In 2011, several women in the small mountain village of Ocotal, Nicaragua started a cooperative called Fuerte de Pinos, mostly as a tourist initiative. They constructed structures for dining, tree swings, tours, and other events to bring people to the mountains as a vacation destination. The women also, through a workshop in 2007 led by the Enlace Project and Richard Millard (from Rochester, NY), learned how to craft baskets out of pine needles collected from the forest, thread, and sewing needles. They went on to sell these baskets to tourist groups.