Canyon Somoto, Nicaragua

At the end of our last week in Nicaragua, we were eagerly anticipating a visit from special visitors. Paulette, founder of La Mariposa, was planning to travel up to Esteli to spend time with us, and our children were SO excited to see her again! Oscar, one of the La Mariposa drivers, drove her in the truck so we got to see him too! As a surprise they brought along a pinata for the kids, and a truckload of crates and crates full of fresh fruits and vegetables from the La Mariposa gardens–greens and tomatoes and avocados and oranges and mandarinas and pineapples, overflowing our kitchen! Even a special package of fresh eggs from Paulette’s chickens, wrapped in banana leaves as a carton, which I think is the just coolest thing!

Isn’t that the coolest egg carton, though!?

We ate lunch together at our home, spent the afternoon chatting, and visited a park and Pizza Hut that evening. But the main event was the following morning! Somoto Canyon had been recommended to us by some other students we met at La Mariposa, and we hoped to see it while we were in Northern Nicaragua, so we invited Paulette and Oscar to join us. It was fun to get to experience a new part of Nicaragua that Paulette and Oscar hadn’t seen before either!

Cozy in the back of the truck for the hour and a half drive to Somoto.

The first part of the Somoto tour is a hike down to the riverbed, and then along the sandy, rocky riverbed, which is completely dry or very shallow pools during the dry season now, to get deeper into the canyon. Denver, Oscar, and our guide all ended up with a kid on their shoulders at one time as legs got tired and sand got in their shoes.

The next stage, when you arrive deep enough into the canton that there is enough water that you can’t walk any further, is to climb into a rowboat to be rowed further in through some beautiful rock formations as the sides of the canyon grow steeper and narrow around you.

The row boats come to a point where the way is completely blocked by large rocks that divide the riverbed into separate lakes. Everyone climbs out of the boat and does some rock climbing up and over the rock formations, which give a greater view down over the river and into the narrow parts of the canyon ahead!

Next comes the really fun stage (which Paulette and Oscar chose to opt out of and wait for us in the shade of a big rock): climbing down into tubes in the water to float into the deepest, most narrow parts of the canyon! The poor guides have to get into the water and swim, pulling the tubes along train style. At the deepest part of the canyon where you can’t go any further, there is a place where they let people climb up to jump into the water from crazy heights on the rock–none of us did, but we watch a couple of other crazy people and our guides do it (Shiny screamed and hid her eyes, I agree with her sentiment!).

Then it’s time to do the tour in reverse, getting towed back through the water to the big rocks, climbing down to the rowboat and and traveling back to the dry riverbed.

The fun part on the way back was that we had reserved horses for the hike back, knowing the kids would be tired, so we finished out the tour with Quinn and Thea on one horse, Paulette on another, and Cheyenne and I riding behind (Denver and Oscar walked).

The tour includes a traditional Nicaraguan lunch at the end, so we had the chance to sit down and share one more meal together before the long drive back and saying goodbye.

Somoto Canyon is a beautiful place, and made for a beautiful day of exploring with friends. Thanks for discovering a new treasure of Nicaragua with us, Paulette and Oscar!

Week 3 in Nicaragua: More Things to Love

We’ve fallen so far behind in documenting our travels, and we’ve done soooo much in that time, that it’s overwhelming to sit here after what has actually been 7 weeks and try to figure out where to start with all the weeks I haven’t covered yet!  Thankfully photo documentation was plentiful and serves as the outline for my memories to keep our timeline straight.

Weekend 3: Leon

Leon is the second-largest city in Nicaragua (after the capital, Managua), and was the originally capital city starting in colonial times when founded by the Spanish; therefore it has a lot of historical and political importance, and is a usual stop in getting to know the country. 

What to love about Leon: beautiful old architecture, especially the cathedral.  There are tour guides to tell all about the history of the cathedral (which Denver heard, and I mostly spent chasing Cheyenne and trying to keep her from lying in the middle of the floor or climbing through the barriers to the temptingly fun-looking nativity scene up front), and then you can pay to climb up to the rooftop and walk around to see the view of the city and the details of the architecture up close.  My favorite is trying to capture different angles of certain interesting parts of a building framed by sky and clouds, so I enjoyed the rooftop photography the most!  And while in a culturally-famous city I’m sure there are many great restaurants to get some wonderful authentic Nicaraguan meals, we were with our children…so where did we eat lunch? Pizza Hut. Which is what they would say was their favorite part of the tour of Leon.

What not to love about Leon: The city is STINKING HOT!  We get spoiled by the beautifully temperate climate in Masaya and especially La Mariposa with all the trees for fresh air and shade, so the temperature difference in the region of Leon is a shocker (more than 10 degrees hotter, plus lots of city concrete and few trees), so come prepared with the sunscreen, sunglasses, and lots of water!  We ended up spending a couple hours of the afternoon at a nearby beach area in Leon rather than touring more of the city, which was more fun for our children, but still crazy hot and sand burning their feet, bigger waves and shorter stretch of beach to the water, so we personally recommend the beach at La Boquita (which is our trip the 4th weekend, next post).

Cheyenne was terrified to go anywhere close to the waves, but Quinn and Thea enjoyed playing in them.

Also weekend 3: Old Friends

What to love about Nicaraguan people: It only takes a couple of days together to feel like family and be welcomed back months after first meeting as if you had always been friends.  When Denver and I first traveled to Nicaragua in February 2018 to scout out plans for this trip, we spent one weekend in a Homestay with a family in La Concha during our time visiting La Mariposa.  They quickly made us feel at home in their home and we became fast friends with their teenage son with Down Syndrome, who loved coloring and telling us all about his collection of model animals.  When preparing to return this December, I made sure to pick up a coloring book and a new set of plastic animals of North America to bring Daryl for Christmas.  His father Julio had invited our family to come tour a citrus farm (lots of Mandarin and orange trees in harvest, as well as rows and rows of pineapple and dragon fruit) owned by his friend on Sunday, so that morning we got to bring Daryl his presents.  His joy opening these two simple gifts and lovingly carrying them around was priceless, and made an impact on our children as well. 

Week 3-4: Life in La Mariposa

Things to Love: Pizza making day.  One this special day of the month when we get homemade pizza for dinner, the children were super excited to participate in the pizza-making class.  The La Mariposa cooks helped them chop toppings, mix the dough, knead and roll it, and each assemble toppings (Homemade sauce, lots of veggies, lots of cheese) on pizzas that would be dinner for everyone that evening!

FURRY things to love: So. Many.  Contented dogs lounging everywhere. The newly-rescued grey kitten, just starting to get braver and more adventurous, became a special family favorite during the last half of our stay, often inviting herself into our room to play or sprawl on our bed for a while before we went to sleep. And Chica the sweet old Spider monkey who just wants someone to come hold her hand, and walking down to their cage just to sit and hold her hand and stroke her arm for a while was calming for me too. (While Paulette would love all wild animals like these monkeys to live free, the ones who live here had been kept in captivity for too long before they were turned over to La Mariposa, so they can no longer be safely released to fend for themselves, so they give them the best care they can here).

More to love about fellow students:  This week brought Jacob, a young man who has been coming with his parents to La Mariposa since he was a much smaller boy, over multiple years, and now as a 14-year-old came alone for a couple weeks to work as an intern and learn about how the business is run.  He is well known by all the staff, has a homestay family he has lived with multiple times, speaks great Spanish, and independently jumps right in to life at the school (he is also tenacious enough to figure out how to bring the puppy, Pecas, home to Florida with him at the end of his stay, which also gave our children all kinds of ideas…)  Seeing how Jacob come on his own as a teenager was especially inspiring for our children, and started them already thinking about how they want to return to help at La Mariposa when they are older; Quinten already has a plan to bring a group of friends on a school trip when he is in high school!

And I can’t forget: My handcrafted ceramic flowerpot chicken.  What’s not to love? (You know you want one too).