Nicaragua 2022

Sunday6November

First awakening in Estelí. Estelí is a large city located in the north of the country, in a region where large green spaces rub shoulders with and even cover the mountains of the entire region.

Our car in front of our house (the one with the gate).

On the day's program: make a loop through the Miraflor nature reserves whose photo below summarizes the landscapes well!

The reserve has no paved roads. So it is from path to path that we travel the region, according to the gps...

Small check of the underbody, to verify that the big noises of stones have not damaged anything... A priori, everything is fine!

Look! An old acquaintance! It's been 12 years since I last saw him! It was in Argentina and it's a superb Crested Caracara (Caracara plancus).

The trees are beautifully adorned with Spanish moss or "old man's beard" (Tillandsia usneoides).

"Tillandsia usneoides, also called Spanish moss, air plant or old man's beard, is a species of epiphytic plants of the Bromeliaceae family. It develops on the American continent where it hangs from tree branches, telephone wires and any other aerial support where it captures moisture from the air and nutrients in the form of dust. It is sometimes confused with bearded lichen, a form of lichen. However, Spanish moss is not biologically part of lichens or mosses." © Wikipedia

Stop at Finca Neblina del Bosque.

The dog of the house, which you can see in real life as well as in painting...  

Naranjillas, Solanum quitoense, fruits of the Quito nightshade.

There are not only pastures or small mountains. Our circuit passes through some villages where "vaqueros" handle the lasso to redirect stray cows to the right path.  

The mount of the vaqueros, with all its gear, saddle, stirrups and the rest in rope.  

Approaching the halfway point, our GPS did not want to finish our loop and turned back... We really didn't see why... we were wrong... We were approaching a river and we understood as we went along that surely, the GPS was right and that the road could not be crossed... And indeed, the river was too high for our small car!  

Our loop cannot be completed! No other roads or bridges nearby! We will have to redo everything in reverse!  

So, we won't have time to take a dip with the horse...

Back on our steps then. Finally, it will only make us lose an hour and we can also appreciate the landscape with a reverse point of view...  

Return to Estelí to the small aquatic attraction of the area, the Estanzuela waterfall.

The attraction is quite relative, and there is only one small group having their Sunday evening barbecue.

Monday7November

New day in the Esteli region. This time, in the south of the region, in the Cerro Tomabú reserve. And more precisely, in a remote corner of the mountain named El Jalacate, where a curious artist exhibits his works in the middle of nature...

The place really aspires to tranquility, appeasement.

The few animals present do not disturb the ambient calm in any way.

A band-backed wren (Campylorhynchus zonatus), a boat-billed flycatcher (Megarynchus pitangua), and an altamira oriole (Icterus gularis) also bring their little touches of colors.

Much bigger but much quieter, the cows enjoy the grass, because finally, it is not greener elsewhere...  

Access by car was not very easy, and access on foot is no less so...

Here are already some productions of the artist it seems. Stones engraved in the petroglyph way.

El artista aporta al mundo algo que no existia antes y lo hace sin destruir nada.
"The artist brings to the world something that did not exist before and does so without destroying anything".

The mysterious artist is named Alberto Gutiérrez Jirón, but it is his brother Humberto who receives us.

The place is discovered through paths that climb in zigzags to the top of the mountain.

The two most important sculptures of the site, an elephant and a little further, gazelles.

Paths pass by huts perched half in the void.

In the distance, the city of Esteli.

Another oriole, but this time "spot-breasted" (Icterus pectoralis).

The great guardian of the place has spotted us!   And we hear voices a little further... Let's see...

Ha! There he is, here is the artist! Alberto Gutiérrez Jirón, the spitting image of his portrait!  

So, we are entitled to a quick private visit of some places he wants to show us. I don't understand everything but encounters of the third kind are always happy!  

He puts his mark on just about everything.

Sculptor on stone and wood.

He even shows us a diploma awarded by the University of Commercial Sciences of Matagalpa in recognition of his work.

Nature is also an artist. Two beehive ginger (Zingiber spectabile) and in the middle a yellow walking iris Trimezia gracilis.

And an impatiens.

Return to the entrance of the farm. My cow model hasn't moved and is waiting for me to take her picture...

I comply.

Return to Esteli for lunch in a "roadside" restaurant.

For the afternoon, we leave to visit the picturesque small town of San Juan de Limay.

Statue of Augusto Sandino, national hero and emblematic figure of the fight against American imperialism.

Monument to the heroes and martyrs fallen during the 2014 revolution. These events broke out following President Ortega's announcement of his intention to run for a third term. The demonstrations were quickly repressed by the police and the army, and resulted in more than 300 deaths.

Scattered in the village and on the surrounding roads, we find wooden sculptures called "gordas" or "gorditas". These well-fleshed sculptures represent themes related to the community, such as tobacco cultivation or coffee cultivation.

A parked horse. Not even double parked. Peak hours don't seem frequent around here...  

Its owner is obviously a "vaquero" given the harness.

This is one of the images I will retain from Nicaragua: horses still used as simple means of transport. Let's hope this lasts as long as possible.

Drying red beans on the city sidewalks?

Horses walk men. Children walk goats.  

The restaurant "Pollo rey al pastor". Al pastor is a method of cooking meat originating from Mexico. Here, it seems simply rotisserie chicken.

A "gordas" on the side of the road, about fifteen kilometers from San Juan de Limay. This one holds a lobster in her hand.

On the horizon, a carpet of clouds forms at the same time as the Sun bows out.

Meanwhile, the Moon makes its appearance.

Little deceptive effect on the size of the Moon... Above the horizon, alongside small distant elements, it appears much larger than high up in the sky, whereas in reality, its apparent diameter is always the same...  

For tomorrow, penultimate day of the trip, we are going to dive literally into the Somoto canyon! It's going to be sporty, but gently!