A tad over a month has gone by
since we last logged, and we can only say that our trip has been so
overwhelmingly stimulating at times, that we have been busy drinking
experiences in, and resting to acquire new ones… Let’s see… where did we leave
off? Ah Yeah! We were headed to Isla de
Ometepe, and then looping back North to hit our destinations of Matagalpa, Jinotega,
Estelí,
León,
and then back to Managua… before heading to beautiful El Salvador.
Ometepe Island was, yet, another
paradisiacal place in the midst of Lake Nicaragua, which was formerly known as
“Lake Cocibolca.” We arrived by ferry to the little port of Moyogalpa, via the little port of San Jorge, and
stayed a few nights at a quiet little hotel run by a cooperative of peasants
and small farmers of the Island. The following day we rented bicycles and rode through
town ‘till we reached Punta Jesús María, a desolate point of the
Island that protrudes into the lake as a small dark sanded road that turns into a
thin, subtle tongue into the green water.
On the third day, we hiked 1000 meters
up towards the top of Concepción Volcano. That was a six-hours round
trip serenaded by monkey howls all the way up, as we, and our travel companions
(a trio of sweet Swiss girls) stopped every now and then to take in the
beautiful views, sounds, and steep ways to the top of the Volcano. At the end
of the hike we were spent, ready to relax, and we couldn’t wait to move on to
our next destination: Matagalpa.
A fellow traveler told us in San
Juan del Sur that the best way to reach our destination was to take an early
bus from Masaya to Matagalpa, as we did not want to be forced to go back to
Managua. We listened, and followed our newly found friend’s advice. We stayed a
night in Masaya, again, woke up at 4:30am to get to the bus which was expected
to leave at 5:30. When we arrived to the bus depot someone told us that the bus
didn’t go to Matagalpa on Thursdays. We were considering our alternative options
to reach Matagalpa, when voilà our bus came, and we managed to
get to Matagalpa at about 9:00 a.m. Apparently, the Thursday service is a new
commodity stemming from Masaya these days.
Matagalpa has great energy and is
a bustling city-town in the mountains. It is also a thriving political hub for
the Frente Sandinista, the leftist party in power right now. One of the key
figures in the Nicaraguan Revolution was born there: the famous Carlos Fonseca Amador.
We visited the humble house that serves as a museum, and walked away moved by
the depth in thinking, and the relentless commitment of this revolutionary
leader who sacrificed his life to beget the New, Free Nicaragua dreamed by many
at the time. We went to a youth concert at the hottest Sandinista hang out, La
Casona, and spent the evening with fellow travelers who told us about Selva Negra, an eco-coffee plantation in
between Jinotega and Matagalpa. We also continued the search for Kat’s Central
American wedding ring, and this time fortune was smiling upon us, and the
Universe kissed our eyes!!!
We found a lovely silver &
gold Italian design ring at a small jewelry in town, and we had it adjusted so
that Kat could rock it, no doubt! We finally were married in the eyes of all
those smirking Nicaraguans (more to come on this Telenovela, or Soap Opera)
thanks to this lovely ring.
Matagalpan themselves were a tad
more interesting than people from other regions we had met along the way. For
instance, we ate at Toro Bravo, a nice Bar & restaurant, where we met &
hung out with a matagalpan family who has a coffee finca and a very active 2
year old. They immediately invited us to spend time at their finca, and wanted
to host us for as long as we wanted. Our hotel owner lived at the Hotel, as
many families do, but he was a retired OBGYN who also has a pharmacy attached
to the hotel, with a private practice. He is quite known in town, and he is
very Christian, but also very interested in the religious views of ALL his
guests. Finally, Matagalpa gave us the gift of a yummy Italian meal accompanied
by Passion Fruit juice! Because of all these things Matagalpa and its people
have a special place in our hearts…
Next, we went to Selva Negra a
very eco conscious farm and Coffee Finca (plantation) which was began by German
immigrants and still run by their descendants. Our last morning there, we met at
breakfast with the owner, a retired architect turned historian: Eddy Kuhl. Ario and
him had quite the chat about authors and literature. We learned on the Hotel’s coffee
tour that instead of discarding the coffee skins into water or ground which
pollutes, they mix the skins with bacteria found in the rumen
of the farm’s cows and make methane gas which they use to cook with on the
farm. Another innovation we heard of was that they have a special kind of worm
that can eat 11 times its weight in one sitting (imagine that!!) and is utilized
to make the fertilizer for the coffee trees. Their coffee is among the selected
ones to be sold in some U.S. Whole Foods stores.
Technology was not on our side on
this side of the country. We spent about 3 hours (oh! crud!) downloading a movie from iTunes
which in the end we had already seen and didn't want to watch again. L
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On our way from Selva Negra to
Jinotega, we were waiting for the bus by the side of the road, where some cops
were having a laugh at the expense of a rookie. Nicaraguan Police men seem to
be waaaay too relaxed for a law
enforcement group. We have seen cops asking for a ride to get from one place to
the next many times over. These police officers we are talking about were
teasing a guy who was complaining that he had not even been given a gun for his
job, and that right now, his “enforcing” weapon was a baby machete and a stick.
The other guys, clearly outside of this other guy’s predicament, said to him: “don’t worry man… your day will come, you’ll
be like us, and surely you’ll rock a shiny little gun like ours…” We looked
at the alluded firearm. It was a pretty beat up Russian Makarov PM pistol from
the 40’s. It looked like the holster was what held the poor thing together, but
they were all laughing so heartily about it, that we wound up laughing with
them as we waited. The one thing the rookie had that the others didn’t was two
cell phones, instead of one, and that, the others admitted, was pretty cool…
Jinotega was a disappointment on
so many levels, it’s not even worth speaking about it. We did like the
surroundings of it, but the town was quite strange, and we really did not care
for it… a first in our trip.
So we took the bus to Estelí
and after many hotels had said they were full, we found one that seemed decent. We ate a dish of really yummy vegetable pasta and then took a little nap before
hoping to watch the Olympics, but the TV menu lied and gymnastics wasn’t on. L So we went out to
dinner at Vuela Vuela Restaurant and came back. Unfortunately we had company:
little crawling creatures. Another first in the whole trip; we took care of
them and tried relaxing in our room. More buggies came out, and we lost our
patience for them…
At this juncture in our trip, we
were reaching our point of needing to be pampered, and wanted to gather as much
energy as possible, as we had walked and traveled around so much, and we were
about to meet up with Ario’s family, who were driving from El Salvador to hang
out together for the last little leg of the trip. So at 11pm we called Hotel Escuela Los
Arcos and made a reservation to go there that night. So we got to the new
hotel and found more company in the bathroom, but we felt better, and we really
didn’t care anymore. Clearly, the heat was making them come out, but once we
flushed them away, they didn’t come back.
When we finally told them about this, as we checked out, they said we
should have told them right away and they would have moved us. Oh! Well… being
tired had made us shy, perhaps, right? Either way it was a really nice hotel.
The next day we enjoyed breakfast
there and then went back to sleep ‘till the afternoon. Later we went and walked
around, visited the Museum of Mártires and Heroes and Ario found a
really elegant Guayabera
(or “Safari Shirt”.)
Later Edenilson
(Ario’s nephew), his wife Yeka and his friend Chapetilla (or Chape) arrived to
Estelí,
and we hung out at the hotel and later went to eat.
After being together for a tad
over a couple of weeks (just the two of us), we both welcomed having more
voices than ours at every meal, and when making plans for new and exciting destinations.
Getting lost in a foreign country is more fun when in a large group, don’t you
agree? It was also nice that we were going to be able to drive to places now (since they had driven from El Salvador) making it much easier to visit places off the beaten path. The day after they
came to Nicaragua to meet up with us, we went to Miraflor, a small farming
community outside of Estelí. There we found a really awesome river with a pool to
swim in. We took lots of pictures along the way and ate lunch at someone’s
house next to the poza (river pool), which were delicious... we mean both the
water from the fall and the lunch.
On Friday we drove to Managua,
ate lunch at Casa San Juan, where we had left our bags while we traveled
around, and Kat napped (really? J)
while Ario and Chape went and got tickets for the Mejía Godoy concert that we were
going to go to later that night. We had a great time at the concert again. The
next day we drove to León and found a really nice hotel, Hotel Enrique III. Kat really
enjoyed walking around León (although it was really hot), and would really like to
go back to see more.
On Sunday we drove
back from Nicaragua and arrived in El Salvador at about 7:30pm. We stopped for
Chinese food in Honduras, and while we all enjoyed it, our fearless driver,
Edenilson, didn’t seem to do too well with it…
Stay tuned to hear about our next
iteration of adventures in El Salvador, a.k.a Guanacolandia…
We send each and every one of you
lots and lots of love, and passion for life, and the best wishes ever…
Hasta pronto!!! XXO!!!
Kat & Ario
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