Update 3 - Day 1 - Epilogue

Amazing how little one accomplishes even in a busy seeming day. I did hit all of the items on the mornings itinerary and then began the drive out, which I will finish. The grasslands gradually gave way to increasing hills. Which gave way to bigger hills.

As the sides of the hills got steeper the first of the coffee plantations began to emerge. The steeper the hillsides, the more coffee trees. About 2/3 of the way out I hit the town of Sebaco which is a relatively good size burg with a good bit of heavy industry. After Sebaco the really steep grades began and I was pretty busy downshifting for upgrades then upshifting for downgrades. Like I said, I know how to drive a stick but it aint always pretty. A few kilometers out of Sebaco I turned right onto 74 and the last 16 km to Jinotega. Very dramatic country and the photos do not do it justice.

The other downside to driving a stick is that it really hampers my ability to get off a photograph without stopping and getting out. As I hit the higher elevations another calamity that befell me; the batteries in my GPS unit chose a damn bad moment to die. As background, my GPS is an Explorist 210 and is a good ten years old. Despite my best intentions I have never really used it all that much
and am not really well versed in all of its antiquated black-and-grey LCD functions. However, I really was looking forward to mapping the altitude of the journey out to Jinotega and was really disappointed when I tried to power it up and got a grey screen.

The final 15 km into Jinotega is basically mountainous. Stunningly beautiful. I really wish I knew how damn high they are, though. Got into town around 3:30 then spent about 20 minutes slinking through the narrow streets (think uptown Kingston but with two way traffic plus parked trucks plus lots of street bikes and scooters) trying not to stall out. Eventually found the Estancia Don Francisco and made my way in. It is basically a lovely, large private home with 4 spacious guest bedrooms and a large common area situated on the second floor. It is run by Yolanda and Otto and it is quite comfortable, though I do have some concerns about the mattress (extra-firm is an understatement).

 Anyways, I settled in by 4 and sent out a few emails to Edrulfo and Jairo amd within 10 minutes Jairo called back and said he was coming over to meet me. He lives here and came right over. We chatted and mapped out tomorrows events and he introduced me to his girlfriend, an American who is working with another NGO in the area. They departed around 5:30, I did a little more unpacking.

By then it was going on 6 pm and I was hungry, and I wanted to get a new pair of AA batteries for Mr. GPS so that tomorrow I can plot the elevations around here and on the way to Sasle. Jairo is going to pick me up at 1 pm and we will head out and meet the community leaders and the people of the sanitation committee. So dinner was at a place called "El Tico" and was basically cafeteria style with freshly cooked foods awaiting in a steam table. We are definitely in-country now as this is the common foods seen in the countryside of latin countries - grilled chicken, grilled beef, rice with beans, rice without beans, 4 different styles of banana (Not plaintains - bananas) and 1 potato dish, just in case there was not enough starch. No vegetables in sight except for the salad so I doubled up on that. It was adequate and I am not hungry. So that's about it for today. Shower then read until I fall asleep. See you tomorrow. Nightey-bye.