North to Ocotal

Tuesday morning, Managua

A healthy buffet breakfast of fruit, cereals, made to order egg dishes and coffee was included - in the price of the room.

  After eating my fill, I packed my bags and grabbed a taxi on the highway for the Mercardo Mayoreo, the main bus terminal for northbound buses. The place was a hive of activity – a dozen bus bays- 6 per side of a central steel roofed building where people waited, vendors sold ‘stuff’ and ticket booths doled out tickets to a dozen destinations, I had just missed a bus so bought a ticket for the 11:15 Express to Ocotal, some 240km north of Managua. While I waited, food vendors offered me everything from ice-cream bars to fried chicken on a tortilla.

 The difference between an expresso and an ordinario is not just the saving in time, The expressos are, typically free of the annoying food vendors who seem to get on and off at every other stop selling foods that would make a cardiologist smile. If the gastro upset doesn’t kill you, the cholesterol will. Many of the vendors look like they eat what they cant sell- making it even more crowded in the aisles when people are standing. Only one group were allowed on about halfway through the trip- one a boy selling crispy fried slices of banana. That is normally something I would eat, except these ones looked like they had been fried in used motor oil. Another vendor was a girl with a bucket full of boiled corn. The sweet but rather sickly stale smell indicated that it had been overcooked or perhaps re-boiled from yesterday’s leftovers.

  The bus followed the Lake Managua shoreline east for a half hour before turning north onto the CA1- the Trans American Highway. The lake was clearly at an excessively high level as various plantations of palms and bananas, normally along the shore, were awash in lake water The first part of  the route followed a path due north through some parched flatlands with little greenery to be seen. The colour began to return to the landscape as we passed the town of Sebaco where the road forks- left to Esteli and right (east) to Matagalpa.

  A short time latter we passed a large flat expanse of wetland which was, in fact, a series of rice paddies. Unusual perhaps but not that surprising given the amount of rice that most Nicas consume

 Ahead the mountainous region known as the Segovias could be seen and the bus was forced to slow considerably as it laboured up some of the slopes.

  By 1:40pm we had reached Esteli, famous for cowboy boots and cigars. The highway skirted the eastern side of the town, which seems to have grown a couple of large hotels since my last visit.

 Continuing north we entered into an area with some extremely high hills/mountains on either side. The ones to the east are part of the Miraflor nature reserve, one of the most popular natural attractions of the country. Home to various species of birds and mammals, several types of orchid, it is essentially a co-operative owned and operated by several hundred individual family farm owners. If time permits Iwill try to arrange a day trip on my return trip south.

  We arrived at he town of Ocotal shortly after 3pm, stopping at the main bus station at the south end of town. A quick taxi ride brought me to my home for the night, a small but clean hospitaje the Hotel  El Viejero. Family operated and having about 6 habitable rooms (some are being renovated following an addition) I have a room with fan, TV and private bathroom for less than $7 a night. I could have splurged and stayed at Hotel Frontera which has a pool. The book showed rates of $45 but when I asked them later they quoted me $22. By then I was already moved into my 0.5 star!

   The main attraction in Ocotal from my point of view is the central park and church, the later being, arguably, the most beautiful in the country. Called the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion its construction began in 1804. Of adobe construction it’s altar area seems to glow with a soft blue light and the impressive wooden ceiling looks like someone waxes it daily.

  The church grounds, enclosed by a low stone wall topped with wrought iron fencing also look impressive with a mix of various plants and trees offering both shade and beauty.

  In front of the church, is the park, with its central bandstand and its own share of greenery.  Couples sneak in a little bit of practise doing CPR! while old men reminisce and shoeshine boys waste their time, as most passers-by seem to be vinyl and nylon clad these days!

  With most of the key sights essentially seen, I will probably make this a one-night stop and catch a bus to Somoto in the morning. It’s claim to fame is a fairly impressive but not Grand!, canyon some miles west of town.

  With 6pm approaching, it is time to find some passable- yes that can be taken two ways- food in town. The lady of the house recommended La Yunta for a decent sopa de pollo.

8;30

La Yunta, while offering a decent but overpriced ($10) chicken with mushroom sauce, had no chicken soup. In fact they had no soup at all. Many restaurants seem to avoid soup as a menu item because it tends to be cheap, and with a couple of tortillas is often sufficient for a meal.

 A quick walk around the town centre was sufficient exercise for one day. The town doesn’t have the most well lit streets and I am still a little nervous of walking alone. [Of late I often carry a couple of half-pound rocks with jagged edges in the bottom of my Apotex cloth bag!- just for that extra bit of protection]

A quick glance in through many of the open doorways indicates that a good number of the homes here, while appearing OK from the outside are less so internally. Dirt floors and no doors separating rooms and in some cases no rooms, per say, just one big communal living space. While not exactly my idea of a place I would want to live, most of these people have probably had nothing else to compare it with.