One of the regulars on the activities schedule for La Mariposa Spanish School and EcoHotel is a trip to a nearby nature reserve: El Chocoyero – El Brujo.
The reserve is the main source of Managua’s water supply and has several hiking trails and good wildlife watching opportunities.
The highlight of the afternoon trip with the School to El Chocoyero – El Brujo is to see the Chocoyos – a variety of the Pacific Green Parakeet that is native to Nicaragua.
They make their nests next to one of the waterfalls in the park and can be usually be seen in vast quantities either early in the morning or late in the evening as they leave and return to their nests each day. During the day they search for food in the local area.
Unfortunately, it’s a little luck of the draw whether you get to see them in vast numbers or not, and unfortunately, both times I’ve been to El Chocoyero – El Brujo I have not had much luck! You can certainly tell from the noise that there are heaps of them around, but whether they do that final flight to the waterfall while you are watching or not is another thing.
El Chocoyero – El Brujo is also home to lots of other wildlife, including over 100 different bird species (including the motmots that I love so much), and almost 50 different types of mammals including agoutis, White-faced Monkeys and Howler Monkeys (Mono Congos).
This last trip, although we didn’t have much luck with the Chocoyos, we had a fantastic view of some Howler Monkeys which, as the name suggests, make a lot of very loud noise and usually easier heard than seen.
For some reason, these guys were very quiet this day, but what a wonderful up-close view!
