Matagalpa and San Ramón

Matagalpa 

This city is in the highlands of Nicaragua. That means a bus ride of about 4 hours from Granada, and..  it's cool! The air doesn't feel like it's out to boil your brains, but is actually cool and refreshing!

On top of that, this city seems to be one of the centres for Nicaraguan coffee business. So here, we had some really delicious coffee. (It's been a while..)

Fancy coffee, refreshing climate, and a good view.

We came back on the next morning, and this guy kept a close eye on our plates, for any stray crumbs.

Also, we finally manage to write a couple of postcards from Nicaragua. I don't want to spoil any surprises, but I will say that it was harder than expected to get these cards sent off towards Europe..

Self-made calendars (no other available) and self-made postcards (all the ones we found were.. well, just plain ugly. Sorry.)

After our breakfast on the next morning, we take the bus towards a tiny little village called San Ramón, where a couchsurfer hopefully awaits our arrival.

San Ramón

Upon arrival in the village, we are quite stumped. Most shops seem to be closed, the only people in the streets are clearly drunkards, and there really isn't much going on.

About a helpless half hour later, life starts to happen (a bit) here. So we arrived right in the time for the midday siesta, but now we can actually get the information, how to reach the home of our couchsurfing host.

A short walk (that feels quite long with the heavy backpacks) outside of the village, we find his hut, and after knocking in the door for a bit, we also find him. Carlos, also known as Gallo Vago, is the local artist. He has travelled for about 15 years in most of America and Europe, and has now set up his residence in San Ramón. His specialty: coffee paintings and quartz.

Our host, our breakfast, and our very-well-received hammock.

We spend a relaxed day and evening in his hut, and don't do much at all, except listen to his stories. He has many of them! (But he soon forgets his promise to speak sloooow Spanish, so we have quite a hard time to grasp all the details..)

On the second day we hike down to a restaurant, hotel and cultural centre, a very nice place called El Sueño de la Campana. Anyone intested in volunteering for the benefit of this small mountain community should have a closer look, it seems to be a really interesting project.

Also, they have internet, and cold beer. Cheers!

Very late at night two other guests arrive: Clo and Marty from northern Italy, two intrepid girls travelling in Central America with basically zero budget, but amazing spirits.

The entire crew assembled around the Nicaraguan Ikea kitchen table.

The girls are here with the intention of learning a bit about making their own travelling artesania. So on the next morning, they set out with Carlos on a hike to search for some of the materials: A lot of the trees here grow really durable and colourful seeds, and the area is full of quartz crystals, and both can be used to make quite pretty and interesting bracelets, collars, and the like. I tag along.

Exploratory hike into the surroundings of San Ramón.

The spoils of our quest.

In the evening, we are invited to the house-warming party of one of the volunteers of El Sueño. We are received very wellcomingly (e.g. with a lot of rum), the people are nice, and we stay a lot longer than expected.

We are accordingly exhausted on the next day.

Foreground left and right: Vegetable installations fabricated from plastic jugs. Mid-center: Lovely lady in hand-made hammock. Background: Artist's hut and yard.

After recuperating, we set out to explore a bit on ourselves. Carlos mentions a mirador close by, and we try to find it. We fail, but with the help of a girl from one of the farms, we do reach a very high up point with a bit of a view.

Hannah, slightly fazed after the ascent to the "mirador" turned out to be a lot meaner than expected.

But it's worth it.

On our way back, we find the spot we wanted to go to originally.

(A bit later, we found another lookout point, that is WAY easier to reach. Ah well.)

The cicadas around the hut are absolutely insane. During the day the screech at a level that could be considered dangerous to our ears, and in the night they hurl round the porch light like tiny drunken wrecking balls.

Marty & Clo busily honing their artesana skills.

We spend a few very agreeable days in the little mountain hut, but then it's time to move on. When we leave, we have the feeling that we speak a little better Spanish, and know quite a few nice people more that we hope to meet again.