Matagalpa

Matagalpa is located on the Nicaraguan north-center high plateu. It has a rich variety of wildlife and flora that includes beautiful ferns and orchids living in a humid tropical forest enviroment. In Ciudad Dario you can not miss the Rubén Darío museum. Actually it is also the house where our great poet was born. Over 3000 feet high in average, this region offers a mild and cooler climate than the rest of Nicaragua. It has many rivers and small lakes which are great for sport fishing of small specimens. This zone also have many Protected Areas such as the Miraflor Natural Reserve and the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve which is the largest protected area in Central America. On September is celebrated in Matagalpa the "Feria del Guipil, Polka y Mazurca" and the "Feria del Café". Mountain hotels near Matagalpa offers great food and pleasant envioroment and are perfect to start hiking journeys through the mountains.

SELVA NEGRA

Whatever you are looking for in your vacation, you are sure to find just the right lodging accommodations at Selva Negra. Our lodging options include:
Bungalows - Nineteen bungalows ranging from one to four bedrooms each with their own front porch.
Chalets - Four larger bungalows filled with the history and the aura of the region. Ranging from three to six bedrooms.
Hotel Rooms - American hotel style rooms with private bath and shared front porch.
Youth Hostel - One large building that can accommodate up to 20 individuals. For the younger audience looking for budget accommodations.

Coffee Tour

The coffee tours at Selva Negra are an excellent opportunity for you to learn all about the most popular morning drink in the world. You will be amazed about how much goes into delivering that fresh cup of morning coffee.

Guests can jump in a truck with Eddy or Mausi Kühl and visit the plantation to see the coffee trees and how they grow. Selva Negra is what is refered to a "shaded coffee plantation". In general this means that coffee grows within the protection of the shade of the trees, at Selva Negra the trees that protect our coffee is mostly made up of old indigenous trees of the area.

The coffee harvest season at Selva Negra is from mid-November to mid-February. If you visit the resort during this time, you will be in great luck. Since you will be able to see the picking of the coffee, which is a manual intensive process where each individual coffee cherry is picked from the tree one at a time, careful to only remove the ripe red cherries.

Around May is coffee flowering time. This is the one time that it snows in Nicaragua, or at least it sure looks like it around the coffee plantation. Whatever time you pick to visit Selva Negra, there is a lot to learn and see at the coffee plantation.

The coffee processing mill also known as a Beneficio is located just down the hill from the resort. This is where most of the action takes place. The coffee cherries are received from the plantation and they undergo a lenghtly process starting with washing the cherries. We use a low water utilization system to wash the cherries, this is one of the many sustainable efforts that take place in the processing of the coffee.

In the beneficio tour you will see the washing process which involves a level of grading the coffee to exclude lower quality coffee beans. The fermantation bins and process, the "waterfall" washing of the beans after fermentation, here again another grading method is used to exclude lower quality beans.


Coffee Drying The coffee beans are finally laid out to dry on elevated wooden trays. This is a very old system of drying the beans, but it is also one of the best since the beans have an opportunity to dry from the top and the bottom. The beans are only left to dry by the beneficio for a day or two. Since Selva Negra is located over 4000 ft elevation in the mountains, the temparuture is quick moist and cool, and doesn't offer the best drying conditions. The beans are taken, via truck to our drying facilities in the valley of Sebaco, where it rarely rains, and the sun almost always shines. There is A LOT more that goes on in the preparation of the coffee, refer to the Selva Negra Coffee Estate from the seed to the cup page to learn more about the process, but the best way is to visit. This is not only for the coffee drinker, but also for the coffee buyer, roaster and retailer. We highly encourage all to visit an estate to learn about the process and about the places where your morning drink comes from.

Selva Negra's coffee processing facilities have served as educational facilities for various local coffee farmers learning the sustainable practices that Selva Negra incorporates in every step of the coffee life cycle. Eddy Kühl has been hosted many shows explaining our process, and Mausi Hayn has lead many of these training sessions.


Selva Negra had the opportunity to host the 1997 SCAA International tour. We have also invited and been visited by many coffee buyers from around the world.

Nebliselva

Hiking in Selva Negra is a lot more than walking in the woods. You hike into virgin rain forest where you experience nature at its purest, the sights and sounds of the forest will amaze you as they have done many of those who have already had a chance to visit us.

Selva Negra offers you a wide variety of hiking trails to experience. From the slow pace of a walk around the lake, where you can watch the ducks go about their daily life, and listen to the hummingbirds as they busily buzz around you to get the nectar of their favorite flowers.

To the strenuous and time consuming venture into virgin rain forest. Here you will see plants that are found in very few other parts of the world, you could also be surrounded by the all-powerful howl of the resident howling monkeys. This is an experience worth the muddy boots, and the soar legs. You will go through parts of the trail that will require the aid of roots and trunks to get you moving and continue on your 45 degree climb to the ridge.

Each of the Selva Negra trails has a little something special that makes it a worth it trip, and its name that has been derived for very special reasons. You may have the urge to experience each and every single one of them. All you need is time, and a desire to experience nature at its finest.

Lets talk about the trails in three categories; the strenuous and most challenging, the middle of the road trail to enjoy an afternoon in nature, and the enjoyable and non-challenging walk. The trails are not circle trails, in order to come back to your starting point, you will need to take different trails.