Coffee - Cigars - Gangs

After departing from Granada, Nicaragua (where we spent over a month), we decided to hop around a few small towns in the northern highlands of Nicaragua before heading to El Salvador.  The highlands are known for their fresh air, limited tourism, and wonderful coffee!

First stop - Matagalpa.  A beautiful town dwarfed by the surrounding lush green hill sides, Matagalpa is the coffee power house of Nicaragua.  So what better place to lounge around, drink coffee all day and visit coffee museums.  From here we set off into the hillsides, about 2 hours east of Matagalpa, to experience life on the farm.  In a little community call La Reina, we spent a night with a family in their house, eating fresh food from their farm, and chatting about day to day life.  The family consisted of a mother, five daughters, and one son.  The father would stumble around every once in awhile (drunk) looking for a quick meal.  Luckily he came as we left.  Great little family, and very fun experience!

Second Stop - Esteli.  From delicious coffee to world class cigars.  Esteli receives few visitors, but those that do make the trek get a great opportunity to smoke world class stogies, and that's not me saying that, that's fact. (http://robbreport.com/Paid-Issue/Best-of-the-Best-2012-Cigars-Jaime-Garcia-Reserva-Especial-Limited-Edition-2011).  Again, to fully appreciate the beauty of the cigar culture, we toured a factory, and smoked one of the worlds finest.  I was in the clouds for our late afternoon bus!

Third Stop - Ocotal.  Yasmin visited Nicaragua in 2007.  During her visit she spent time in Ocotal (a stones throw from the Honduran border) shadowing a nurse (Dochita) in a small public hospital.  We spent a couple of nights with her and a full day field trip out to the campo (countryside) at a government  medical outreach.  The outreach was held at a small public school where doctors, nurses and dentists all came out to give free "check-ups".  I got to see some lady's rotten molar get ripped out!

Forth Stop - Somoto.  Just spent one afternoon and a night in this little border town.  But, Somoto gave us access to an amazing river, canyon hike.  Some of the best I have experienced.  We hired a guide to show us the back entrance to the canyon, and with lifejackets we swam, floated, and cliff jumped our way through the canyon.

From Somoto we made a 12 hour travel day to the San Salvador, El Salvador and as soon as we arrived we b-linded it to the beach to the lazy surf town of El Tunco.  El Tunco is the home of El Sunzal, a easy rolling point break where we have be learning to hand ten.

So far El Salvador has been a pleasant surprise.  A black cloud made up of gangs and drug cartels hovers over the country and gives it a bad rep, but so far El Salvadorenos have been some of the kindest people we have come across in our journey.


Hang loose,
Dom & Yas

Video Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97p08bqYrks&feature=youtu.be