Head for the hills!!! Or, for Honduras.

Approximately 30 years ago, Somoza (dictator/leader of the Nicaraguan conservative bastards) stormed and bombed the city of Matagalpa because the Sandinista rebels were situating themselves here. As a result, almost 4500 Matagalpans fled the city and hid out in the nearby hills. Why am I telling you this? Because nowadays, with the help of a map purchased for just a little over a dollar, you too can experience the joys of tramping through the fields of the hills surrounding Matagalpa, following the same path so many people took in 1979. It´s absolutely as good of an idea as it sounds.

Monday night when I got back to my hotel after dinner, I ran into 1 of the guides from my full moon hike, Josh. He and his friend Rob were also in Matagalpa for a couple of days, and had bought a map of the Sandinista trail to hike for the following day. I, along with 2 other girls from North Carolina, ended up joining them on one of the greatest hikes to date. The scenery was beautiful and it was cool that we were following the trail that so many people used to literally flee for their lives 30 years ago, but the best part was the directions on the map. And I quote, "From the northeast corner of the city park, head straight up the big hill. Turn left at the fork in the road. Turn left at the next fork. At the line of trees, head right. Cross 2 fields. Pay a Nica man named Tito Prado 10 cordobas for the privilege of crossing his property. Climb a barbwire fence. Walk through a field until you get to the next fence. Climb that fence. Follow the trail across the main road and turn right when you see the radio antenna."

We actually didnt get too lost until the very end, at which point we accidentally wandered through a farmer´s mango grove and wound up in his backyard. I think more than anything, we confused a lot of Nicas. What we were doing for "fun" (walking through farms and dirt roads, that is) they do every day out of necessity. 6 hours and a few wrong turns later, though, we made it back to Matagalpa just in time for an early dinner and a nice hot shower.

This morning I woke up around 3:30, and 5:30, and then finally 7:30. People in hotels with paper thin walls should NOT let their infants cry all night. I got breakfast and bought some jewelry (Matagalpa is known for its black ceramics and I bought some kick-a necklaces from the cutest woman I´ve seen yet), then caught a bus to Estelí. After I had my 2nd breakfast (get off my back, I do a lot of walking here), I hunted down one of the girls from my night hike who is staying here with a family. I ended up going to La Casita, an organic farm and bakery outside the city, with her and her host sister. We had phenomenal yogurt, granola and whole grain bread--all things I miss terribly from home! By the time we got back it was already 4 in the afternoon, so I found a bank and then bought a bus ticket to go to Honduras tomorrow. Supposedly, a bus will pick me up at a gas station outside town at 5 a.m. So little can go wrong with that plan.

The bus should take me to the capital city Tegucigalpa, but seeing how I´ve heard nothing good about that place I´m going to do my best to get another bus further north in the country. My ultimate plan is to get to Copán Ruinas, because I figure I shouldn´t leave the area without seeing some Mayan ruins, but that´s not entirely feasible to do in 1 day unless the stars and bus schedules align perfectly. So tomorrow will probably be a sucky travel day, followed by half a travel day on Friday, some ruins on Saturday, perhaps another travel day on Sunday, the Caribbean (!) on Monday and then 2 travel days back to Granada by Wednesday. It´s going to be fast paced and not how I´d prefer to travel, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end. Say prayers for safe bus rides, a lack of pickpockets and good hostel situations.