Frio up North!

"It will be "frio" in Esteli" the man selling the strong and delicious Nica coffee on the bus told me - he shivered for emphasis - "Soy de Escocia - no y problema! " I replied

When I got off at Esteli there wasn't a problem with the temperature - a few degrees cooler but not like Scotland that was for sure!

The further north you go - the more real Nicaragua becomes - you can see it in the faces of the people - in the memorials in the streets and the colourful murals on every available wallspace

Esteli  itself is a working cowboy town - since the rebuild murals have sprung up all around - the earliest ones depicting revolutionary struggles - newer ones showing the current issues - the rights of education & healthcare, the emerging women's rights movement and the importance of environmental protection

The Murals of Esteli

This cowboy town near the Honduras border was at the forefront of the Sandinista Revolution and the subsequent Contra War - the Contras attacking from their mountain hideaways in Honduras - Esteli taking the onslaught - bombed to nothing..but it has rebuilt and fences have been mended physically and emotionally.

Singing Revolution songs in a local cafe

Cowboy Town

Saddle Making

Sandinista Memoriial

Sandinista Museum

Hey it's Che! (with Sandino and Jose Marti) 

Women's rights are just starting here....

Esteli is blessed with beautiful countryside - waterfalls to swim under, deep canyons to float down, hiking up to miradors to see the Maribos volcanic chain sweep from Honduras to Managua and then into the mystic cloud forests to see nature at her most primeval. A highlight was stopping to see Alberto Guiterrez - the rock carver of Tisey who spent 36 years carving designs into the rock face that is his back garden!

Somoto Canyon

Before the leap into the canyon!

During the leap - it was a mistake to look at the water!

Leafcutter ants in action in the cloudforest

Delicate fungi in the cloudforest

The Miraflor Cloudforest

The Maribos volcanic Range

Alberto Guiterrez - the rock carver of Tisey

Here's one I did!

The highlands also produce lots of Nicaragua's coffee - Cue a trip on the chicken bus...

The Chicken Bus!

Child worker on the Chicken Bus

So what the hell is a chicken bus you ask - well a chicken bus is a Nica institution - no trip here would be the same without a ride in one  - they are old US schoolbuses - brought down here - given a funky paint job and set on the road - add in lots of locals blaring music - anything from Mexican mariachi to the Bee Gees - add in vendor (unfortunately some of them children but not as many as I was expecting)  selling enchiladas peanuts plantain chips etc - oh and the occasional chicken - and you're good to go - they are slow - they stop for anyone and everything  but so much fun especially on bumpy roads out of the Miraflor

Well back to coffee - the chicken bus dropped me in Jinotega - a really real cowboy town in a bowl of hills - lorries full of wet coffee beans flow in here - "Compra Cafe" the signs say - as soon as the beans are bought they are bagged up and lorries out to the surrounding coffee factories for drying and roasting

Jinotega

Cowboy boot maker - Jinotega

Jinotega

Real poverty on the outskirts of Jinotega

The other big draw here is the cool temperatures - my fleece was dug up from the depths of my backpack and worn - for the first time since I took it off arriving in Havana 3 months before!!!

Well you can only wear a fleece for so long and my yearning for the sun soon called  - I headed south...