Down to Three....

Alyece Says:

Hola! After we wrote last in Esteli, Erin, James, and I headed for another smaller western town called Matagalpa. This charming place lies in the valley of some beautiful mountains and is surrounded by lush countryside and some coffee plantations. Like Esteli, the city is smaller and further off the gringo trail, which is refreshing (yet somewhat linguistically challenging) to be fully emersed in Nicaraguan communities where their economies do not largely rely on tourism. But between the Spanish that the three of us have picked up on, and James strategically adding an ¨o¨to the end of English words to turn them into Spanish (which actually works about 40% of the time), we can get by alright.

Our first priority in Matagalpa was to look into the local organic chocolate production facility. After confirming several times with the tour operator that a substancial amount of free samples were included, we signed up for the tour. We were taken to ¨El Castillo del Cacao¨(the house of chocolate) on a hillside just outside the town, where we learned about the types of cacao produced in Nicaragua, and how 100% of the organic, good-quality cacao is exported to countries like Germany because they cannot afford it themselves. Same thing with the organic coffee (coffee and coacoa being their main exports). Our guide was a lovely young Nicaraguan girl, Marcielle, who was able to speak English, so when our faces looked particularly perplexed during the explanations in Español, she clarified for us. We were taken through the various steps of chocolate production from roasting the beans, crushing, de-shelling, washing, grinding, mixing with sugar, heating, moulding, and finally, packaging. The whole process is done regularly by several woman and takes about eight hours from start to finish. They make a few different kinds of the most amazing, rich chocolate: 75%, 50%, chocolate with crushed coffee beans, chocolate with cashews, and rum balls. It was like nothing we had ever tasted before; I think it´s particularly delicious because it´s only made with two ingredients, no additives. At the end of the demo, the women watched as the three of us polished off the tray of chocolate, and as if that wasn´t enough, they served us rich chocolate brownies afterwards. We felt so sick that we may or may not of spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies in bed...

(View of the House of Chocolate)

(James finishing off the chocolate)

That night we met up with Marcielle who took us to a big party just outside of town. It was a Harley Davidson exhibition show, which was rather interesting. Every 20 minutes several small Nicaraguan men would drive their Harley´s out onto the dancefloor and rev their engines until they felt like bigger men and had blown out all of our eardrums. I´m still trying to figure out why there was also a group of fire-blowers, but it was pretty cool to see. Marcielle taught Erin and I how to dance raggeatone, and she also gave Erin a few salsa and merengue lessons.

The next day we hopped a bus headed for Leon, the colonial capital of Nicaragua. The chicken buses we transferred between were at full capacity; there was standing room only, so we had a bumpy ride in the back of the bus trying to balance between sacks of tomatoes and farmers actually carrying chickens under their arms.

When we arrived in Leon that afternoon, we encountered a bit of a situation. As we wandered into the city center the streets were packed with hundreds of police, some in full riot gear, and news camera crews. It happens to be election time in Nicaragua, and on this particular day the opposing political parties were both given the right to demonstrate in central park, and that wasn´t going over too well with either group. Massive crouds all dressed up in their respective colours, wearing masks, and waving flags, poured through the streets. In central park, one group celebrated with dancing and fire-crackers. The city was pretty crazy and messy. We called it an early night to be on the safe side and returned to the comforts of our hostal wit ha 16-bed dorm room, cockroaches in the kitchen, and toilets and showers that function about 30% of the time... keeps you on your toes.

The following day we checked out some of the museums in town and learned (as much as we could pick up from the Spanish guide) a little bit about the Nicarguan political history and civil war, which was all very recent. We were taken on top of the museum where we had a good view of some of the old churches and buildings.

Erin Says:

And then there was Volcano Boarding.... The tone of the day was set early. We took off, about 8 people each, in the back of two pickup trucks, which immediately started to drag race each other and attempt to pass each other on the dirt road we were traveling. (Almost rear ending our truck a couple of times) Liability would certainly not be an issue on this trip. After driving for a very dusty hour we arrived at Cerro Negro, the volcano we would later be cruising down. We grabbed our protective gear (an orange jumpsuit and plastic goggles....) and our boards and headed for the sweaty trek up. The fun thing about hiking up volcanic rock is that the ground seems to continuously move and fall out beneath you and I took a little dive on the way up. Nothing hurt but my pride, we all continued up towards the top. The scenery was amazing, just like everywhere in Nicaragua, and we stopped to take a few snaps on the way up. (The gang heading up for some craziness)

When we got to where we were going to head down, we dropped our gear and boards and went for a little stroll to check out the crater and take in a little bit more of the spectacular view. The whole scene was pretty indescribable and my attempt to sit and take it all in left me with a very very hot bum. (Heading down to the crater)

Now it was time to head back for the real action. We headed back to suit up and get ready to board. I don´t think either Alyece or I realized the magnitude of what we were about to do. I had more pictured something like a little peaceful sled ride. When our guide told us that a few days before a guy had broken the speed record (on a board) with 77 km/hr Alyece started to get a little nervous. So naturally, she got volunteered to go first. After a slightly shaky start, Alyece started to fly..and was cruising like a pro. Cudos to her for going first, she definitely took my nerves away. Maybe that was because I didn´t see her bail at the bottom! (There was a part about half way down that got even steeper and we lost view of the boarders from the top.) It was crazy steep and long and we both got going insanely fast. Even though our guide told us to keep our mouths closed, we didn´t realize how fast and large the rocks would be that were continuously flying at our heads. In my opinion, she made it sound a lot easier and a lot less dangerous than it actually was. When my turn came I was suprised at how much control and speed I had at the beginning. The boys told me they were impressed by how fast and straight I got going..... BUT...in true Erin fashion I seemed to be the only girl that bailed directly onto my face and ended up with a cut up nose, a split lip and a generally road-rashed face, not to mention being just a little more filthy than everyone else. Alyece did not keep her complete show-off status on this venture because she did, in fact, bail (like almost everyone) but she still came out of it without even a scratch! When the boys got to going they were all trying to break the speed record and a lot of them crashed and burned very early.

(a very impressive bail)

The guide told them if they did made it on the board through the radar gun, to make sure they didn´t bail at the bottom where the rocks flying at them would be the size of apples. James, obviously, did just this. He was the fastest of the day at 65 km/hr, but ate rocks at the bottom and ended up with a nasty gash. It seemed her advice to not put out your hands, everyone seemed to ignore, (except of course me who landed on my face). The boys all seemed to have road rash up their arms and legs and we generally looked pretty mangled after the whole experience. (a fellow Canadian who took an awesome bail)

The whole thing was totally wicked!! Definitely something you wouldn´t be allowed to do in Canada without signing your life away.We all thought it was necessary to get some ´after´ photos; Although, I don´t think it did justice to our level of filth and the boys and me cuts and scrapes all over.The truck ride home left us with the feeling like we were coming back from some sort of battle, and James´ comment that I looked a little like Angeline Jolie in tomb raider I´m confident was a joke! hahaha. He also commented on the fact we looked a lot like chimney sweeps! We had rock and gravel pretty much everywhere, in our ears, in our teeth and Alyece even had a nice collection in her bra. Back at big foot we were greeted with nice cold Mojitos! After two of these both Alyece and I were feelin a little light-headed and decided it might be time to head back for a shower.(After a couple mojitos everything is hilarious) (shower time)

After cleaning up A LOT we headed to what we thought would be a very relaxing dinner. However, a drunk man (we´re not sure where he was from: possibly Nicaragua, maybe Cuba) decided he would bring over his bottle of vodka and join us. Although our Spanish is terrible, we knew enough to know he wasn´t making any sense and he after insisting I was latino multiple times and grabbing my leg, he quickly became angry that i was being rude to him. After a while I left to go sit with the Canadian boys we went Volcano boarding with and let James and Alyece take over that conversation. I think maybe the jug of orange juice and bottle of vodka and the fact that he was sweating profusely may have been the hint not to allow him to join us for dinner.

Today we are awaiting the arrival of Alyece´s cousin to join us for a few adventures and just having a quiet afternoon in Leon. Not sure where our adventures will take us next but we´ll keep you posted.

Hugs and Smiles

xxx