Day 9/10

We left early Saturday morning for Matagalpa, a northern region in Nicaragua famous for it’s coffee and chocolate plantations. We took a minibus from Jinotepe to Managua (the capitol of Nicaragua). One of the other volunteers needed money, so we walked to a nearby mall to find a bank. We ate lunch at the mall food court. It was so strange to see – the makeshift scrap tin “houses” on the streets of Managua, outside of the clean, shiny-tiled floor mall.

We took a cab from the mall to the bus station on the other side of the city, and from there, we took a bus to Matagalpa, which took just over 2 hours. About 10 minutes of out Managua, I understood why Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the continent (between North, South, and Central America, to be precise). A city of “slums” – scrap tin shacks, about the size of my bathroom at home – extending as far as I could see. It was terrible, but the fact of the matter is that that is a reality for thousands of people – millions worldwide - and some even aren’t so lucky. To say that seeing something like that “puts things into perspective” is an understatement. I journalled about what I saw for the majority of the bus ride…

The bus ride to Matagalpa was truly breathtaking. Matagalpa is characterized by lush, rolling hills and deep valleys. There was an eerie, but beautiful mist that touched the tops of the hills.

Matagalpa is a town in the midst of these hills and valleys. It was pouring rain when we got off of the bus. We took a taxi to the town of San Ramon, about 45 minutes outside of Matagalpa. From there, we hiked over an hour (uphill!) to the community of 247 people we would be staying in. This community, La Pita, had established an ecotourism project. Participating families had built one-room “houses”, separate from their homes, where guests could stay. These homes belong to members of the local farmer cooperative. Each family hosted 2-3 guests in these rooms (for $9.00 per night). They prepare meals for the guests (at $4.00 per meal), and provide tours of their coffee, chocolate, and fruit plantations at a cost of $15.00 split between the group. The entire weekend cost $27.00. The host families were incredibly gracious. Each family’s house (about 2 large rooms, subdivided by fabric into smaller rooms) was home to 10-14 people. Our family had many chickens (so needless to say, our eggs for breakfast were very fresh!). They primarily contributed to the passionfruit plantation – the planting, tending, harvesting, storing, packaging, and selling of these fruit. They had bags of 100 passionfruits in the house (which the kids would package), and they would sell each bag for 60 cordobas (about $3.00) at the market on Sundays. We had homemade passionfruit juice with each of our meals – delicious! There hospitality was so gracious, and I would highly recommend staying with them! Here is a website: http://www.vianica.com/activity/118/rural-tourism-at-the-la-pita-community

We arrived at La Pita around 6pm (so we had spent about 8 hours travelling, 5 hours of which were spent solely on buses). We ate dinner, and went to bed shortly thereafter.


The following morning, we had breakfast and hiked up to a viewpoint. It truly was beautiful! We saw the communities banana trees, coffee plants, and also learned much about the ecosystem itself! We learned about the functions various plants and trees served. For example, the community used the sap from one particular tree as an antiseptic to help heal wounds and cuts. The seed of another tree was known to help treat anemia. Our guide (one of the daughters from my host family), pointed out what they had used to construct their houses – from mosses to trees. It was fascinating to learn of the ways in which the people of this community made use of all aspects of the land around them.

After hiking up to the viewpoint, we went to visit their coffee and passionfruit plantations (see the pictures above). I learned so much!

One of the coolest things that I saw while hiking were the ants. These ants would go to a tree, up the tree, bite off pieces of the leaves on this tree, and transport them back to the hill. There, the leaves would rot and attract earthworms. The ants then eat the earthworms. There must have been thousands of these ants, and they each had a role to play! It was as if there were invisible, two-way roads the ants travelled on. On one side, the ants travelled towards the tree, and on the other side, they travelled back with their leaves. The path from the hill to the tree was huge - I could not get over how far their "road" stretched! It was so cool.

After touring around, we ate lunch, and then hiked back down to San Ramon. From there, we took a taxi back to Matagalpa. Our bus ride from Matagalpa to Managua was slightly more interesting than the ride from Managua to Matagalpa - there were no seats left on the bus, so we bought standing tickets! It was hilarious! We stood all the way home, hanging on to the bars ahead as the bus navigated the winding roads of the Matagalpa region. All I can say is that my motion sickness could not have picked a better time to leave me alone!

We finally arrived in Jinotepe around 7:00, and went for dinner at a local pizzaria. I went straight to bed once I got home, which is why I didn't post yesterday. Sorry!

It was a fantastic weekend. :)