Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 8: Onward and upward we go (1/3/11)

Woke up pretty early due to the roosters all around (I am pretty sure it was around 630) and had breakfast which was delicious. After eating, we pack up, get some pics with the family and then the guide gets there with some horses. 

Ahhh my trusty steed. Let this day of horse trekking up into the intermediate zone be adventurous. 

Some pretty views to distract myself from this grueling day of riding horses. 

Our guide for the day. We talked about his venturing to Costa Rica for school/job but he had to come back because he couldn't afford to live there. He was really cool and spoke decent English (he still spoke mostly Spanish as I tried to follow along).

Kodak moment! I did not fall off this horse so it was a successful day of horse riding.

I assume its a long walk, so we are to put the packs on the horses and walk along with them so we don't get tired, nope! So we get on the horses then we get our packs handed to us, so we have the packs on our back still just now I get to ride a horse (which I don't like doing). We head out and ride for what seemed like forever (4-4.5 h); my butt is not used to being on a horse, especially that long, so I am in pain once we get to our destination and don't want to sit again for a few hours. Tonight we stay in the intermediate zone (first night was the lower zone) and learn about the coffee making process. 

They put me to work crushing what I believe was corn in order to make corn flour. For some reason I remember this being a part of the coffee process but I cant think of why I would be crushing something since the beans are whole when shipped so I feel like this was for something else. Either way, it takes a strong back. :)

After lunch, we see the beginning of the process and then go on a walk with Jackson, a local guy who lives across the street from the place we were staying, who shows us a coffee processing “factory” and explains a little bit of the process (not sure I understood the explanation completely). After that tour, we rest back at the house until dinner. 

The day before, Luis picked a giant orange fruit from a tree on our walk. He was determined to eat a fresh fruit from the land on this trip. 

So as we were hanging around the house, he cut it open and starts eating it. I think it was more of a grapefruit than orange. He enjoyed it, as he juiced half of it into a glass after eating one half.

Before dinner, and after its dark, the family needs water collected from a well that's about 500m away. We volunteered to help carry these jugs so the son, Mauricio, guides us as we have to navigate these fields in the dark and we don't know where we are going. We get back to the house and have a great dinner and hang out and talk with the family a bit while I kept playing with their cat, Mouse, who was a great little kitty.

Mouse and me playing at the dinner table. It was an incredibly affectionate cat.  

Our family for the second night in the intermediate zone. Absolutely wonderful people. 

Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 7: Into the wild (1/2/11)

Sign at the entrance to the Miraflor reserve. Beautiful land abounds. 

Get up and have breakfast at the hostel's cafe (Cafe Luz) while talking to some other travelers before going back to our rooms to pack our bags to go to the Miraflor Co-op office (UCA Miraflor) to arrange our tour of the reserve. We cant find the place as my guide book is out of date (now all these places not being where it says they should be  makes sense) and eventually find its new location after asking around, but we were late so no one was there. We return to the hostel and they arrange everything for us (15$pp/night for 3 meals and a place to stay, guides, etc.), which was really nice. We have time until the bus comes to get us, so we go have lunch at white house pizzeria where we split a large (the medium the other day was not sufficient to fill us up). After eating, we grab our bags and head to the bus stop, and get on the completely packed bus (sardines) where we are standing in the middle with our bags on for this 45min ride as there is no alternative. Right next to me, is a drunk dude with a bottle of vodka and a tomato, which he is eating and spitting on the floor right next to my feet – didn't enjoy that too much. We get to our stop, and our guide (Rodolfo) takes us to his cousins place to drop our main bags off as we take our day bags with us as we set off to hike to the waterfalls. Its an ordeal of a hike with us bouldering at some points and heading directly up and down hill sides, which makes us a little hot and sweaty, as the tropics are, but when we get to the falls, the hike is well worth it; the falls are beautiful. 

We made it! Aint that purty!

Inner monologue - I put my feet in, I should swim in it. Yes! I should definitely swim in it.

I have stripped down mostly and the sharp rocks hurt which makes me lose my balance (hence the splash)

Ahhhh yes!!!! Swimming around feels great! 

When we get to the base of the biggest one, we put our feet in before I decide to get in; I strip down to my undies, and then swim around to play in the falling water and enjoy the cool temps and the shade. We get out and get dressed to return. We get back and get our bags before heading up a hill and dropping our bags off at another house before walking up another hill to El Mirador (a place with a nice view). We get to view out over the coffee plantations and its forest land which was beautiful. 

One of the first views we had as we were climbing. Cant wait to get farther above the tree line to take in the real views

You gotta stop and smell the roses (or flowers in this case). Dont remember what these flowers were called but they are bushy and incredibly pretty. So I smelled one.

Another vista! Love it!

Our guide and I stopping to appreciate the view from El Mirador (I believe). How could one not stop with a view like that?

We go back down and continue on our hike where we tried to climb between a barbed wire fence, which didn't go well, until we get to our guide's house and they serve us a lemon; the hugest lemon I have ever seen, cantaloupe size we are talking here. We slice it in half and then squeeze it into our mouths directly which was very delicious and tart. I was wanting to eat it like a grapefruit but I didn't have a spoon. We eventually head to our place for the night and the guide's son goes and picks some veggies from the garden and joins us for the rest of the walk. We get to our place just before dark, and settle into our room. We get our flashlights out and some of the rooms have tiny LED lights for lighting. I decide to take a shower and the water is cold (no water heater) – electricity up here in general is minimal. Coming back to the house from the shower, I realized that there are soooo many stars out as there is no light pollution here; I am always amazed out in the country when you see just how beautiful the sky is without city lights drowning them out. After a delicious dinner of gallo pinto (a common dish which seems to just be rice and beans), some salty blocked cheese, some kind of empanada, a veggie salad, and some corn meal mix thing. It was really good. After eating, everyone sits around and talks (I do more listening as my proficiency is not at their level). Out of nowhere (at least to me) the dad leaves, comes back with a guitar, and one of his daughters and him play and sing for a little bit and she has a beautiful voice. After realizing that they were good, me and L go get our cameras as we want records of this. They lived in the La Labransa region of Miraflor. Such a great family. After the concert, we head to bed.

This was the next morning but this is the family we stayed with the first night with all of us in front of the house. Great food and entertainment. This first day by itself made the trip. What more can be in store?

Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 6: Are we there yet? (1/1/11)

Had a slow morning thanks to the previous night's festivities (was cool celebrating new years in a different country). We pack up, check out, and have a big breakfast before taking a taxi to the bus station. We were previously warned about trying to travel on 1/1 as they may not be running or on weird times, but we decided to chance it. We get to the bus station a little early for our bus departure and find that there are buses running but cant find ours to Esteli. Eventually a lady Judas priest helps us out and gets us close to Esteli but the bus stops ~30km short. After another bus doesn't come for over an hour, a few of us (us 2 and 2 dutch girls) flag a taxi and get on our way to our hostel (turns out the bus got there not too long after we all got into the taxi – not the best of luck there). Check into the hostel (Hopedeja Luna) and are hanging out when the owner, whom I had been chatting with over email before the trip, comes over and introduces herself and we chat for a bit about the upcoming miraflor trip. The hostel was nice and the lady is awesome. Really enjoyed my stay there (really all the hostels we stayed in were pretty great). Head out to get dinner down the street, where I got some delicious beef cordon bleu, and then we proceeded to walk around the area of town our hostel was in before returning to the hostel to get some sleep.

Church in the middle of Esteli that was a 5 min walk from our hostel.

Luis enjoying the new town so much he cant contain his dancing

Having a coffee since this region is known for its coffee. Tomorrow we head out on my favorite part of the trip; family homestays with people who live on and work the coffee fincas. 

Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 5: We are the “Beasts” (12/31/10)

We get up and head over to La Terraza M, which happens to be attached to the place we plan on going to dinner (El Mediteraneo), for a delicious brunch; my club sandwich was different than what I would expect in America, but it was delicious and the empanada I got was sweet (honey inside?) instead of savory like I am used to. We then head to the cathedral during daylight hours to climb to the roof, however once we get there, they close the doors and kick us out right after we cross the threshold.

Breakfast is served! 

Why you gotta sneak up on me Mr. Lion? You scared me!

Hummingbird visitor at breakfast. Not a bad way to start the end of a year.

We then proceed to go shopping, trying to find a tshirt L wants; instead we buy some 1.75L bottles of FdC for taking home. We go home to drop the bottles off (I don't want to carry that around all day) and as we walk into the hostel, the staff see what we are carrying and just shout out “BEASTS!!!” (clearly our enjoyment of the FdC is noticed by them). We head back out and cannot find this shirt L is looking for. We came back again and asked the staff for info so he can find his shirt, I sit back and relax doing some Sudoku as I don't like being on a fools errand; he returns unsuccessful yet again. We go out for food and realize places run out/low on food or are closed early around here. So we find a place that is open, have some dinner ( I had some tamale type things) and pick up some sandwiches for later. We notice the cathedral is open again and try to go up to the top, however are informed its open for service and the top is still closed. Go back to hostel to shower and get dressed and have another FdC promotion, drinking the ½ and keeping the ¼ for later like last time.  

The only Rum one ever needs to drink. Tis tasty.

After finishing our sandwiches and rum, we head across the street to the Bigfoot hostel for the Warm-up party. We meet some people over there and then the staff announces a scavenger hunt (I do love scavenger hunts!), so we join with the people we've been talking to and set out to take pictures of the things on the list. IT was a great time/idea! Some of the items consisted of switching shirts with a  local, taking a pic of Jesus, etc.

Our list of things to do/find for the night. Lets get it started.

Our team. Americans and Dutch coming together for the dream team of scavenger hunts.

Got a picture with Jesus. If you remember, this was that little statue of Jesus I talked about the other day.

Break-dancing in the street. Check!

Dance with a mannequin lady. Check! Made me feel so small!

We got thirsty on our crawl so we stopped to get some beer.

Riding a lion. Dont mind if we do. Someone has to tame the beast!

As we complete items on the hunt, we realize its 1130pm, so we put that on hold and find a bar with spots for us to have a few drinks to bring in the new year. Our table gets some beers and a bottle of rum (its Nicaragua, so why not?) . At midnight, the streets go crazy with fireworks everywhere. We decide to abandon the hunt and just hang out the rest of the night before returning to the hostel (~1am).

Are you intimidated by this? We were. This is why we went into the bar :) hahah

Us playing in the street as the new year is happening. They just light fireworks in the middle of their streets. Not sure how safe it is but was cool as this was right outside of the bar we were drinking in. So we joined.

Rum and coke action. Ladies be jealous. Actually anyone not Luis should be jealous as he gets to taste the sweet nectar that is FdC. I drew the short straw so I get to drink the coke.

Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 4: Volcano hiking and surfing (12/30/10)

Wake up early (~715am) to walk over to the quetzal trekkers headquarters which is around the corner from our hostel. We group up and head to Cerro Negro for the day of fun. Hike our way up the volcano, the day couldn't be more perfect; partly cloudy w/ a great breeze, both of which helped with the heat. 

At the office of the trekking company. Waiting to depart.

The Volcano range which we will be hiking up one of them today.

This seems safe. If I am reading that sign correctly it says to go ahead and climb these volcanoes as they are extremely safe. Ill go with that.

As we hike up, we strap the board to our backs as they are substantial and carrying it in your hands the whole way would make your arms tired before you get to the top. On the way up, we stopped in the first canyon of the active volcano to see steam coming out of the ground in various places. This steam has a strong sulfur smell to it and the rocks have a strong yellow tint to them, presumably from the sulfur We then hike up to the crest where we will eventually board down; before that we go over and look at the view from the peak which is amazing with the mountain range in the distance and being able to see various parts of the country. 

Found a heat release for the volcano which smelt strongly of sulfur. The rock near here was also yellow tinted due to the sulfur deposits.

We have to go up there? This is not going to be fun. 

Saw a rock in the distance that looked like Donkey Kong so I decided to pet him.  

Here we go on our way up. Climb! Climb! Climb!

Luis and I working our way up the mountain. He had to lug our jumpers and boards with us (the second time up my board burned my shirt a little bit as i didnt let it cool off enough before putting it on my back - that shirt is still faded where the burn took the color out of the shirt).

We came over once we got to the top to enjoy the view that our labor allowed us to take in.

Get to the boarding area, suit up in protective garments, and board down one at a time; was really fun and definitely not as scary as it looked from the bottom – granted I did it sitting down and I am sure if you try to do it standing it could be more challenging/scary.

Who you going to call? Not us as we look like lame ass ghost-busters. But safety first. Just glad we didnt hike up the mountain with these on. I would have died for sure!

Our group is suited up and ready for the short trip down the side of the volcano.

We are ready for sledding down this volcano. 

At the bottom we get a snack and are able to go up again for a second go if we want, so I head up and do it again. Our group was great with tons of friendly chit chat and an overall good time. After the second trip down, we pack up the truck and stop at the entry way to have lunch and clean up a bit. 

Lunch is served. If I remember right, the lunch was veggie tacos. They were really good after all the exertion of climbing that mountain twice.

The lunch area had this pin of lizards so I decided to go pay them a visit. So many lizards in one area. Dont know why they were there.

After lunch, we get back to HQ and are given a free shirt, then we head to hostel to shower and relax until dinner time. We walked around for a bit trying to find a restaurant LP suggested and again, I could not find it. Instead we stopped at Antonio's pizzeria and split a medium house special which was pretty good. 

Luis is ready to destroy the pizza after we both had a slice. Delicious. 

After eating, we went walking and wound up at Alamo Bar and Restaurant, which also has karaoke tonight (starting to think everyone does karaoke all day every day in Leon). We grab some beers and sit on the rooftop terrace looking out over the city before heading out to walk over to the cathedral and central market area and then heading back to the hostel to spend the rest of the night. We saw our tour guide lady (Jenny) from earlier hanging out with some of her friends so we stopped and talked for a bit before retiring to our own area to enjoy the rest of our FdC promotion (1/2L and 1/4L of FdC Gran Reserva for 145C) drinking the ½ L and keeping the ¼ for a souvenir. As we are chilling in the patio area, we enjoy watching the bats fly around the trees within the hostel (had open areas everywhere). Once the 1/2L is gone, we turn in.

We made it through the day. Time to enjoy some FdC.