A Broad Abroad

I have all these untidy loose threads in my head regarding leon and my last days in nicaragua but I don’t see how I’ll find the time to capture them. but not just about leon, about how my travels are progressing and about how they are changing, or maybe in more cases not changing, me. Take a previous lesson I learned in my personal relationships: don’t enter one believing you can change a person. Yeah, a lesson one must learn firsthand, right? Now I find this is true of the relationship between me and this journey. Will it fundamentally change me? Is that even possible with me controlling so much of it?

I never really expected to be changed. Hhhmmmm….or did I? if I am totally honest with you an me, I may have. But now, at large in the world, I am starting to understand the fundamental principals at my core that rule my behavior and my relationship with the world around me. Yet more grist for my mind’s mill. if one of the goals of my journey was self-discovery, I am well down that path. Knowing myself and what I want better is bound to be a good thing, right?

Ocotal, Nicaragua, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

I’ve decided to spend at least a day or so in Tegucigalpa (known in these parts as Tegu).  I was surprised how much I liked san jose, CR despite it’s bad reputation so I decided to give tegu a chance.  I had heard it was in a really nice valley with lots of topography and it’s true.  I rather like it.  I also think Honduras seems a little cleaner and more prosperous.  I had heard that Nicaragua was the poorest country in CA.  I was checked into my sprawling and sparkling $12 room at Nuevo Hotel Bosten by 2:30 and I headed out.

Tegu is a maze of narrow roads and I realized quickly that I needed to pay attention to where I was and choose some landmarks.  I made note of which of the surrounding hills were which direction, how they related to the major churches and plazas and the large orange and white cell tower and, finally, how all of these related to my hotel.  Getting lost in the jungle doesn’t sound much worse than getting lost here.

I visited the national museum, got Honduran lempiras at the ATM, and visited several of the lovely churches.  The cathedral along the central park is undergoing a renovation.  Based on the work done so far on the exterior, it is going to be stunning. Inside is already amazing, with an elaborate gold and silver altar.

Then, after eating street food for nearly a week I broke down, got a personal pan pizza at pizza hut, and went to my room to listen to some podcasts of This American Life I had downloaded to my computer a week or so earlier.  Let me tell you, that pepperoni pizza tasted pretty darn good.  I’m hoping to find a café with wi-fi later today to upload some posts and pics.  This has been hard to find since Granada, tho in Leon some of the hostels had wi-fi.

I think this was the easiest border crossing so far and it’s got the bonus of being in a beautiful mountain range. The officials were friendly and helpful. Nicargua charges you $2 for leave the country (and $7 to get in!!) and Honduras charges you $3 to get in. Technically, there are not supposed to be any border charges between 4 countries after Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala entered into the CA4 pact that eliminates various border crossing procedures for many, but am I really going to sit there and argue in bad Spanish about the CA4 pact with a border official? No thanks. And yes, they count on that attitude I’m sure. I did get a receipt, tho ☺.

On the Honduras side I caught my nicest bus ride yet – a little over $5 for an express bus to Tegucigalpa, the capitol of Honduras. I was thoroughly enjoying my ride, complete with english language movie and Spanish sub-titles, when a disgusting Nicaraguan man who blew his nose into his hand then wiped it on whatever he could find sat down. When that didn’t work he just blew it into his shirt. Dude, you are seriously interfering with what was to be a great entry to Honduras. At least he’s a nica ☺. And I didn’t even bother to GENTLY decline his offer to go out on a date. A vigorous head-shake and NO did it. Sure, It’s valentines day but I’m not nearly that desperate. Actually, I didn’t realize it was valentines day until much later in the day.

Like I said, I don’t like to do all day bus trips. Not knowing how long the border crossing at Los Manos would take, I decided to spent a night in the Nicaraguan town closest to the border. Ocotal was also praised in the lonely planet for the botanical garden in its square and for being a nice, typical northern Nicaraguan town. OK – this will be a nice way to say good bye to Nicaragua. A goodbye I fortunately felt I was ready for.

Ocotal is at the base of the Sierra de Diplito, Nicaragua’s highest range, and the climate here is lovely as well. I found an awesome $10 room at hospedaje Llamarada del Bosque and headed out to walk the town. The square and adjacent church really are lovely. A little later I met Sarah, a Nicaraguan guide who spoke decent english and wanted to practice with me. We chatted for a long time and I agreed to go visit her home so I could take a digital picture of her, in her guide shirt, to send to her to be used in the guidebooks she is frequently mentioned in – footprint, lonely planet, etc. she even has her pic in the back of one. Despite being molested by her dusty dog (there was one outfit retired a day earlier than i planned) it was a lovely evening.

Matagalpa, Nicaragua, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

Rusting tank at the entrance to La Finca Selva Negra

The next day I hop on a bus headed further up the mountains towards jinotega for a day trip to La Selva Negra, spanish for The Black Forest.  The bus lets me off about ½ way, next to a rusting military tank and a sign for La Selva Negra.  I snap a few photos of some boys playing on the tank and head down the road pointing to the Finca.  Finca is “farm” in Spanish, btw, and La Selva Negra is an organic, shade-grown coffee farm started in the 1880 by german immigrants who were invited by the Nicaraguan government to grow coffee and help get a coffee industry started.

Their techniques are extremely eco-friendly but even more impressive is the vast acreage (over ½ of the finca) that is covered with virgin rainforest.  They have wonderfull trails that criss-cross it and one can stay there in chalets for a bit more money than I wanted to spend given my recent splurges, or pay just $1.25 to have access to the finca and trails.  Both matagalpa and jinotega are short bus rides away and have decent accommodations.

I must admit that I was uncharacteristically careless when noting the trails I wanted to take.  I knew there were no “looped” trails and that one needed to meet up with other trails to make it back.  After poking around the finca for a bit I started my hike around 10:30 and for the next few hours soaked up the lovely green forest and listened to the howler monkeys. I needed a recharge of green and I had forgotten that once again.  This was green like I hadn’t seen since costa rica.  Then I started to wonder if I was going the right way.  Was the trail I was on meeting up with the right trail?  There were not printed maps, only a picture on the wall.  Often I’ll snap a photo with my point-and-shoot in these situations so I can zoom in and refer to it later, but I was not that smart this time.

I knew I could back-track and find my way, but that would put me out there later than I wanted considering how early the sun goes down in these valleys.  So I continued on, trusting my sense of direction and promising to be more careful in the future. Indeed I made it back, feeling invigorated and fortunate.  While waiting at the road for the bus I had a nice chat with Alex, a young writer for Rough Guide and unbeknownst to him he gave me my first English conversation in days.  A little “laniape” :).

Matagalpa Market, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

I 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?

Today I set out for the indigenous neighborhood west of town: Subtiava. I sat outside of san juan batista de subtiava, leon’s oldest church, until it opened and then paid my respects. It’s a wonderful old church that fronts a big empty and dusty square – not a gringo filled area to be sure ☺. afterwards, I decided to poke around some of the side-streets there and I am glad I did. I found dianna, on the curb outside her home, stirring a giant pot of mondongo (soup). After seeing many people from town lining up with their buckets to take some home I decided I couldn’t pass this up. Like many versions of soups popular on Sunday in latin America, this is a soup with pork stomach – aka tripe – at its heart.

First dianna grabbed a BIG bowl then proceeded to “build” my soup: a cooked plantain, then yucca and some squash from different pots. Next she picks out some choice pieces of tripe then spoons the yummy looking soup (filled with spices and veggies) on top of all this. No, I couldn’t eat the tripe but I did try it. I was also able to have a basic conversation with dianna letting her know this was my first bowl of mondongo and that I liked it very much. It was a great experience.

in the evening, after i finally got out to photograph churches in the nice light of late afternoon, i stopped behind the cathedral to buy meat and veggies that were being grilled on a street corner. i picked out a various items and it was all re-heated on coals and wrapped in a banana leaf so i could take it to eat it while i watch another movie tonight! it was a street food day and i realize i’m testing my constitution but man was everything i bought good.

My Spanish has progressed very little over the past few weeks and that is disappointing. I will try extra hard to get to Guatemala with enough time to take Spanish lessons for a couple weeks. I really want to do better. I’m about ready to launch from leon and I think I will try to make it to moyagalpa tomorrow. It’s in the mountains and much cooler. I think this change of pace will be nice and it also begins my trajectory towards Honduras. I haven’t thought much about what I will do there, sooooo….stay tuned.