in their place, new ones will be planted. This is just like growing rice, corn or wheat, just that it takes a bit longer to harvest. So how is tree farming actually beneficial? High demand and rising prices for tropical hardwoods around the world have caused illegal logging activities, an erroneous response to the excessive market demand. Many countries, including Nicaragua, continue cutting into valuable ecosystems and forests. However, planting and harvesting trees for commercial use, will gradually pause further destruction of invaluable tropical forests, allowing the survival of the flora and fauna living in these forests.
Tree farming is not only helping the last standing tropical forests to continue living but also helping to clean the air. While growing, the trees produce oxygen, cleaning the air from toxic carbon dioxides mostly produced in industrialized countries. So no matter how you look at this, planting trees to be later harvested is a sound environmental practice that will hopefully be replicated in many countries around the world. What’s best, Morgan’s Rock offers a tour where not only will you become an expert in tree farming and reforestation, but also get the chance to plant your own tree and leave a piece of yourself behind. Not a bad way to help our forests stay alive.
Morgan’s Rock has begun an ambitious reforestation program. Almost 100,000 native hardwood trees have been planted in the hacienda of which none will ever be cut or touched by us. They are purely to enrich the local flora and serve as hosts for the fauna. As a result of this, together with our constant efforts to keep hunters off the property, we have seen a significant increase in wildlife all over the hacienda. We invite you to go on one of our nature tours and experience this resurgence of wildlife.
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Cultural Tourism: Traditional sugar mill
Sugar Mill (Trapiche)
Morgan’s Rock has a functioning antique trapiche or sugar milll, running in the hacienda. An old tradition to Nicaraguan farmers, the hacienda’s trapiche produces a sweet, aromatic, intensely colored brown sugar and molasses. Inside the same trapiche is being distilled a home made rum, which you can sample on our tour.
Organic shrimp are being raised for Morgan’s Rock’s restaurant’s consumption. In many shrimp farms, the shrimp are fed industrial animal food, which in some cases, gives them a funny taste. From the moment the larvae are taken out of the oceanside estuary—an undisturbed ecosystem, sustaining a variety of wildlife in the hacienda— they are transferred to a nearby basin where they are only fed algae. You will notice that the shrimp are completely transparent when cooked and taste superbly clean and delicious. These will probably be the cleanest, freshest-tasting shrimp you will ever savor.
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Local fishermen with the catch of the day on Morgan’s Rock beach
Dairy Farm
The hacienda has its own cows, providing fresh, whole milk (cows don't do skim milk). With this milk are made a variety of milk derivatives, among them yogurt, cheese, ice cream and butter used for the restaurant’s consumption.
Traditional Fishing
The fishing grounds in front of Morgan's Rock provide a fresh variety of fish for our guests to sample at the hotel’s restaurant. Every day, our local fishermen go out to catch delicious fresh fish and on special occasions can bring back a tender lobster. If you are interested, it is possible to join the fishermen and learn about traditional fishing ways.
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Butterfly at Morgan’s Rock private butterfly farm
Flowers & Butterflies
The hacienda boasts a colorful flower and butterfly farm. Only the flowers found inside the farm are used for decorating the hotel, in this way avoiding random cutting throughout the property or much less flowers found in the forest. Apart from being beautiful to observe and interesting to learn about, butterflies are being reproduced on the farm for exporting their cocoons to other butterfly farms around the world.
Over 5,000 fruit trees have been planted throughout the property, offering you a delicious selection of fresh fruits everyday. Not only can you discover a variety of fruits which you may have never heard of but also enjoy creative drink concoctions at out bar or restaurant. From Mango to Papaya to Grapefruit and Bananas - it all grows in the hacienda!
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Agro tourism: production of corn for the hotel
Grains & Vegetables
Not only has Morgan’s Rock created a partially self-sufficient grain and vegetable hacienda, but also fashioned a sophisticated irrigation system based on a wastewater treatment plant that eventually produces clean water. Rice, corn and wheat are the most important grains harvested in the hacienda. These grains, as well as all the vegetables grown in the hacienda, such as tomatoes, cucumbers or zucchinis are watered by this ingenious irrigation system.
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Agro tourism: cattle ranching at the Hacienda
Free Range Animals
A variety of animals are raised for the restaurant’s consumption. All animals, including cows, chickens, venison and lamb— the prior two being rare delicacies in Central America— are raised under "free range" methods and are not fed industrial animal food.
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Agro tourism: sheep at the Hacienda
Other products - Coffee Plantations and Novelty Coffee Plants
The owners of Morgan's Rock Hacienda & Ecolodge own coffee plantations in Matagalpa, located in northern Nicaragua. The coffee served at the hotel’s restaurant is actually from the Matagalpa plantations. So go ahead and sample true Nicaraguan coffee. Currently, Morgan’s Rock’s owners are researching planting sea level, coffee plants— a worldwide novelty for coffee-producing nations—in the vicinity of the hotel.
Ondine Cohane in Conde Nast Traveler, March 2005:
"I go for a long sunset swim off the beach at Morgan's Rock and feel as though the whole Pacific were mine alone."
For reservation & information contact: San Jose, Costa Rica main office
Reservations: +011 (506) 22-32-6449
Fax: +011 (506) 22-32-6297
E-mail: info@morgansrock.com
