León a Selva Negra

We wrapped up our time in León with a visit to the Gallery of Heroes and Martyrs. It's literally a few rooms filled with many pictures of sons and daughters who were killed during the civil war, plus some of their personal possessions. It's run by their mothers, some of whom were hovering as we looked at all the pictures. It was very sad, but we're glad we went. It's important for the mothers to know that their children's sacrifices are recognised.

We also tried to see inside the cathedral, but it was closed. We did manage to have breakfast at a cafe dedicated to Ben Linder, a very young American engineer who was in Nicaragua helping to build a hydroelectric plant when he and two Nicaraguans were killed by the Contras. He was killed by his own country.

We then made our way to the hectic León bus terminal. We're used to being hounded by people asking us where we want to go and directing us to the right bus. This was our first Central American bus terminal without such help. It was absolute chaos. We'd hoped to get a bus direct to Matagalpa, from where we would make our way to Selva Negra. When we asked one guy about it, though, he said it would be a few hours before a bus left for Matagalpa. So we hopped onto a bus bound for San Isidro, from where we would go to Matagalpa. After the bus filled to capacity and then some, we took off.

The bus crawled like molasses! It was painful. Worst of all was about 30 minutes into the journey, when a León - Matagalpa bus flew by us! Argh. In any case, we were happy to see the scenery change from flat to mountainous and to feel the temperature drop. After a few hours more than it should have taken, we got to San Isidro. A very nice Nica (how Nicaraguans refer to themselves) on the bus guided us to the caseta in San Isidro where the bus to Matagalpa would stop.

Sure enough, a Matagalpa bus soon picked us up. By the time we got to Matagalpa, it was dark. Our guidebook advised us that it was too late to get a bus going in the right direction for Selva Negra, so we got a taxi. The driver dropped off a couple other people and picked up his partner, daughter, and nephew before we left Matagalpa for the 12 kilometres of winding, potholed, foggy, mountain road. In complete darkness. We were so happy to get to the hotel, not only because we were starving and were arriving 3 hours later than we'd told the hotel but also because there were no seatbelts in the taxi for that harrowing drive!

Selva Negra is a huge, self-sustaining, award-winning coffee plantation with loads of other crops as well as an ecolodge. We were so excited about getting there. We had great plans to hike in the many trails through the cloud forest, possibly spotting the many types of birds and animals living there. Ha! It was pouring the whole time. Normally we wouldn't let weather stop us. But tramping through rain and mud is sure to ward off any animals who we might have seen otherwise. So we just relaxed. Our room looked out onto a big lake with loads of geese. We checked them out and also all the information about the owners' family history. The plantation and the local area have a colourful history that's displayed all throughout the large restaurant and wee museum upstairs. We took a tour of the grounds with Eddy, the owner. It's a fascinating place, and it's very beautiful. We were impressed with how many crops they manage to grow and how they waste nothing; even human waste is composted! We spent 2 nights there and were (surprise, surprise) very lazy.

We wound up getting a lift with 2 really cool Californians, Scot and Caitlin, to get back down south. More on that in the next post...