Travel Photography > Isthmus > Pacific Coast, Nicaragua

I thought Nicaragua would liberate me from the long hours of writing Guana Cay.  Now, I am realizing the opposite has happened: Morgan's Rock fired up my interest in Guana Cay – this is what could happen to Guana Cay when an ethical developer replaces Discovery Land Company.

I am excited by my self-discovery.  I want to tell Jane.  There is a certain sadness in writing about a place besieged for so long, and having no observable answer for its replacement. 

It is easy for a developer to pose as an eco-development. The so-called eco-tourism industry is the fastest growing tourism industry in the world. Everybody wants a piece of it.  But much of it is fraudulent and has little to do with sustainable development or supporting local communities.  In Nicaragua, the frauds have already begun. 

But Morgan’s Rock proves that real eco-development does actually exist.  In the 2006 Conde Nast Travel ‘Best’ list, no hotel won more awards than St. Lucia’s Ladera Resort.  But Morgan’s Rock – too new for any lists – equals and even succeeds the Ladera Resort’s qualities in architecture, food and service.  Curiously, both are genuine ecological eco-resorts and have almost full capacity year-round.  Why attract any other type of developer?

At breakfast, we introduce ourselves to a pair of older British travelers who we had already dubbed 'The Traveling Thornberrys.' We had admired them days before for their seeming to have infinitely more energy than the younger guests.  These two were a pair of archeologists from Cambridge.  Their specialty was Malta, and Mr. Thornberry had served as curator of the Museum of Archeology in Malta. 

They uncovered some of the oddest and most wondrous antiquities, wrote papers on prehistoric ‘death cults’ and evidence of ancient trading-cart routes.  They had been traveling through much of Nicaragua on vacation, when just a week ago, they had stumbled accidentally on a Pre-Columbian site.  "When you happen upon such a thing," Thornberry says, "you log it with the Department of Archaeology in Managua, so we did.  We brought them some shards and such, and they were on it, and we were on our way."

The Traveling Thornberrys ("We can't afford the tours around here") walked everywhere.  During the day, they would be gone for hours at a time, attempting to navigate the circuitous dirt roads connecting the farm, and beyond.  "You didn't make it up there, perhaps, did you?" I said, pointing to the top of a hill on the other side of the bay.

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