NICARAGUA-AN EMERGING FIELD TRIP DESTINATION-LOGISTICS, REWARDS, AND CHALLENGES

St. Norbert College is a residential liberal arts institution of about 2200 students near Green Bay, Wisconsin. The geology major program was established in 1994 and now has three tenure-track faculty. In recent years the program has graduated 3-7 majors per year, with most continuing to graduate school. Until this year the program has operated with minimal brick-and-mortar and equipment resources; thus, we have relied heavily on national and international field experiences to supplement our student’s class and lab experiences. National field trips have visited classic locales such as Death Valley, Florida Keys, Big Bend, Arizona, Hawaii, and the Appalachian Mountains. International destinations have focused on Central and South America with trips to Belize, Galapagos, and multiple trips to Costa Rica.

In recent years we have sought a new Central America destination that offers safe travel, interesting geology, reasonable cost, and a less ‘Americanized’ setting. In January 2014 we offered a 17-day trip to Nicaragua for 14 students and three faculty. All travel, lodging, and tours were arranged via an in-country travel expeditor. Field trip locales included volcanoes, archeological sites, coastal mangrove forests/estuary, modern coral reef, cloud forests, sustainable coffee plantation, cigar factory, cacao farm, nonindustrial gold mine, geothermal plant, Lake Nicaragua, and cultural stops. Lodging was almost exclusively in local hotels and lodges operated by natives. Road infrastructure in Nicaragua is excellent and allows for easy and reliable travel by tour bus. The burgeoning tourist industry is still relatively inexpensive and provides excellent service and opportunities for geoscience travel and research with students. Future opportunities may include observing the impacts of the Nicaragua Inter-oceanic Canal, set to begin construction near the beginning of 2015 and last several years. We enthusiastically endorse Nicaragua as a field trip destination given its diversity of geology and natural history, relatively easy and inexpensive travel, and wonderful people.