MATAGALPA & SOMOTO CANYON, NICARAGUA

Post Leon, we headed to a beach area at Jiquillio on the north east Pacific coast of Nicaragua. We actually ended up spending time there on two seperate occasions, so I will complete one blog following this one.

Unfortunately, as I have stated before, our camera was stolen, and we lost quite a lot of photos from this area of the trip. The ones we do have are compliments of Mike's phone and from Britt and Fiona, 2 fellow travelers who were kind enough to share their photos with us.

MATAGALPA:

Matagalpa is a small village in the mountains of Nicaragua. It is an area that produces coffee, cacao and handicrafts. The drive there took us through varied terrain, from the dry coast to the lush countryside and mountains. 
We headed to Finca Esperanza in the mountains above Matagalpa. The Finca is beautiful and lush, with hiking trails, a garden and coffee crops. We were able to camp in the parking area and utilize the facilities and common areas. It was a great place to relax and it was nice to have cool mornings and nights after the heat of the coast.

Whilst there we completed a couple of hiking trails, and generally relaxed. We met Britt, a very dynamic and free spirited American who was working at the Finca and teaching yoga.
We also spent time with Fiona, an intelligent, well rounded and impressive individual who is an engineer at NASA, who had spent a year teaching english in Nicaragua and had returned to visit her collegues and friends and to explore some more of Nicaragua. She has promised to show us around the Houston Space Centers mission control, when we can arrange a visit there. Definately on our "to do" list.

A definate highlight was finding a red eyed green tree frog in the trees at the Finca. Keira got to hold it, which was an amazing experience. She is so brave, and was not phased at all when it jumped on her face! She simply took it off and laughed.

THE FOLLOWING BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS WERE TAKEN BY FIONA: THANK YOU

RED EYED GREEN TREE FROG:
​
A definate highlight was finding a red eyed green tree frog in the trees at the Finca. Keira got to hold it, which was an amazing experience. She is so brave, and was not phased at all when it jumped on her face! She simply took it off and laughed.

CHALLENGE: FIND THE RED EYED GREEN TREE FROG

KEIRA IN HER ELEMENT

CHOCOLATE TOUR:

AHHHH!! We finally got to do a chocolate tour at El Castillo del Cacao (the castle of chocolate). The factory is owned by 3 foreigners, but run by 2 local women who produce 300 bars of chocolate a day. We learnt all about the chocolate making process. Many steps at this small operation are still completed by hand with minimal machines. The bags are individually cut with scissors and the labels are pasted on with a glue stick! Keira was able to help with glueing a label on a bar. And of course the best part was the chocolate tasting and getting to buy bars of chocolate. We did buy some chocolate for presents but sorry these will not be making it back!
​

​Above: Cocoa pods growing; and pics of the chocolate tour

​SOMOTO CANYON

SOMOTO CANYON is a beautiful canyon through which winds the Coco river. 
Our visit to the Canyon was somewhat limited due to most of the canyon being only accessible by swimming through the cold water of the river and through long bouts of hiking. Keira would have been able to do this, but we questioned how enjoyable it would have been for her. So instead we did a short walk, a boat ride and scaled some rocks to access the first part of the canyon. We found a beautiful waterhole to swim in. It was really cold but refreshing and we had the place to ourselves.

The unfortunate thing was that a huge amount of garbage has collected around the first part of the canyon. We were so disappointed. You are unable to go into the depths of the canyon without a guide, and the guides have established a co-operative. We would have hoped that they would clean up the garbage, to protect the area and their livelihood.

We camped one night in the area of the canyon, on a beautiful grassy patch right by the river. It was very tranquil, and the stars at night were spectacular.

​

Scrambling over the rocks and not falling in was quite a challenge.

CHANGE OF PLANS:

Our plan had been to cross the border into Honduras from Somoto Canyon, however Mike had received a lot of work from the USA which was great, but he required 7- 10 days of solid work time.
Honduras was an unknown for us. We would have 3-4 days of long travel to get to a secure location and Mike had a deadline to meet. We did not know how much internet access we would have which is essential for Mike's work. We needed to be somewhere that would be safe for Keira and I, and somewhere that we could entertain ourselves for 7-10 days whilst Mike worked.

After a lengthy discussion we decided to head back to Jiquillilo to Rancho Esperanza which met all of our criteria for the next 10 days.

DRIVING IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES:

We left the canyon around noon, and stopped in Esteli to grocery shop, and upgrade our "claro" data plans. We had about 5-6 hours of driving and knew that the last part of the trip would be driven in the dark.
One of our rules for the trip is "not to drive at night" and we take this seriously. We have only driven at night about 5 times on this trip, and it has been out of necessity and usually for just an hour after sunset. 
We discussed our options and decided to drive through, knowing it would be only 1 hour  of night time driving and that it was on familiar roads.
We made excellent time, and were only an hour away when darkness hit. By that time we were on country roads, so less traffic. What we had to be alert about was the endless bicycles hugging the edge of the road, the people wandering along the road edges on their way home, all of whom were dressed in dark colors and some of whom were obviously drunk. It was definitely a tiring drive.

We were so pleased to be back at Rancho Esperanza and we were welcomed by friends we met on our previous visit.