Now that I actually have something to write about -

This weekend was quite amazing, a highlight of my trip so far! Rachelle, Megan and I woke up at 4 on Friday to leave the house in the dark to catch the 5:15 bus to Masaya, where we hopped on a bus that I thought was going to Matagalpa but we misheard and it was actually going to Juigalpa! (completely in the opposite direction). Luckily, the kind souls on the bus figured it out before we did and got us on the right bus heading North.. These are chicken buses, abandoned school buses from North America that are completely crammed with people and the goods they are taking to some market or another to sell. The drive up was stunning, and the closest thing I can compare it to is Central/Eastern Washington. Huge, steep hills, most of the vegetation short, almost no people, just fields and mountains. It is beautiful! and looks nothing like any part of Nicaragua I've seen so far. There are even pine trees!

We arrived in the city of Matagalpa when it was still early. Matagalpa is, also, unlike anything I have seen in Nicaragua. It has a very gritty, cowboy-town ish feel, but is actually a big city and is built into the mountains so you can see rows of houses stacked up on the hills surrounding the main downtown area. SOOOO pretty! We didn't see much at first though, because we took off for a small town called San Ramon, where we made arrangements to visit a small community nearby. We hiked up a dirt road to meet our guide, a girl about our age dressed in a pink skirt and shirt and pink sandals who still managed to look very clean after we left the road to hike up a trail through a field and crossing a river, the only way to reach the village. We met the girl's family and put our backpacks in a room off of their house where we would be staying. After a short tour of the tiny village, population 280, we ate lunch at the local school teacher's house and then spent most of the afternoon relaxing and wandering around. Several naps were included as we hadn't slept much the night before! After dinner, we practically went straight to bed.

The next morning, we all woke up around five but took the rare opportunity to linger in our beds for a couple hours longer. After breakfast, we headed out with two girls from the village to learn about coffee harvesting. We picked coffee for about an hour, putting the small red fruits in baskets tied around our waists. Then we walked to a roofed area with several levels of cement tiers and learned how the coffee is processed. It's kind of hard to explain so I will tell you in detail if you want to know, just ask me and I will try to remember!

Basically, this community along with a few others in the area have transformed their coffee farm into a fair trade cooperative and they host tourists for the extra income and so that people who enjoy drinking coffee can see how it is grown and processed.

We then went on a hike, first stopping to taste cacao fruit (the plant that chocolate comes from) and then continuing to a lookout about halfway up a nearby mountain. It was raining the whole time and we couldn't see the whole view due to clouds, but it was beautiful nonetheless. We climbed down a muddy bean field back to the house, where we packed up, ate lunch and started the very muddy hike back to San Ramon.

After a bus ride back to Matagalpa, a long walk, and asking for directions about 17 times (a good average for every trip) we found a nice, quiet hotel off a park. After some much-needed showers, we found a great restaurant that had huge appetizers big enough for dinners, and sat up on a balcony to watch the lights on the hills while we ate. We stopped at a bakery to try some local desserts, then passed out while watching Sleepless in Seattle in our hotel room - little piece of home! Today we wanted to visit the famous coffee museum in Matagalpa, but it was unfortunately closed for renovations, so instead we walked around the city, enjoying its uniqute beauty.

Public transportation in most areas of Nicaragua is remarkable, but if you don't live in a main city and want to travel somewhere far like Matagalpa, it can be a bit difficult because of schedules and transfers. We thought our only options for getting back were sleeping in Leon tonight, which would involve both arriving and leaving in the dark, or taking a taxi in Managua to a different bus station, which is extremely dangerous. Luckily, with advice from a friendly hotel owner and help from the bus operators, we were able to figure out a way to get back to Jinotepe the same day, in only four and a half hours, for a little over $3 without risking our safety at all. We got super lucky on this trip and it renewed my appreciation for the very helpful people of Nicaragua! Without assistance from strangers, I would be perpetually lost here.

So, I really enjoyed this relaxing vacation from my busy life in Jinotepe and experiencing a new and very unique place. Of course I can't end a blog entry without talking about food, so I will just mention a few things. In La Pita, the village where we stayed on Friday night, we ate delicious and very traditional Nica food that was more fresh than we were used to, since we were on a farm. Beans, scrambled eggs, fresh tortillas, and coffee were the main staples. The coffee grown in this region has a unique flavor I've never really tasted before and it's obviously delicious. But the flavor highlight was in a grocery store in Matagalpa, where we found whole wheat carrot bread and locally made yoghurt cheese spread with eucalyptus, garlic and pepper. I know, what?! And then there was the local variety of dark chocolate bars with coffee, and chunks of freshly cut coconut for sale on the street. My palate is still in heaven.

It's really hard to believe that in two weeks from right now, I'll be in a quiet suburb of freezing Chicago having dinner with my grandparents. Even though I'm loving this country and this experience, I will be ready to go home and have already started looking forward to it.
Tomorrow will also be great, as I am staying home in the morning to register for my classes at 10:30, so I can sleep in an hour and a half later and still have time to go running before breakfast with the rest of the house! And then relax more after breakfast, before hopefully getting all the classes I want and then sending obnoxious e-mails to the housing people trying to get my spot in my house back.

Sorry for once again writing a novel, but at least it gives you all something to read right?
Much love and buenas noches.
-Suzanne