Basketball at Midnight

Masaya, Nicaragua

I suppose it is still yesterday morning that we left Leon, the “intellectual capital of the country.” It was kinda interesting, but another decaying colonial city with a lot of churches. By this time in the trip, these things are less interesting to me. It has a beauiful range of volcanoes, and an extremely vicious surf and nature reserve, but all of these were day or 2-day trips and we wanted to go up north. So we left for the only bus to Matagalpa, in the north central highlands, at 5:30 am.

We had mixed reports on when, and if,a bus actually ran to Matagalpa from Leon, and the best we could find was there was a morning and an afternoon bus, sometime around 4:30am, and 2:30pm. So we figured get up by 6, catch a bus back to the highway intersection in Managua, and then up to Matagalpa, if indeed there was no bus.

But there was! And from 7:30 to 11:30 we bounced back and forth on terrible, miserable roads that normal US citizens might call impassable. It wasn’t impassable, as we proved, but it sure wasn’t very fun. We then went wandering around a nature reserve and coffee plantation for most of the day, Selva Negra (The Black Forest). The rain kept us out of the jungle for the most part, but when it subsided, waves of howler monkeys lived up to their namesake, back and forth though different parts of the mountains.

After our leisurely lunch (the worst filet mignon I’ve ever had; not worth the $10 I paid for it), we returned to Matagalpa… and I realized that since it was almost dusk, we wouldn’t have much else that we could do in Matagalpa (and it wasn’t that pretty of a place anyway)…. but we could probably get back south for a relaxing couple days.

So, would you take another 2.5 hour busride in hopes of getting a taxi between bus stations in time for the last 45 min bus ride to your next destination, risking stranding in a big city you don’t really want to be in? You know I would! It helped that our Matagalpa – Managua express bus had a movie (first time we had a movie!) and the driver was hell bent on getting to Managua quickly. Negotiating the taxi was pretty easy, and then the mini bus ride, usually packed in with more people than seats, was delighful, for it was more of a half-bus with individual seats.

Then we checked into our hotel, with the amazing delightful host family, and had a very long conversation about the political situation and the recent history with the father (Spanish speaking only), the son (broken English), another guest (decent, but broken, Spanish), and us (keen interest in politics and a pretty decent understanding of the history). So, we ha a great time of the father explaining something about the situation, and either the son translating or the other woman translating enough to get an idea. A lot of times, she would say, “Something about …. a pinata?” To which I had the response like, “Yes! The pinata pact! That was when the liberals and the sandinistas …..” Muy bien, no?

Yes, so this is our final stop. We rested very easily today, and will probably take the day trip to apoyo, the crater lake, tomorrow. With some fine nica rum, this might be the sort of day Cousin Melissa might enjoy.

Kevin