We have the rare treat of being in possession of some wheels. Our friends Nieves and Anders are back in Denmark for a month and have given us the use of their car. We made a choice early on not to own a car, not to have the expenses and logistics, and lean toward a smaller CO2 footprint if/when possible. For a year now, we have enjoyed walking in town, jumping into a $.50 taxi ride when needed, and renting a car for week end escapades.
For now it’s a novelty and we park it in the neighborhood garage, along with a horse carriage and other cars. It’s around the corner from us and so very convenient at 20 cordobas a night = $1.
We go for a drive towards Catarina, the area which has all the nurseries, one after the other. We are in search of big orange flowers, as per Ben’s specification, to add to the garden. We find a few interesting plants, and yes we do find a dark peach hibiscus. We then go on to San Jan del Oriente which is the neighborhood with ceramic workshops and little storefronts one after the other. We are dropping off Ben’s clay sculptures to be fired and buying some more bags of clay.
Heading back to town, we pass by Volcano Mombacho and decide to take advantage of having a car, and we drive in.
No dogs allowed on the top to see the view of all of Granada, but yes, we can take them a few kms up the steep windy road and take a walk around the large organic coffee plantation.
The top of Mombacho has a cloud forest and today the clouds are sitting heavy and low down the volcano.
We head out with the dogs through the misty, very lush green forest and coffee plants which have fruit still green hanging from their branches as it is very early in the season.
Coffee is one of the largest exports ( in addition to rum and cigars, and in five years time, bamboo!) from Nicaragua, although most of it is grown up North in Matagalpa where the whole region is in cloud forest and therefore many degrees cooler than Granada, year round. The dogs delight in running down the hilly pathways and we enjoy the quiet tranquility and heaviness of the mist surrounding us. Cool use of plants to create a “live fence system”.
As we head back towards Granada (15 minutes or so), we see that it has rained quite hard while we were gone. It is the
rainy season and we have enjoyed the frequent hard rains. Last year this time, we had just moved here, and were very
aware of the lack of rain and the subsequent dry countryside and drought. This year thankfully, things seem back to normal rain wise. We have been reading about the first hurricanes of the
season which have already wreaked havoc in Mexico and the Northern part of Central America.
There has been some really heavy rain in the North of Nicaragua causing bad floods and lives lost.
We come home to our stray momma cat and her five babies – who now have their eyes open and are starting to play a little on their wobbly new legs.
What are these big spots on the trees???? Are they sick????
The kitten are adorable especially the one with blue eyes…So when are you going to paint cats?????????
PK – Linchen grows like a plant (fungus) on trees, in wet environments, where the air is not polluted. Very healthy trees indeed.