Tales of a Traveling Maymar: Mountainous Matagalpa

Hola,

I must say, I am very impressed that I am posting about this weekend only a few days after the fact for a change! It's strange to think I've only been here for 2 and a half weeks. It seems like so much longer! Spanish is starting to get a bit easier but there is still a ton to learn. I understand most of what I am learning, I just have a difficult time remembering it all. I just don't have a natural flare for language. Tomorrow I am supposed to visit the Jinotepe health clinic (one of my placements) to meet a doctor and start learning how to take vital signs. I am also in the process of making a Nicaraguan food guide for the clinic. There is such a large variety of cheap, fresh local produce available but the people here do not eat a lot of fruits and veggies at all! It's funny since in Canada we have the opposite problem - people want to eat more fresh fruits and veggies but the cost and the fact that most of them are imported makes it difficult.

This weekend we went up north to Matagalpa City in the department of Matagalpa. It was a 4 hour journey but most definitely not a boring one. Watching the scenery as we drove by was much more interesting than driving in most parts of Canada. Plus it is pretty neat to think that I traveled across a country for the equivalent of $3.50.

Matagalpa was not a touristy place at all but we had a great time relaxing and taking in the views. On Saturday, we went to Monkey Park, which had some animals, such as monkeys, hiked up a hill and watched a free concert put on be a Honduran orchestra. They played "My Heart Will Go On". It was delightful. On Sunday we wandered around and ended up watching a local baseball game.

As you can see from the pictures below, Matagalpa is in a valley. The area is known for it's coffee and cacao plantations. There was even a coffee museum! I bought some of their locally grown coffee and I think it is safe to assume that it is going to be great coffee. We could have gone on a plantation tour but it is not quite the right season for that right now. It's the end of the rainy season (and man did it ever pour today) and the dry season starts in mid-November.

One thing I learned on this trip was that Nicaraguan cities do a great job at hiding the poverty they contain. As we climbed down the mountain (or hill...) we hiked, we passed houses that had walls and roofs made of sheet metal. Despite the living conditions, the kids in these neighbourhoods were playing and laughing. As we walked by they laughed and waved at us yelling "Gringos!". (A Gringo is a white person, though usually in Nicaragua we are referred to as "Chelas". Gringo is more common in Costa Rica.) It was really cute.