Here is my very belated post about the excursion we took back in December to Esteli and Somoto, up in the northern mountainous part of Nicaragua.
Our trip started out with an unexpected twist. Early in the morning, we all met el terminal to catch a microbus to Esteli, but ran into a problem when the bus driver told us that the next microbus to Esteli would be coming around 11:00am, even though Vanessa was certain that there was supposed to be a bus arriving before that. However, after waiting for another half hour, we decided not to take our chances and wait for a bus that may never come. So instead of a nice, comfortable journey in a microbus where we would each have our own seat, the four of us squished into the back of a taxi and sat there crammed together for the next few hours. Four people in the back of a taxi does not sound that bad, but when the journey is a few hours long and when two of those four people happen to be very tall, you are in for a very uncomfortable ride!
When we arrived, we were all surprised at how cold it was. I no longer regretted my choice to bring a jacket along with me to Nicaragua, after months of thinking it was a silly idea since the weather in Leon ranges from warm to hot. The hostel we stayed at, Sonati, was really nice. They give environmental education classes to local youth, using the revenue generated from tours and the hostel to fund these programs. The place was decorated with really neat recycled trinkets made of things like plastic bottles and cans
The city of Esteli itself was not incredibly beautiful, but once you get outside the city and into the countryside, it is absolutely stunning. Green, grassy meadows filled with wildflowers, trees adorning vibrant puffs of yellow blossoms, and a crisp, blue sky that complimented the crisp, cool breeze.
First, we had breakfast at a gorgeous place called La Canta, a small cafe offering fresh, simple breakfast foods like homemade yogurts, granola, and tea, with a small nursery and a large botanical garden. There was a wooden bridge that crossed over a small river, leading to an abundance of plants, trees, and a playground area. The way the path wound through the garden made me feel as though I was lost in a small paradise! I enjoyed taking photos of all the plants and wandering around feeling Alice in Wonderland.
After breakfast, we went on a short hike to a waterfall.
On shore, I met two people who were at the waterfall with us, Elsa (yes, like Frozen) and Eddie.They were both Nicaraguan - Eddie lived in Alabama and was visiting shortly to do some dance performances with Elsa (they are both dancers) and the Elsa lived in Chinendega, where Maddy and Olivia were volunteering. I told them about how studies have found that being in cold water is really great for your health and may even extend your life span, so we joked about how many more years we had added to our lives. Elsa was really interested in my volunteer work with Amigos and told me that she would really like to teach dance as a volunteer, and it just so happened that Maddy's project involved doing dance classes with local youth in rural communities near Chinendega! That was a pretty cool coincidence.
Day two was a long hiking day through the countryside. We drove to a town called La Garnacha, where we met our local tour guide and his cute daughter who tagged along with us.
We also met one a rock sculptor, a man about 70 years old who has lived in the mountains all his life and began carving stones about 30 years ago. The mountain is essentially his backyard - he has been restoring it for years, planting things like orchids, banana trees, coffee trees, and other plants to improve the biodiversity of this area, which was once ruined due to deforestation. He even carved little holes in the mountainside to serve as pots for his orchids to grow in. He told us that he has never been able to read or write anything more than his own name, but he has an incredible wealth of naturalist knowledge and local legends, which were passed down to him orally.
We also hiked to the highest point of the wildnerness preserve we were in. The view was breathtaking.
Hours later, we returned to La Garnacha for a rock sculpting workshop.
On our last day, we took a microbus (no taxi this time) to Somoto, a city farther up north and pretty close to Honduras.
We went to the Canyon of Somoto, where we opted for the less rigorous hike since we were exhausted from all the uphill hiking of yesterday. Our guide was a local teenager who led us through a variety of terrains, ranging from sand banks and rivers to stony cliffs.
When we reached a certain point, Vanessa stayed behind on the cliff with our bags and the volunteers and I donned yellow life jackets and swam with our guide. We were swimming inside the canyon, which was a neat experience. The river got very shallow at some points, so we did a mixture of swimming and walking across slippery rocks.
We stopped at a low cliff, where our guide told us we could take turns jumping off of. I happened to be wearing glasses this day because I thought that one of my contact lenses had a tear in them. When it was my turn to jump, I was too scared to do it. For five minutes, I kept saying the "3...2...1..jump!" thing hoping it would motivate me to actually jump, which it didn't.
Then Sam told me that I should probably take off my glasses because they might fall off when I hit the water. I couldn't find a safe place to put it because I was already standing at the edge of the cliff. Olivia, who was in the water below me, offered to hold on to my glasses for me if I tossed them down to her.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
As I watched my glasses drop towards Olivia, it appeared that she had caught them. Then again, I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I couldn't see anything anyways.
"Oliva," I called to her, "Did you catch them?"
"Uhhh...yeah. Yeah. Hang on one second."
"What do you mean? Did you catch them?"
"Ummm, well...I'm going to get them."
"What?! You didn't catch them?!"
"No, but I am going to dive for them!"
Our guide: "It's 20 meters deep."
Me: "[expletive]."
Still standing at the top of the cliff, I remained there for a few minutes, frozen in disbelief. My only pair of glasses just dropped...to the bottom of a 20 meter deep river...in the canyon of Somoto.
Okay, let's examine this situation for a moment:
A) We have to hike back to where we came from. That's going to be an interesting experience because:
B) My eyesight is a piece of crap. So is my depth perception. And my right knee.
C) I have one week remaining in Nicaragua. Those other four senses better sharpen up fast, or I'm going to have to either look like a weirdo and wear an eye patch along with the non-ripped contact lens, or I'll just have to spend my last week in Leon blindly stumbling around with my arms in front of me.
Well, what have I got to lose now? I jumped off the cliff. I landed with my palms down and gave the water a painful high-five.
Afterwards, Olivia felt pretty bad about not catching my glasses, but by then I was already able to laugh about it. I figured there was nothing I could really do about it anyways, so why bother being angry? After all, the situation itself was pretty hilarious. I was a little worried about the hike back, but other than that, I knew everything would be okay.
The hike back was slightly terrifying. Even when I had my glasses on, I took extra care to watch where I was stepping, due to my natural born talent of tripping over things. Now without my glasses, I didn't have the luxury of being able to see the ground beneath my feet. I had imagined the journey back to be filled with scrapes and bruises, but surprisingly enough, I was actually more agile this time around when leaping on stones to cross the river.
Later that night, I had the most bizarre stroke of luck. As we were walking around Esteli, we happened to come across an optometry office, which happened to be giving out free eye exams that day, and also happened to have contact lenses of my exact prescription in stock! I couldn't believe my luck. Definitely a funny twist to the end of an exciting, memorable excursion.
Our trip started out with an unexpected twist. Early in the morning, we all met el terminal to catch a microbus to Esteli, but ran into a problem when the bus driver told us that the next microbus to Esteli would be coming around 11:00am, even though Vanessa was certain that there was supposed to be a bus arriving before that. However, after waiting for another half hour, we decided not to take our chances and wait for a bus that may never come. So instead of a nice, comfortable journey in a microbus where we would each have our own seat, the four of us squished into the back of a taxi and sat there crammed together for the next few hours. Four people in the back of a taxi does not sound that bad, but when the journey is a few hours long and when two of those four people happen to be very tall, you are in for a very uncomfortable ride!
When we arrived, we were all surprised at how cold it was. I no longer regretted my choice to bring a jacket along with me to Nicaragua, after months of thinking it was a silly idea since the weather in Leon ranges from warm to hot. The hostel we stayed at, Sonati, was really nice. They give environmental education classes to local youth, using the revenue generated from tours and the hostel to fund these programs. The place was decorated with really neat recycled trinkets made of things like plastic bottles and cans
The city of Esteli itself was not incredibly beautiful, but once you get outside the city and into the countryside, it is absolutely stunning. Green, grassy meadows filled with wildflowers, trees adorning vibrant puffs of yellow blossoms, and a crisp, blue sky that complimented the crisp, cool breeze.
I was really excited to jump right in and start swimming...until I dipped my toe into the water and realized it was practically the temperature of melted ice! Wishing I had a wet-suit instead of a bikini, I slowly walked into the water in hopes of acclimating to the freezing temperature (that never happened). It was insanely cold and reminded me of the thing they had us do in 6th grade camp, where they told us to wade across a river of melted snow, "the polar bear challenge". Of course everyone did it because it was 6th grade and nobody wanted to look like a wimp, and afterwards we all felt really cool despite our legs being completely numb. But this wasn't 6th grade - nobody was telling me to jump inside, there was absolutely no social pressure to do so, and honestly, the only person I would impress by doing so was myself. So I stood there for a good 5-10 minutes weighing the benefits of plunging into this freakishly cold pool of water. Then suddenly, I saw Sam dive right into the water. Thinking that maybe the carpe diem approach would be less cold, I asked Sam if he felt any better after diving in. "Nope," he told me, "It's still really, really cold!" Well, then I guess I have nothing to lose! After counting to three, I dunked myself and felt the most shocking sensation of absolute cold. It felt like all the nerves in my body fired off simultaneously, like a giant shiver that coursed straight to my bones. Amazingly refreshing and horrible at the same time! I emerged feeling hyper-awake, energized, and really, really cold. You would think that compared to the initial plunge, swimming would be much more bearable, but to my surprise, my body never really adjusted to the water. So the whole time I was swimming, I felt equally as in shock from the cold as I did when I first dunked myself. It was definitely a cool experience. I swam around the waterfall and floated on my back for a bit. The strange thing about being in freezing water is that everything slows down and becomes quiet. Your heart beats slower, the noises that surround you are dampened, and your head begins to feel lighter. I only enjoyed this for about a minute, though, because then I realized that my muscles were getting to be so cold that I was swimming slower, my head was starting to hurt, and I figured it was probably a good idea to swim back to shore before I turned into a meat popsicle.
On shore, I met two people who were at the waterfall with us, Elsa (yes, like Frozen) and Eddie.They were both Nicaraguan - Eddie lived in Alabama and was visiting shortly to do some dance performances with Elsa (they are both dancers) and the Elsa lived in Chinendega, where Maddy and Olivia were volunteering. I told them about how studies have found that being in cold water is really great for your health and may even extend your life span, so we joked about how many more years we had added to our lives. Elsa was really interested in my volunteer work with Amigos and told me that she would really like to teach dance as a volunteer, and it just so happened that Maddy's project involved doing dance classes with local youth in rural communities near Chinendega! That was a pretty cool coincidence.
They were such sweet people! You never know the friends you'll make in the most unexpected places.
This is a "durmillón" (hope I spelled that correctly) which gets its name from the word "dormir", or "to sleep", because when you pick it up, it tucks all of its legs in and pretends to be asleep!
The scenery was beautiful, especially when we walked through this gorgeous valley. It felt so wide open and free. The refreshing breeze, the vast open space...I wanted to run down the hills with my arms open wide!
We also met one a rock sculptor, a man about 70 years old who has lived in the mountains all his life and began carving stones about 30 years ago. The mountain is essentially his backyard - he has been restoring it for years, planting things like orchids, banana trees, coffee trees, and other plants to improve the biodiversity of this area, which was once ruined due to deforestation. He even carved little holes in the mountainside to serve as pots for his orchids to grow in. He told us that he has never been able to read or write anything more than his own name, but he has an incredible wealth of naturalist knowledge and local legends, which were passed down to him orally.
Here we are with the sculptor, sitting inside one of his works of art!
Hours later, we returned to La Garnacha for a rock sculpting workshop.
We learned how to sculpt sandstone, a type of stone that is soft enough to sculpt and sand using tools. Our teacher had us each choose something we wanted to carve, and we each chose an animal. He made it look really easy, but when it was our turn to masterfully transform the piece of rock into our chosen animal, we realized that sculpting rock is a lot more difficult than it looks. Despite how furiously I chiseled and filed away at my hunk of sandstone, it seemed as though I hardly made a dent. My animal ended up being half complete - can you tell what it is?
Mi chancho!
We went to the Canyon of Somoto, where we opted for the less rigorous hike since we were exhausted from all the uphill hiking of yesterday. Our guide was a local teenager who led us through a variety of terrains, ranging from sand banks and rivers to stony cliffs.
When we reached a certain point, Vanessa stayed behind on the cliff with our bags and the volunteers and I donned yellow life jackets and swam with our guide. We were swimming inside the canyon, which was a neat experience. The river got very shallow at some points, so we did a mixture of swimming and walking across slippery rocks.
We stopped at a low cliff, where our guide told us we could take turns jumping off of. I happened to be wearing glasses this day because I thought that one of my contact lenses had a tear in them. When it was my turn to jump, I was too scared to do it. For five minutes, I kept saying the "3...2...1..jump!" thing hoping it would motivate me to actually jump, which it didn't.
Then Sam told me that I should probably take off my glasses because they might fall off when I hit the water. I couldn't find a safe place to put it because I was already standing at the edge of the cliff. Olivia, who was in the water below me, offered to hold on to my glasses for me if I tossed them down to her.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
As I watched my glasses drop towards Olivia, it appeared that she had caught them. Then again, I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I couldn't see anything anyways.
"Oliva," I called to her, "Did you catch them?"
"Uhhh...yeah. Yeah. Hang on one second."
"What do you mean? Did you catch them?"
"Ummm, well...I'm going to get them."
"What?! You didn't catch them?!"
"No, but I am going to dive for them!"
Our guide: "It's 20 meters deep."
Me: "[expletive]."
Still standing at the top of the cliff, I remained there for a few minutes, frozen in disbelief. My only pair of glasses just dropped...to the bottom of a 20 meter deep river...in the canyon of Somoto.
Okay, let's examine this situation for a moment:
A) We have to hike back to where we came from. That's going to be an interesting experience because:
B) My eyesight is a piece of crap. So is my depth perception. And my right knee.
C) I have one week remaining in Nicaragua. Those other four senses better sharpen up fast, or I'm going to have to either look like a weirdo and wear an eye patch along with the non-ripped contact lens, or I'll just have to spend my last week in Leon blindly stumbling around with my arms in front of me.
Well, what have I got to lose now? I jumped off the cliff. I landed with my palms down and gave the water a painful high-five.
Afterwards, Olivia felt pretty bad about not catching my glasses, but by then I was already able to laugh about it. I figured there was nothing I could really do about it anyways, so why bother being angry? After all, the situation itself was pretty hilarious. I was a little worried about the hike back, but other than that, I knew everything would be okay.
The hike back was slightly terrifying. Even when I had my glasses on, I took extra care to watch where I was stepping, due to my natural born talent of tripping over things. Now without my glasses, I didn't have the luxury of being able to see the ground beneath my feet. I had imagined the journey back to be filled with scrapes and bruises, but surprisingly enough, I was actually more agile this time around when leaping on stones to cross the river.
Later that night, I had the most bizarre stroke of luck. As we were walking around Esteli, we happened to come across an optometry office, which happened to be giving out free eye exams that day, and also happened to have contact lenses of my exact prescription in stock! I couldn't believe my luck. Definitely a funny twist to the end of an exciting, memorable excursion.
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