We had a fantastic Caribbean holiday in Barbados with Richard´s family . Scuba, surfing, golf, rum, and watching old family videos (Eileen!) were among the favorite activities.
(we are still waiting on some photos to post)On Jan 5th we flew to Nicaragua. After our arrival in the big, clean and empty airport in Managua we hopped a two hour bus ride through the dry season desert and up into the cool misty coffee producing city. From there, a 6 hour bus ride into more mountains and a filthy town with the worst room we have ever shared ($3.00 for both of us). We used an old yellow construction hard hat to scoop water from an old sink to wash our faces and flush the toilet. The next morning, because it rained and the road wasn`t passable, we had to take a taxi ride and short hike out of town to board another bus for a 6 hour ride to a small mining town, Siuna. Did I mention that all the buses are old school buses from the states and Canada?
We made a short foray from Siuna into the massive BOSAWAS biosphere, which is a project of UNESCO. After 2 hours hiking through the mud and then 4 more hours of waiting around, we met a National Park Ranger. He had to finish working on his bean fields and walk an hour to where we were waiting. The route we wanted to do wasn`t possible because the trail is `lost`, meaning the forest has grown over it. This National Park receives less than 6 groups of people per year and so the rangers farm more than they protect the forest. The government isn`t giving any money these days...
Here`s a lucky local man who lives on the edge of the reserve. He`s enjoying some of our strong cowboy coffee from the origami coffee cups!
After several days of seeing no tourists, we were still waiting for the Ranger when Florian, a German forestry student, walked up with some local kids. He joined us on the trip, and we really enjoyed his company during our hike. Here we are in a heated cowboy coffee induced discussion about world politics. Actually, we were just talking about trees!
We spent four nights camping in the rainforest, and enjoying the short hikes up a beautiful river and through the forest. We saw lots of monkeys and other critters. we also suffered some mean bites from chiggers. The bites itch and last for weeks!
The ranger was a great man, though he knew little of the medicinal plants and that was we wanted to learn about. Plus we had exhausted all hiking possibilities. So we decided to try and visit the local indigenous people, the Mayagna, who have a large stake in this forest reserve. They have control over territories within the reserve and maintain the forest around their villages. We knew little of these people, and wanted to meet them. This began an adventure of unexpected proportions.
We spent a night in Rosita, another mining town in what is refered to as the mining triangle. I had read about a Mayagna cultural preservation group with an address in this town. We asked 6 different people where the office was and each gave a different answer... we learned about the town in this goose chase manner. It was also at this point that we realized that every time we asked for a bus time, we were given different and wrong times, which made us wait extra long for buses, which can get annoying when repeated. After an unfruitful search for the Mayagna, we left the next morning for Bonanza, the third town in the triangle. On our way, we had the first flat tire, which was expertly changed in less than 10 minutes. These same bus drivers, in their mid 40s, teased the young sexily clad teenage girls and groped at them. They hissed and mouthed kisses to Angela and wouldn`t let her get off the bus til they were done with their imbecilic gestures.
Immediately, the town of Bonanza got to me. It was hectic, with the bus station, slotmachine casinos, billiard halls and people milling about. It was a wild-west town complete with brothels, horses tied to trees in front of casinos, cowboys and miners, and us. Amazingly, upon arrival we met a member of the Mayagna cultural preservation group which we had been trying to contact. He was at the hotel restaurant next to the bus station and we spent the next two hours chatting with him and one of his colleagues. It seemed great, they filled us in on a lot of information about the people and the development work. They also granted us the needed permission to enter the area controlled by Mayagna. They gave us a splendidly penned letter to present to the community leaders upon our arrival.
We were going to a village called Musawas, the capital of the Mayagna people. They told us that there was an 8 kilometer bus ride before an 8 kilometer walk. They also told us that there would be mud on the trail, and we assured them that we could walk through mud as we had proved in the week before during our jungle trek. But we had no idea of what was to come...
That night we slept in a single bed above the restaurant that seemed to cook fried chicken all night. We took baths out of a big bucket that everybody shared, and packed a bag to take with us for a journey of a length we didn`t yet know. Could be a few days or up to ten depending on how the community received us. They didn`t know anything about us and we knew little of them.
Our ride which was supposed to come at 7am arrived at half past. The driver said he went halfway to the end of the road before the nurse told him that he had to pick us up. So he seemed annoyed. 30 minutes later, we had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. It took us over 30 minutes to change the tire on the Landcruiser. After cruising on the back of the truck through forest and cleared cattle grazing land, we arrived at the river, which was the end of the road. Here we donned our rubber boots for the unforgettable journey ahead.
The nurse put on a pair of pajama bottoms that gave the false impression that we would be comfy and relaxed on the trip. We started off innocently enough slipping down the first hill we had to climb. Five hours later we arrived miraculously in the village.
It was hands down the craziest walk we have ever been on. There was literally mud for 8 kilometers, some of it knee deep although we did our best to avoid the deeper spots. And steep treacherous spots led us into canyons with more rivers to cross and perilous ascents. It was exhausting and we both doubted we could make it. Worst of all, someone mentioned to our nurse guide that our letter of authorization wasn´t legitimate because it was from the wrong person. In fact, it turns out that the men we met with are part of a splinter group of this organization and they have no authority to issue our permission. So now, our presence in the village was in jeapardy. For five hours, we battled mentally with the idea of if we would be allowed or banished. It was a rough journey to say the least.
We arrived exhausted and starving! And filthy!
We were to meet the local reverend and stay at his house, but he was gone. So we waited around at the nurse`s empty abandoned house. Her daughter brought us rice and tapir, a local wild animal, to eat. Then we went to meet the village judge and all the fun began. For the next two days we had to explain our purpose for visiting the village over and over again to the local leaders. They also told us over and over again about the mistake we made by not having the proper letter. They were adament about lecturing us on the split between the local orgainzations which had absolutely nothing to do with us. Apparently there is a general and deep mistrust of foreigners and they wanted us to make a committment to helping their village or to leave. We had hoped to find out more about the Mayagna so that perhaps in the future we could come back to help, but as we couldn´t make that committment we felt that it was better to leave than to create false expectations. It was a very frustrating time. It was obvious that the village needed help, yet the leaders didn`t make us feel comfortable to stay and learn how we could help.
We agreed that we would leave, but only after one day of rest as we didn´t feel that we could make the mud walk again the next day. So we were able to spend one day in the village talking with education leaders. The primary school has had a lot of international and national support, including a library with computers. But the secondary school looked as if it were about to fall apart and there was only one shelf of books in their ¨library¨. Many of the students have to walk through the mud from villages that are 2+ hours away as it is the only secondary school in the area. The village isn´t sure where to get the help needed to improve the education.
This is a photo of the very nice primary school.
They put us up at the reverend`s house where we slept on hard wood beds with mosquitos buzzing round our heads. We actually had a great time visiting with the people. They are amazing. We ate at the judge´s house and enoyed the time with his family.
The entire community here fled to Honduras during the war in the 80`s. They lived in the forest till the war was over and then resettled back here. The young men were recruited and forced to fight for both sides, Contras and Sandinistas. The judge told us how he fought for both sides at different times beginning when he was 15.
The river seems to be the lifeblood of the community, and the kids spend a lot of time playing in canoes and practicing rolling them over and over. They don`t have motors, but use poles to move upriver. It was amazing to see how fast they could pole up river!
Finally, it was time to go. It had been such a difficult and emotional two days and we were ready to leave, but it was sad to go without being able to do much to help. Who knows if we will ever be able to come back to this place again. We were given a police escort for the 4 hour mud walk back to where the local transport would be waiting!
We stayed one more night in a mining town in a room that had a colony of screeching rats in the ceiling. We were barely able to sleep due to the racket they made all night. They were still making noise at 5am when we got up to catch the bus. Our third flat tire in less than a week occured during our twelve hour bus ride back to Managua. What a classic trip!!!
We finally made it to Granada and are presently recovering from bug bites, rashes, intestinal troubles, extreme noise levels, and a lack of fruit and veggies. We desperately needed a break from gallo pinto so we enjoyed a delicious pizza with wine at the Italian joint.
The adventure continues...
