It was a "Vista Linda" indeed!
Trip Start
Jul 14, 2010
1
6
93
Trip End
May 18, 2011
Where I stayed
Familia Vista Linda
Coyolito, Estelí, Nicaragua
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
When we got to the house, we could really see the beautiful view the family had. We could see the Panamerican Highway and all of the hills on the other side, too. Truly a gift. There were some tourists already there (two of which we had ridden in the back of the truck with in Esteli), but they were only there for the day, so they left pretty soon after we got there.
The family only spoke Spanish, so we got a lot of practice in with the language! We mainly spoke with Nelson and his wife, whose name I can't remember at the moment! They also had I think 5 kids - One daughter who was living in Esteli and has her bachelors degree in the sciences. They had three daughters living there and one little boy.
They served us guava juice and dinner that night - un plato tipico de las Nicas - gallo pinto, some meat, cabbage salad, and tortillas. That night, Nelson played guitar for us. He played the national song of Nicaragua and a song about Esteli, among others. He also told us a lot of stories about the war there. All of this was in Spanish, so we didn't catch all of the words, but we got the jist. Lots of people died when the Hondurans (paid by the US) attacked Esteli. Most of the people who fled into the hills where Miraflor is now were killed. Pretty crazy. When Logan and I went to bed, he was like, "Man, that was really intense!" Yes, yes it was.
The next day, we went to the top of a pretty big hill on horseback and could see all the way to Honduras. Nelson told us more stories from there. He told us about house his family came to purchase the land, and more stories about the war.
After the trek to the view, we went to Tres Cascadas (three waterfalls), which was very beautiful. We got to wash off a little bit before going back to the house. On the way back, there was a pretty steady rain, so Logan, Nelson and I got pretty wet. We had lunch and then were supposed to leave, but it was now POURING. Every time I thought the rain would let up, it just started raining harder. There was great lightning viewing too! One of the lightning strikes was about 500 feet away. We could see exactly where it hit and it was sooooo loud! It reminded me of being on the east coast at my grandparents house, except that I was scared then, but I thought it was AWESOME this time. Anyway, Nelson told us that if we wanted to, we could still go down the hill, but it might be dangerous and really slippery for us and the horses, so we decided to stay another night. We got more good food for dinner and breakfast and more stories at night. Nelson was telling ghost stories and (ooh! I think her name is Lorena!) Lorena was afraid that her son, who was also listening in, was going to have nightmares. He insisted that he wouldn't. So cute!
Well, the next day we had to leave to catch the 8:00 am bus back to Esteli and then went on to Managua (hate that place, by the way) and then on to Rivas, which is toward the south between the Pacific Ocean and Lake Nicaragua (I think).
Comments
Why do you hate Managua? I just don't have any clue what it is like. I remember Costa Rica being sooo green and beautiful. The food sounds similar too with the gallo pintos. Is the coffee the best you have ever had? That is really awesome that you got to listen to him play the guitar and stuff. What an awesome injection of culture! History is good too!
I wish I could go back to costa rica now that I am an adult and can get around on my own.
Managua sucks because it's really big and ugly, and all tourists have to go through there to get to their destination, so a lot of Nicas take advantage of the language confusion and disorientation of tourists and get their money in the process. It cost us a lot to take a taxi from one bus station to another, but it wasn't very far. And when we got to the station, people grabbed our bags and said they were taking them to an express bus to Rivas, as we asked. It wasn't an express bus, and they made us pay them a tip to carry our bags two hundred feet.
As Logan puts it, Managua is not dedicated to tourists, but is more dedicated to moving tourists from point A to point B. Because of that, the people know that they can get a lot of money out of you.
ugh! that is terrible!
How did you come to stay with Nelson & his family? They sound really cool and it must have been so fascinating to hear the stories! Will you be putting up pictures of the waterfall?
Sarah - Nelson's family was just one of many that have helped to house tourists going to Miraflor. It was all set up through the hostel we stayed at in Esteli. Pretty awesome!