We Meet Ryan & Big Night On The Flor-De-Cana Rum
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
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38
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Isla De Ometepe, Finca Magdalena Coffee Plantation,
Nicaragua
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
On the bus we met Ryan, a New Zealand Hip Hop Artist living in Melbourne and immediately became good mates. Ryan had been staying at El Zopilete, a beautiful organic farm run by a friendly Italian guy. They make chocolate and all the ingredients used for cooking are fresh produce from the permaculture garden, all the waste is used in some way. Itīs a great way to live and you can work on the farm for a discount on your stay. The walk to the barn was only a kilometre or two but felt like a long way in the hot sun with our packs on.
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We arrived at Finca Magdalena and thought it to be unique and very beautiful with accommodations on cot beds in a large open barn with whitewashed walls and big stable doors. The garden was strategically planted, purposefully and aesthetically with flowers and bushes planted for colour and to attract hummingbirds, dragonflies, butterflies and birds. The garden was full of flowers and glorious insects, it was like a secret garden that led to a hiking path. I spent hours there photographing bees and blue morpho mariposas. There were hammocks hanging in shaded verandahs making a good place to read your book and some people claimed them for their beds. Our room had only five beds and we shared a room with Ryan. The room was upstairs of the barn and overlooked the coffee plantation workers and lines and piles of lush coffee beans were laid out to dry there. The restaurant served all the standard gallo pinto (rice and beans) and chicken type meals for a small price. There is a permaculture school down the road and some people were heading there to work. We got talking to Ryan who turned out to be a fabulous guy who has been travelling awhile and will be heading home soon to record a hip hop album in Melbourne. We played music and chatted over three large bottles of Flor-De-Cana rum, straight with ice and limes. We drank and chatted for 12 hours, new best friends and all. We also met an awesome couple named Annie and Craig from British Columbia. Annie is an athlete and extremely fit and we had lots in common with Craig. Much respect to these guys for climbing the highest, hardest volcano on the island. Others joined the party and i did a modelling show with an ice box, thatīs another story. We were rewarded with another sunset spectacular with pinks and oranges whipping around cloud formations around the volcano. We all went to bed fairly trashed and got up with no hangovers....... Flor-De-Cana is gold and so very smooth to drink. We ate the sweetest pineapple in the morning and then discovered that we were going to be filmed by Canadian CBC television station whilst eating our breakfast. They are doing a documenatry about co-operative farms in Central America.
Comments
Not the Birkenstock!!!!
These thongs will have many a tale to tell! Can picture the sunsets, so descriptive, can almost smell the smells and taste the rum. Love Mum & Don