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OK. I’m sitting on a bus right now from Matagalpa to Managua. From the mountains to the big city. Its tough to explain how crowded it is on this “Expresso” bus, but every seat is taken, even the seats where the wheels only give you 10″ of leg room. People are also sitting down the whole length of the aisle; the bus driver gave them plastic chairs and stools to sit on. So we’re packed in here like sardines, in this 20 year old bus with purple-tinted windows. The good news: I have HOT chicks on both sides of me. Neither speaks “ingles,” but that’s fine. But I can’t start my story here.

I’ve been in Nicaragua about 48 hours now. The flights were fine, I had a TERRIBLE breakfast buffet in Atlanta (DON’T eat breakfast at the Sheraton Gateway) at 6:30.

When I got to Nicaragua, Kevin & Kelly were waiting for me. After looking unsuccessfully for some whiskey at duty free, I went through customs where I almost had to forfeit 3 pounds of almonds that I brought for them, but luckily didn’t have to. Walking outside, first impressions were “hot” and “muggy.”

Kevin, Kelly and I left the airport in Managua and hopped in a taxi for the bus depot near the UCA (Universidad de Central America) . By depot, I mean a fenced-off compound. People all walk towards you when they notice that you’re an extranjero (out-of-towner), and they try to carry your bags for you. The catch being that they expect a tip afterwards! You literally have to fight them away.

A few minutes later, we were on a yellow schoolbus to Matagalpa. Everyone was consuming something out of a bag. Pure water out of a bag (you just bite off the corner, much like the Squeez-It of days long gone. Solids in a bag (fried plantains and the like), but liquids, too! Kelly explained that everything just gets put into a thin plastic bag (seems fairly economical).

Matagalpa is the large town in the Northern highlands region. The beginning of the road to Matagalpa is the Pan-American Highway, and is very well-maintained. As we climbed in altitude the road became increasingly worse. About 3 hours later we arrived at Matagalpa, a sprawling city of (apparently) 400,000+. The name of the game in Nicaragua is poverty, and Matagalpa was no exception. We weren’t at our destination yet, however.

Kevin, Kelly and I were on our way to the Selva Negra Eco Reserve, 18 km further up the road. It’s a small hotel on 120 acres, which contains a coffee plantation and various hiking trails. There’s a restaurant but no market. So we hired a taxi to Pali, your run-of-the-mill Nicaraguan supermercado to pick up some snacks. Not wanting to check my frame pack at the front, I hung outside while Kelly did our shopping (hello, traditional gender roles!). Some kids came up to Kevin and I and asked for some “cords”, the shortened term for Nicaraguan currency (18 Cordoba = 1 US Dollar). We befriended a 7(?) year-old named Jairo. He was tall and skinny and definitely missing sore teeth, not a shock up here. Jairo was eating lemon sorbet by the spoonful. It’s not amazing, but we had a hard time communicating with Jairo because he was a much better Spanish speaker than us. We exchanged pleasantries and hired a taxi back to the bus depot where we got on the bus to Jinotega (Selva Negra is on the way).

Being on the last bus out of town for the day was an adventure (a crowded one at that). We were instructed to get off the bus at “la tanka,” a big tank on the right side. Being close to dusk, luckily some friendly Nicas told us where to disembark. A surprising hike later (especially with a 35 lb. pack on the back & a camera bag on the front), we arrived at the German-run hotel. Our room was fine and we headed to dinner. There were tons of gringos there

More to come later including a great hike and an example of the smallness of this world we live in. See photos at the top for some shots I’ve taken here.