Blogs from Northern Highlands, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean

I had a great week in Matagalpa. It was definitely my favorite weather and the prettiest views. This is the cloud forest area of Nicaragua. There are no volcanoes in this area, but there are mountains, lush vegetation and temperate weather. Before I arrived they had 3 days of torrential rain, but it only rained a few times while I was there. I didn't need A/C due to a great breeze blowing through my little cottage. A few times I even put a sweater on :). I had some very interesting village visits outside of Matagalpa. The first village we visited was Jamaica. There is an interesting belief in this community that changes in temperature will cause them illness and harm. So if the women spend several hours cooking over heat they spend the rest of ... read more

The last post left me at San Rafael del Norte, the beginning of the coffee region. We had been meaning to go to the Somoto Canyon for some time and we were finally on our way. We stopped over in Estelí for lunch and a cafe similar to one we would find back home ; with a server from Miami and a chocolate cake tasting like one we would have made from the box mix, we enjoyed a taste of home. Then got to the bus station with a ride from a Nicaraguan-American we had met in the cafe. He said he hoped we would find our place one day. He had just moved to Esteli from California. As we were waiting for the bus, we saw a foreigner, like us, who caught our eye and ... read more

After an unsuccessful attempt at getting a ride from San Juan de Nicaragua to Bluefields by boat, we grudgingly got on a 5 AM Express (and vastly more comfortable) boat back to San Carlos (on the good advice of Freddy, the shark fin guy from Managua). Of course the military searched our bags thoroughly as we were getting on, drinking our sweet instant coffee from a styrofoam cup. We had a quick stop over in El Castillo where we confirmed with a nice coffee shop owner (originally from California) that there still is no boat to Bluefields, and also got some to go grub. At San Carlos, we hopped right on a bus to Juilgalpa. The city has a terrible bypass road, with loud, fast-moving traffic and litter lining the gutters. However there was still much ... read more

Geo: 12.93, -85.931542hrs: Location: Verandah of Bunglow 7 Altitude 1300: Broken sun but blowy....very blowy. Summary: today kicked off with the usual coffee at 0600hrs....late as the kettle took some 30mins to boil due to the feeble output of the solar batteries. I think we have drained the whole days supply.......other Eco bungalow occupants are sipping tepid yucca juice and switching of lights at every opportunity whilst we are scalding our lips on Barista quality Italian brew....."tough"...in the distance I spot a couple of "Bill Oddie" birdwatcher types setting off in search of the lesser spotted "Ooomegoolie Bird"..... EQUIPMENT ALERT: disaster has struck in the sponge bag department. A whole tube of shaving gel has managed to quietly discharge itself and coat my entire supply of Alka-Seltzers in scented gloop. We carefully hand wipe each sac ... read more

From Leon we moved rather quickly up to Somoto where our host sisters from San Pedro had recounted tales of wonderful host families and exciting excursions. It was a bit of a ride from the city, and most people opt to stay in or near Esteli, but we had the sole intention of doing the canyon tour and being as close to the border as possible. We were met at the bus station by one of many brothers (despite having not confirmed our arrival time) that had a farm in the area and have since branched into tourism. We had e-mailed enquiring about availability and they sent us good instructions about getting there from Leon. We went to another bus stop for the local bus, but only had to wait as long as it took for ... read more