Cooling off in Matagalpa
Monday, February 11th, 2008I said goodbye to my air-conditioned room in Leon and took off for a place with some altitude and what I’d hope would be nature’s own air-conditioning. I just get so lazy when it’s hot. So I caught a chicken bus to matagalpa in nicaragua’s central mountains. Chicken buses are decommissioned US school buses used throughout central America for transportation. They are often painted and decorated – at least one of these decorations being an incarnation of jesus or the virgin mary.
It’s a long, dusty ride across Nicaragua. I’d swear I was in deep west texas if it weren’t for the occasional smoking volcano. They define the landscape in most of Nicaragua, often rising solo on the horizon and, yes, this was the first time i’d seen one smoking. After a bus change in san isidro we started to climb and the temperature started to drop. Yay! This is near the heart of nicaragua’s coffee region and one after the other there were large lots covered with a patchwork of drying coffee beans. Tons of them! I still don’t understand why it’s so hard to get even a moderately good cup of coffee in central america, when so many countries grow amazing coffee. Nescafe it is! I know it’s all exported but with coffee prices depressed you’s think they’d try to sell some at home.
When I arrive in matagalpa and head towards the town square (the smaller one – ruben Dario) it’s clear there is a major fiesta getting underway. Surrounding the square are tons of booths – most decorated with the ubiquitous tona and Victoria banners. the advertised 15 cordobas for a beer is about as good as I’ve seen it (about 75 cents). I find a clean room with bath for $12.5 just off the square at Hotel Alvarado which is above the family-owned pharmacy.
I usually try to get to town before 2 or 3 so I can do a quick walk around my first day and get my bearings. I purposefully avoid all-day bus journeys and try to make smaller hops. It didn’t take long to cover the major parts of matagalpa. It’s clean town and seems to be a little more prosperous than many others, probably due to the coffee, tobacco and productive veggie farming around the area.
The week long festival is an event celebrating the anniversary of matagalpa achieving “city” status and it soon becomes clear they have lots of city pride. Heartfelt tributes are delivered on the stage in the square and many different colorful dance troops perform traditional dances. In the evenings the tona/Victoria covered booths light up the fritangas out front, grills that serve delicious comidas tipicas, grilled meats, gallo pinto (surprise!), plantains, but also little patties of meat or veggies that help mix things up a bit.
This was really a great place to people watch and I find myself wishing more and more that my Spanish was better. Here in the highlands, with no gringos to chat up occasionally, the poor state of my Spanish is more obvious. in some places I have an incredibly hard time understanding even the simplest of sentences and this applies even more here in the highlands. Maybe it’s like someone who speaks only a little English and goes to deep east texas. They’d have a harder time, right?
Peggy Rehm