Miraflor and Leon

Hello everyone,

My journey continues, albeit at a slow pace, but always further towards Colombia. Every place and every day is a gift, there is always so much to discover, day trips, interesting food or just a chilled hostel. This freedom to just go with the flow and decide the night before where you are going the next day is fantastic. Even if I don't have any strict plans for the individual countries, it always develops over time. Recommendations from other travelers, places mentioned by locals or guides, ideas that come to me during the sometimes long bus rides or from one or two travel blogs I have read.

The second day in Esteli (31.03.24) was actually supposed to be dedicated to a visit to a cigar factory, but smart people realize that it was a Sunday. So I wanted to go to a nearby waterfall, but here too I realized that the buses are less frequent on Sundays. So I decided to just go to Matagalpa, I have no idea what there is there but I've heard the name of the city before and there wasn't much to do in Esteli. 2 hours later I was in the city, on the way to the center I saw a mountain with a cross on top and that is always a sign of a viewpoint. Since I wasn't really interested in exploring the city next anyway, I went up there. Isolated and alone, it took 1.5 hours to go up there, the peace and quiet was lovely. On the way down I went to the supermarket for lunch and then got on an overcrowded hot bus, where I had to stand for 2 hours🥲

Then finally it was no longer the weekend and I could do the tour to the cigar factory. It started at 10:00 and I was the only one, which was nice. A little background information: Esteli is the cigar capital of Nicaragua and Nicaragua is still Cuba and the Dominican Republic is the third largest cigar exporter (information from the guide). In Esteli itself you can see cigar factories everywhere, from family businesses to large companies with up to 2,000 employees. In the whole city around 40,000 people work with tobacco, which is a good third of the population. Well, we were in a medium-sized company with just under 60 employees. Everything is done by hand there, leaves are checked and dried, rolled, tested, stored and labeled. Very interesting and something unique to see. This company exports all cigars to Canada, Mexico and the majority to Brazil where the cigars are sold for $10-$50. They produce about 6000-7000 cigars a day.

After a hearty portion of Gallo Pinto (rice with beans) we took the bus to Miraflor, the place was recommended to me in Somoto and sounded good. The journey took a long time even though it was only 30km but the "road" should really only have been driven on with a 4x4 and not an old school bus... well, I got there. In nature. It was amazing how quiet and idyllic it was there, the finca was really beautiful, tons of hummingbirds, butterflies and all you could hear were the birds and the wind in the trees. 7 puppies were born in the finca a few weeks ago and yes, they are of course the absolute attraction.

On April 2, 2024, it was, as expected, pretty quiet. I read a lot and after lunch we hiked to a waterfall where you could swim and relax. The parents of the puppies and another dog accompanied us the whole way. The dogs were rather mediocrely trained, but they didn't stay in the finca when we left. On the way they probably killed a chicken, bullied cows and attacked dogs on their property... it must be said that our dogs probably weighed between 30-60kg, so they weren't small dogs. We found it very uncomfortable walking past fields and properties and the dogs just run in and chase the chickens or dogs there, but they just didn't listen and didn't stay in the finca. After some time and a half-attack by a bull who didn't want the dogs at all, we were back in the finca.

On April 3rd, 2024 we continued on to Léon, a very beautiful city with many opportunities for day trips. The only problem here is the heat...incredibly hot, sometimes up to 37°. After arriving and checking in, we went on a free walking tour. This was very exciting and there were many interesting facts about the city. And here, too, I met the person I hiked up the volcano with in La Union. It's always amazing when you meet again. During the tour, the guide mentioned a place, San Juan del Norte, he said that you can travel there but practically nobody does. That of course made me sit up and take notice, as I wasn't entirely happy with my current plan to visit two islands on the Caribbean side. After a bit of research and thinking, I'm trying to visit this place at the end of my time in Nicaragua. It is a village of 1,000 people in the southeast of the country and can only be reached by boat across a river that takes several hours. It is surrounded by a jungle that is almost untouched and is only home to a few indigenous people. That sounds like an adventure, let's see what happens😁

The next day was quiet despite all the possible day trips, I spent a lot of time exploring the city, eating good street food and relaxing.

Because I had to be fit for today (05.04.24). Get up early, have breakfast, walk to the bus terminal, drive and at 7:30 I was at the start of the hike to the Telica volcano. A hike of over 10km lay ahead of me and at this time it was already over 26°. The ground was pretty poor at first, then I got lost and got back to the path through the forest. It only took me 15 minutes, a lot of sweat and dirt on all my clothes and every part of my skin, from then on I looked like someone who had been living in the forest for days and I still had 7km to go 😂 The rest of the way was relaxed except for the heat. The first view of the crater was breathtaking... It just burst out of the ground and exploded, I don't know but the sight was amazing. Then when I got to the crater, it was just brutal, all alone with just the eerie noise, the steam and a huge hole in front of me. The noise that came out of the crater was like a highway in hell... really scary. I enjoyed the view and the power of this volcano and went back down after an hour. It was still hot and the locals thought it was time to burn the harvested fields, so there was still smoke in the air. After 2.5 hours I made it back to the village, drank a cold lemonade and drove back.