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Happy Father's Day to me! I can't think of a better way to spend the day than with my girls in Nicaragua. Breakfast as usual at the hotel, all the staff fawning over MD...
Another 15 minutes and 4 hotel staff consulting on directions to Pueblos Blancos, and we're off on another day's adventure. I decide along the way to make a small detour at Mombacho, remembering that there is a fairly famous coffee plantation halfway up the mountain side; Las Flores. The coffee company has been there since the 1920's but the volcano was made into a national park in the 1980's. Rather than kick the coffee company off the mountain, they improved their road, put in a base camp at the bottom and now use the main house area of the coffee plantation as a staging area for excursions to the top. The coffee company has obviously embraced the opportunity and has tours and a nice coffee shop onsite...the frozen coffee drinks we had were on par with Starbucks...and about the same price!!! Down at the base camp, we had a significant language barrier with the workers there, but eventually got enough information out of them to realize that they wanted $18 for the truck and $5 per person to go to the top of the mountain...which is a lot just to go to the top of an extinct volcano and have a good look-out point. But you are able to go to the coffee plantation for free, so we drove to that point, and realized when we got there that there are big trucks that take people up the rest of the way and that we could have parked our car there and gone up for $10. Oh well, missed opportunity. I then decided that I wanted a tour of the coffee planation ($12 US per person), arranged and paid for that...but as we waited for the guide to come, I told Heather what we were about to do; go trekking through a muddy coffee field, my dreams of learning the coffee growing trade were quickly dashed as she gave me that look of "are you serious?"
Alright, back in the truck and down the mountain to Pueblos Blancos. I broke cardinal rule #1 when driving in Nicaragua, always reconfirm your directions...I swung the car into the shoulder of the road and asked someone which direction to go, and took his word at it and took off...15 kilometers later when I got to the next town and realized that we were on the road to the beach and not to Pueblos Blancos, I kicked myself. Bust a u-turn and take the right road, finally arrive 3 hours behind schedule, thanks to Mombacho and the wrong directions. Pueblos Blancos is a collection of about 12 towns that pretty much blend together down a stretch of highway, and at one time were all painted white, thus the name, but have since been repainted every color you can imagine We're on a mission for some high quality ceramics, each of these towns is famous for something, many of the handicrafts in the country are made here; San Juan del Oriente is for ceramics, while Catarina is where they grow all the landscaping plants in the country and it has a good look-out point to Laguna de Apoyo. Daria is famous for having some crazy festivals like one where they slap each other with dried-out bull penis's. There is limited parking at San Juan del Oriente, but we get lucky and get one of the 8 or so spots at the top of the hill. The main street of the town is full of tents with vendors all the way down selling everything from ceramics, clothes, toys made in China, food, jewelry, and everything in between. We do our customary once-over of the whole place to get some prices and scope out the quality...but when we get to the end of the street we really haven't seen anything that we're overly excited about, so we decide that these are just the sellers and we should go off the main road and find where they are actually making it. Down the first side road and around the corner, then down another road, the road and house start fading in quality, the people on the porches start looking at us a little longer as we pas by and there is no one that looks remotely like us...ok, time to turn around...back on the first side road we swing into a ceramic shop that we eyed as we came by the first time. Its a nice house, with a nice SUV in front of it and it has a small billboard, looks reputable. This turns out to be a good decision, the potter is home, and his work is amazing. Its Sunday and he doesn't work on Sundays but he shows us some carving techniques on some works in process and walks us through his small shop and explains the whole process from forming the shape, to painting it, carving the design, firing it in the kinnel, and final polish. The quality of his work is far better than anything we've seen so far, and his prices reflect that; the piece we finally decide on ends up costing us $40 USD, but it took him 8 full days of work just to do this one piece; so we feel like we got a steal! Back through tow we meet the potters wife on the main road working a small stand of this wares, purchase a ceramic mask and a small dress for MD.
Back in the car, and down the hill to Daria to get to Laguna de Apoyo. Daria is preparing for one of its famous festivals; this one looks like it has something to do with fruit, as they're building rather large papallas (sp?) at the intersections through town and hanging massive amounts of fruit on them. After working our way through town following the sparsely spaced "Mirador" signs, we are rewarded at the top of the hill with an amazing view of Laguna de Apoyo. The Laguna is a the crater of an extinct volcano that has over time filled up with water to a depth of 200m in the middle and is now protected by law from further development; so with the exception of a couple of low rent hotels/hostels, a couple look-out points with a few restaurants, 3 houses, and a scientific research station; its unspoiled natural beauty at its finest. The weather plays a big factor in what you can do in this country; there is a big rain storm coming in from the distance, so we decide not to make the 25 minute drive down the very steep, partially paved road on the side of the hill to the dock and swimming spot and instead opt to hang out at Charlie's bar restaurant at the look-out point. The food is a good quality, the beers are cold, and the view is amazing. They brought several condiments to the table with our meal; oil, vinegar, chili sauce, salt...but no black pepper' So I ask the waiter for black pepper, "por favor, chili negro"...a blank stare..."sal con chili negro" (salt with black pepper, at least in my version of Spanish) Turns out that pepper is pimienta not chili negro. After a great late lunch, we snap a few photos over looking the Laguna and load up with 45 minutes of day light left with a 45 minute drive to make and a rain storm tailing us. Just as we get back into Granada the rain hits and we walk into the hotel as it gets dark. Heather is a lot more concerned on this trip with our safety now that we have MD, driving at night worries her.
Since we didn't get to swim in the Laguna, I decide that we need to swim in the hotel pool. A quick dip to freshen up, and then its time to pack up for the next part of trip, we're moving cities tomorrow morning. Its amazing how much stuff can find its way out of your bag in just 4 days!
- comments
Cheryl Very cute photo. Such a tropper little MD, Mimi is so proud of you.You steal the hearts of everyone.
Capree So precious!! Love those two!