During my last visit to Nicaragua, I went to very interesting places. One of those was La Máquina Private Ecological Reserve. This place, in addition to providing all the benefits of an ecological reserve, it also teaches a bit about our country's past.


La Máquina covers an area of roughly 16 ha. and possesses a river and a very abundant flora that hasn't always being so. As soon as entering the reserve, one can feel the freshness and notice the centenary trees, like this very old "chilamate" tree (right). Close to the restaurant is a "brasil" (left) tree. Hundreds of these centenary and other trees can be found all over the place, as well as other very tall ones that provide of course, a pretty cool temperature and a clean air to breath. However, many years ago, this entire area was very different. There were almost no trees due mostly to cotton plantations and people cutting down trees.


Almost one km of La Trinidad River flows calmly through the reserve. It can be seen from the restaurant and visitors are allowed to freshen up a bit in the river's clean water, if the conditions are proper.


When touring the area, one will see and hear very interesting information. For example, one will encounter with a geological fracture (right) of nearly 15 meters in height. A bat cave could be found underneath that huge rock, on the left picture. Also, one finds out the why of the name: La Máquina. As mentioned before, this area was used for cotton plantation. It was just one of the many cotton fields in the country but this one used machinery to process the cotton. And in fact, it was the only field using machines so when referring to the place, people would call it "máquina, which is Spanish for machine. So, when the Private Ecological Reserve was inaugurated in September of 2001, the owners decided to keep the name everyone recognized... La Máquina.


Continuing the ecological walk and climbing 500 plus meters, one will reach the Indio Desnudo (*) Lookout, named after the type of trees (right) found in the area. From there, there's a breathtaking view of the surroundings (left) and even the Pacific Ocean could be seen.