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Hi Rafael,

First of all let me welcome you to the site.

What is your experience thus far in Nicaragua? Why does Diriamba come to mind?

The town of Diriamba, Nicaragua goes basically all the way from the fertile mesa at 700 meters right down to the ocean. At the high elevations, the growing conditions are excellent for everything, including hardwood like you would want to plant such as madero negro and chocoao (not sure of the spelling on this one). At the low elevations, you have arid areas with less rainfall, and less fertility. Obviously, for fuel wood, you are not talking about irrigation so you do need to consider carefully where you want to plant. If you plant below 300m, you essentially would have to wait twenty years before harvesting, because there is simply not enough rain down there. But that's where the land is cheapest.

What is really your aspiration? To make money? You can forget about that right now. To have an adventure? Now that is quite possible. To teach the locals how to care for the environment? Impossible. To provide fuel wood for some people? That you could do. To trap some carbon in the form of trees? That's possible.

I had a large farm in Diriamba. Along with another American and lots of hired local help, we planted about 10,000 trees. Most were madero negro, but also we planted mahogany, cedro, mamey, leucania, fruit trees, cocos. I could get into the story of that or not, as you wish.

I can provide you a lot more information, but in order to do so, I need to have answers to some of the questions I have posted here, and then I can respond again.

Peter