In the last few months we were fortunate enough to have rescued a parrot from a raided gang house in El Salvador. To our surprise, Pancho has quite an extensive vocabulary that he picked up while living with his former caretakers.
Visitors of the area as well as guests of our ecolodge have the opportunity to see Pancho the Talking Parrot in person. Take a look at the video and see for yourself. We are happy to welcome him to our beautiful beach resort in El Salvador.
When you come to La Cocotera Eco Lodge and Resort and stay at our eco resort be sure to go on our “Behind the Scenes Eco Tour.” The staff at our eco resort would be more than happy to show you our different eco processes at La Cocotera Eco Resort. We will show you our biological, not chemical, waste water recycling treatment plant. We will also show you our solar energy capabilities and our ionization pool filtration system.
You can also have the opportunity to participate in our turtle release program. The turtle release program is sponsored by our eco resort and allows hotel guest to aid in safely releasing thousands of newly hatched Olive Ridley turtle into the ocean every year.
Don’t forget about our Species Reintroduction Program. La Cocotera is the proud sponsor ofEl Salvador’s official program to reintroduce the Scarlet Macaw into the country. Guests can learn all about this exciting program and meet people involved in the project. Guests of the eco resort can also see our Scarlet Macaws and the latest edition to our birds, our Yellow-Naped Parrots.
Did you know that when you stay our eco resort our chef will prepare all your food according to your diet? Our food that we prepare and serve is fresh, locally grown or caught. Breakfast is served buffet style with fresh fruits and juice, yogurt and granola, French pastries and breads, and locally grown and roasted coffee. La Cocotera’s eco resort can accommodate any dietary restriction or preference.
Our staff at our eco resort are more than happy to help to accommodate any of your requests. Sandy, our bartender, can make a drink that you can enjoy poolside or while you are on the beach in El Salvador!
Sandy our bartender
As the weather starts to warm up, you are thinking about where to go on vacation. Look no further than La Cocotera. Our eco resort offers an extremely relaxing tranquil experience. If you are an eco friendly traveler or simply looking to enjoy a trip to El Salvador, La Cocotera has so many things to offer that you will be able to make the most of your experience in El Salvador.
At our eco resort you can go hiking in El Imposible National Park, bird watching, surfing, or enjoy our famous drink, the Coco Loco. It is served in a coconut and it is very tasty!
Be sure, while staying at our eco resort, to check out the “Behind the Scenes Eco Tour.” You will get a personal tour of La Coco
tera’s water treatment facility, turtle nesting area, and much more!
During the holiday season, taking a vacation to a tropical destination and staying in an eco resort is a great alternative to a “white Christmas.” Instead of being cold and surrounded by snow, why not go to El Salvador and have a relaxing trip on the beach and feel the sand in between your toes. While staying at an eco resort in El Salvador, you can enjoy fresh local food and there are a wide range of activities that you can do.
For breakfast, La Cocotera provides a delicious breakfast buffet. The breakfast buffet includes: fresh fruit, yogurt, granola, French pastries and breads, locally grown and roasted coffee and fresh juice. El Salvador is a major coffee producing country in the world and you will be able to taste how truly delicious it is when you able to consume El Salvadorian coffee at the source. Lunch and dinner is prepared with all fresh ingredients and local fresh fish and seafood are available daily. You can eat poolside in the open air dining area and enjoy the ocean breeze. The restaurant is has beautiful scenery and has a nice backdrop of coconut, mango, and almond trees that have inhabited the area for years and produce an abundance of fruit.
The Barra de Santiago is a nice relaxing beach in El Salvador. While you are staying at La Cocotera and on the beach, you will feel like you are in your own tropical paradise. The Barra de Santiago is a great place to go surfing in El Salvador because the beach is not crowded and you can surf without competing for a wave. You can also kayak, water ski, and go fishing.
Spending your holiday in a warm tropical paradise like El Salvador definitely beats the cold and snow and La Cocotera would love to have you for the holiday season. So when you are thinking about how to spend your vacation, why not go to El Salvador and stay at an ecoresort?
La Cocotera Eco Resort
El Salvador is the perfect destination for any nature lover seeking an eco-friendly travel experience. Staying at an eco resort and lodge in El Salvador is the first step to your ecotourism experience in El Salvador. La Cocotera was built following the “green leaf” system utilized by the Certification Sustainable Tourism (CST). Our goal at La Cocotera was to build a resort that our guests would find luxurious at no expense to the environment or residents. La Cocotera allows you to have a place to stay in El Salvador and be a tourist without damaging the environment while you are visiting.
At La Cocotera, we built an eco resort that seeks to try to minimize the impact that conventional tourism has on the environment. We attempt to reduce the negative environmental impact by using solar energy, energy saving light bulbs, biological (not chemical) waste water recycling treatment, environmentally safe shampoos, soaps, and all cleaning supplies, ionization pool filtration, and recycling of plastics, paper, and glass.
The Barra de Santiago is an excellent location for bird watching. La Cocotera is part of El Salvador’s official program to reintroduce Scarlet Macaws into the country. Scarlet Macaws have been extinct in El Salvador for the last fifty years. While bird watching in El Salvador and staying at an eco resort, you can learn more about the Scarlet Macaw program and ask questions to the people involved while they are staying at our eco resort.
We also have an Olive Ridley turtle release program. In the Olive Ridley turtle release program, we buy turtle eggs that would otherwise be sold to be eaten, allow the eggs to hatch, raise the turtles, and then release the Olive Ridley turtles into the Pacific Ocean. The conservation of the Olive Ridley turtles is a serious concern and we are so pleased that at our eco resort we can help the Olive Ridley turtles.
Barra de Santiago, El Salvador
There are many things to do in El Salvador; however, surfing in El Salvador has become increasingly popular in recent years. For one thing, the beaches in El Salvador are not crowded making surfing in El Salvador a nice tranquil surfing location. The best time to surf in El Salvador is during March to October when swells can reach 10 feet; however, surfing in El Salvador is remarkable year round.
El Salvador is set facing south so the country is arguably one the best place for waves in Central America for south swells. The right hand point waves are a dream for any surfer. There are over 200 miles of beaches in El Salvador which means that there are many possible places to surf in El Salvador. La Libertad and El Sunzal are probably some of the more well-known El Salvadorian beaches, but Barra de Santiago should not be overlooked at all.
At Barra de Santiago, you can look forward to consistent surfing in El Salvador year round. The sandy beaches at Barra de Santiago provide for a nice beach break rather than the point breaks at some of the other beaches in El Salvador. Whether you are an experienced surfer or have never surfed before and just want to try it, surfing in El Salvador is something that you should experience. While surfing is near the top of the list of things to do in El Salvador, at Barra de Santiago there are many things to do.
When you are staying at an eco resort in El Salvador, there are a variety of things to do when you maybe want to take a break from surfing but don’t want leave the beach. There is year round fishing in El Salvador which can provide for a relaxing experience. You can also kayak, sail, and water ski.
During the months of October through February the flowers are blooming on the Ruta de las Flores, or “Route of the Flowers.” The road, which is located near our eco resort, gets its name from the white flowers that blossom on coffee plants that are in region. The “Route” through its 36 kilometer road will take you through El Salvador’s coffee growing region and links five towns together where locals have kept their traditions and culture very much alive.
In the town of Nahuizalco, you will be able to admire the beautiful hand-crafted furniture and enjoy the night market that is illuminated by oil lamps, lanterns, and candles. Juayúa offers one of the largest food and artisan festivals where you will be amazed at the variety of local and international food that you can eat. A notable black Christ statue is located in Juayúa at La Iglesia del Cristo Negro or “Black Christ Church.”
Apaneca has two lagoons, Laguna Verde or Green Lagoon and Laguna de las Ninfas or “Nymphs Lagoon,” which provides for stunning landscapes. You can soar over Apaneca through forests while getting a bird’s eye view of the area with an Apaneca Zip Line Tour.
Every weekend in Salcoatitán, you can enjoy a large selection of food in front of the colonial church of San Miguel Arcángel. El Salvador’s first coffee plantation was located in Salcoatitán. Be sure to check out the local art galleries and eco-art.
The “Route” ends with the village of Concepción de Ataco. Concepción de Ataco is rich in history as it dates back to pre-Columbian times. There are viewpoints where you can gaze at the town and its surroundings. While driving, there are multiple viewpoints where you will be able to pull over and enjoy the scenic views that El Salvador has to offer. La Cocotera’s closeness to Ruta de las Flores makes this a must do activity for any eco-friendly traveler.
Great news! We have officially received two Scarlet Macaws as part of an educational component of a larger reintroduction program with SalvaNatura, El Salvador’s largest NGO. Their names are Lily and Tito. No one knows their exact age, but they came to us from a rescue center where they had spent the last 15 years of their lives in a cramped cage. The birds now reside in an aviary that we have built for them and are happily enjoying the larger space.
Lily and Tito, El Salvador Scarlet Macaws at La Cocotera Eco Resort
The Scarlet Macaw is an incredible bird, now extinct in El Salvador and most of Central America. Hunting, poaching for the pet trade, and the destruction of habitat through deforestation have all been contributing factors in their population decline. As an environmentally active eco lodge in Central America, we are working in conjunction with SalvaNatura to sponsor a project that reintroduces macaws into the wild and establishes a self-sustaining population.
SalvaNatura is a private, nonprofit organization recognized nationally and internationally for its successful work on the issue of environmental conservation in El Salvador. For more information, visit www.salvanatura.org. You can read more about the Reintroduction of the Scarlet Macaw to El Salvador here.
For more information on our El Salvador all-inclusive hotel, visit us at lacocoteraresort.com
La Cocotera Restaurant
As an eco friendly resort, we constantly strive to ensure that our hotel and practices always put the environment at high priority. But what does that entail exactly? We wanted to take the time to share with you what makes La Cocotera truly an eco friendly resort.
La Cocotera was built following the “green leaf” system utilized by the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST). The planning of the resort involved mapping out how to carefully minimize footprints on the land and ensuring that structures were built around the natural landscape. Local natural materials such as palm fronds, sustainable teak wood, plant vines, natural stone and hand woven fabrics are used throughout. In fact, all the wood used in construction was derived from sustainable teak plantations.
Energy conservation and recycling are also important elements of our eco resort. We use solar energy, energy saving lightbulbs and kinesthetic power flashlights. We have a biological (not chemical) waste water recycling treatment plant and we utilize gray water recycling as well as black water recycling, which not many hotels do. All trash is presorted for recycling before it leaves the property.
At La Cocotera, we pride ourselves on the freshness of the food we serve. Mangoes, cashews, almonds and our own citrus trees are all grown on the property and we use them in our desserts. We will soon be buying Tilapia fish from the local elementary school, which is raising them, and will be adding a vegetarian menu. For drinks, we use plastic cups made from corn which are 100% compostable.
A few of our other eco friendly resort features are:
Being a green hotel is more than just having environmentally friendly practices in place. We also educate our guests by offering a free Behind The Scenes Eco Tour that shows you all we are doing to be green. We educate all our staff in the same way.
As an eco friendly resort in El Salvador, we are glad to offer world-class accommodations in a beautiful and unique setting. We encourage environmentally conscious travelers, nature and luxury lovers alike to visit our green hotel in El Salvador for a different vacation experience surrounded by nature, far away from the stresses of everyday life.
