Matagalpa, Nicvaragua

• Thomasgillam's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Matagalpa

Trip Start Dec 02, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Feb 07, 2009 Next
Entry

  Matagalpa, Nicaragua
Wednesday, December 31, 2008

We made it to Matagalpa.We spent a day hiking in the cloud forest just outside of town on a farm called Selva Negra. It is run by a Nicaraguan of German decent. He grows coffee and sells it to Whole Foods. He raises pigs, makes sausage and wienersnitzel! The hike was beautiful and strenuous. We hiked up to a ridge then a traverse across the ridge, and took a trail called Peter and Helen back to the lodge. The last trail was named after a couple that had become lost in the area. We hiked for over 4 hours. We heard howler Monkeys and Barb saw a Coral Snake. Not many birds were seen as it was mid day.

From the lodge we walked out to the road and waited on an old Samoza military tank, for the bus. When the bus arrived we piled on again and rumbled down the mountain to town. Back in Matagalpa, we caught a cab to return to the hotel, which was on the east side of town. In Nicaragua, taxis service works a bit differently. You hail a cab on the street, and the driver, who may have a passenger in there already, pulls over. You discuss where you want to go and his price, then when agreed, you jump in. In our case there was another young woman in the cab. We jumped in, and off the cab went, to the east side of town. Once the driver had delivered the young woman in a barrio on the east side, he could tell we were getting a bit impatient. He explained that this was a dangerous part of town and one should not walk here. Taxis here are mostly old beaters. The windows don´t function properly, the doors either won´t open from inside or outside. Nothing seems to work correctly. Often the interior door panels are missing and handles are gone as well. The wiring for widows and locks is usually just swinging inside the car.  Our driver was heading back into town, toward our hotel, but then he stopped and picked up yet another woman. Off we drove to the south part of town to deliver her to her destination. Eventually, we were delivered to our hotel, named Lomas de San Tomas. It was a beautiful place on the ridge above town, with a great restaurant, great views and hot water. Things are definitely looking up and getting better.

As we loaded up our bags to move south that morning, we laughed at the thought that we were actually going to get an Expresso bus, rather than an Ordinario ¨Chicken Bus¨ for our ride south to Masaya.

Print this entry Share

Previous Entry Next Entry