Luna International Hostel And Cafe Luz Esteli

We will post trip information here as soon as it starts. For 2010, we will continue planning the project and look for Sponsors that are willing to invest and support the Project. All indications in that regard is ...

After a long, long day of driving we stopped in this small town just across the boarder.  We got out to stretch our legs and enjoyed a nice walk around town.  We happened upon a dance team rehearsing for some upcoming event, so that was nice to watch.  Then we had a banana split and crawled into our comfy bed!  Welcome to Nicaragua! 

In Jinotega, my stop before Esteli, I woke with a headache. Now, I don't get headaches (except induced ones), and it was really more of a swelling feeling that simply a headache. I thought little of it, assuming it was just something I woke up with and would pass soon. I headed for the direct bus to Esteli, what I thought would be a 1 and 1/2 hour ride, which turned out to stretch to over 3 and a 1/2 hours on the worst road in Nicaragua (I think that could literally be true). Still ...

I was hopping to hit some tobacco farms while traveling through Central America and find a local cigar shop or roller where I could buy some cheap good cigars. Dean from Blew Smoke suggested I e mail David Blanco of Los Blancos Cigars. I did this and immediately got a reply from him. He stated he was flying in on the 18th and he could show me around if I wanted! We set up a time and date to meet at his factory, Segovia or Palencia in Esteli, Nicaragua. I ...

... were coming to visit, but it didn't<br>matter because we were. So, after a long day of driving and an easy<br>border crossing we rocked up outside there house. That parking spot<br>became our home for the next couple of days during which we enjoyed<br>visiting, playing ping pong, and some crazy conversations with our<br>new friends. <br><br>Next stop the beach and hopefully some<br>surf!<br>

Popped up to a local reserve called Miraflor near Esteli. This is farming country. They grow coffee, bananas, orchids, and ornamental plants for export (?). We had arranged to stay with a local family for $15 a night including 3 meals. Rustic is an understatement. But we had the best experience, bar a dodgy night´s sleep and rain. Their house is pretty much a wooden shack with the bare minimum. There is that weird mix ...

Over the border into Nicaragua and I feel a peace wash over us. I don´t think we really liked it in Honduras. It was probably the food, generally the most important part of any country! Unfortunately we missed the direct bus to Esteli and had to get 5 different buses instead. This led us to uncharted non-gringo territory, small mountain towns where people look at you like you´re an alien. People even ask us if we speak English ...

The border crossing to Nicaragua was pretty typical. A bus dropped us off 100m before the border, we walked up to immigration and gave them our passports. The guy behind the glass gave them a look and then got on the phone and spoke to someone while looking through our passports. I was a bit worried because we got a new 90 day visa on Utila that may not have been 100% legal. Basically, instead of leaving the country via a very ...

Esteli isn't as beautiful as Granada or hip and bohemian as Leon, but somehow it ended up luring me into staying nearly 10 days! The houses still have bullet holes in as this is where some savage fighting took place between the Sandinistas and Contras during the 1980s, and you can see photos, posters etc of the martyrs (some worryingly young looking) in the Galeria de Heroes y Martires which is run by their mothers. The city was the perfect size to settle into, everything ...

Overnight in Honduras, the original banana republic, on the way to Esteli. Unlike the rest of Central America Choluteca is dead by nightfall - they only place open by 8 pm is curiously enough a Chinese takeaway. I´m discovering that you could practically live on the chicken buses. Everything and anything is sold on them - from presciption drugs to ...