Chapter 8: A week in Somoto

The following week passed with little eventfulness and lots of good food as the family finally figured out that I preferred gallo pinto and tortilla to cornflakes and pasta. I got my fill of Latin American tele-novelas (soap operas) and got a chance to review my Spanish books. By the end of the week I was speaking more, and evidently weighing more –as one day Christa took a look and my slighting bulging gut and cried “Analisa! Gordita!” witch basically translates to – “Analisa – you little fatso!” she proudly exclaimed that her good cooking was to blame because I was “flackita, flackita, flackita” when I arrived. I hugged my belly and looked abashed – and she assured me that it was not just my belly – but my face and arms as well. So, for the remainder of my stay I was known simply as “Gordita”. If I wasn’t in general a very skinny person to begin with, I might have suffered some emotional damage from this nickname, however, I just chose to take it as a term of endearment, and went out and bought a nice greasy Nicaraguan doughnut for an afternoon snack at the tienda where everyone in the extended family agreed on how “gordita” I had become.

Later in the week, things got a little festive with two family birthdays, one for 24 year old and very pregnant Belki (who was living at the house with Crista’s family until she made up with her “bandito” boyfriend/papa de su nina, who, in addition to being “bandido,” also happened to be Christi’s cousin) which was celebrated with a beautiful cake, and another for Christa who was turning 30, with no cake and no celebration to speak of really, partly on account of her mom getting sick and having to go to hospital that day.

Angel David drooling over not one but two birthday cakes for Belkie

That weekend Raphaela, Ada and I went back out to Apatule to run some health and wellness workshops with the kids in those communities. I got one last tour of the giant fruit growing parcel of land and the family farm, some delicious fruit for the road, a lesson in making tortillas, lots of walking on dirt paths, and a lime tree from a little boy before saying good bye to that community.

Health workshop in Apatule - these are the youngest group of kids - very adorable

This couple lived next door to the school in Apatule - they are the owners of the parcel where all the fruit trees etc. are growing and the kids at the school do projects in the garden to learn about agriculture and herbal medicine.
Tour of the parcel - featuring some fresh root vegies
Tortilla making lesson

This little guy gave me this lime tree as a gift for absolutely no good reason other than being just the sweetest kid in the world

We waited about half an hour without a taxi passing and finally an interlocal mini bus came by, already crammed to the rafters with people – but they managed to squeeze four of us in – and another two a few miles later… it was definitely in the books as the most uncomfortable bus ride I’ve ever taken – the Nicaraguan ladies were little enough to be able to stand on the “bus” which was actually a mini-van circa 1980. I was very happy to arrive back in town without having seen anyone fall out of the bus (since it was too full to actually close the door).

one very full bus

On Monday, Raphaela and Ada and I had a date to visit a community called Agua Caliente to buy some fruit trees as gifts for Christas family. As I was waiting on Ada’s front porch, her husband arrived and we had quite a lengthy conversation about the difference between charity and solidarity and how people should help each other out not out of charity but because we are all ultimately the same and just some happen to be down on their luck – and one day we might be down on our luck and so it is just human to lend a hand. He also gave me a lesson in Nicaraguan archeology with a bunch of several hundred year old artifacts he had sitting around in a cardboard box at home. He tried to give me a tiny fertility figure that the indigenous people three hundred years ago would place in a farmer’s field to help out their crops – but I had to turn it down on account of it being illegal to export artifacts. Raphaela arrived for the last bit of this lesson and he instructed her to take me to see some petroglifs near Agua Caliente. Off we went in a very full taxi and after about 10 minutes on the road arrived at Agua Caliente.

contraband ancient fertility artifact

My lecturer on solidarity showing me some more ancient artifacts he just happened to have hanging around

Inside the house of my lecturer on solidarity - you can see where his lessons come from.



Fruit tree propagator in Agua Caliente

Vermicluture in Agua Calliente


Alliums in Agua Calliente
Petroglifs in Agua Calliente

Landscape in Aqua Calliente

We wandered into the community stopping at one of the first houses along the road. The very friendly homeowner gave us the tour of her garden and our choice of fruit tree saplings. We picked a few out and headed farther into the community to visit another farm and find the petroglifs. A 12 year old boy gladly assisted us on this excursion and though we didn’t find any carved statues we did find some giant inexplicable rocks which were very pretty to look at. Finally, we managed to carry our very heavy fruit trees back to the main road and eventually we caught a taxi back into town.

After stashing the fruit trees in a genius secret local back at the house. I passed a relatively uneventful day wandering the town and trying to find a way to get to the El Canyon after limited success and after discussing the details of the visit with some in the know people (i.e. how hard is the hike in to see the canyon without a car), I decided to invite my ever faithful local guide, Raphaella to join me. She had mentioned before that she had never been and she didn’t hesitate at all to answer yes when I called to ask. Being unsure about the phone number I texted first, and got back a message “who is asking about the number of Donna Raphaella” which seemed a bit dramatic and ominous but I wrote back with my name and promptly received a phone call. We agreed to meet in town at 8:00am and head out on the bus. A cab turned out to be not very expensive so we opted to not wait around for the bus. We arrived at the entrance of the road to the canyon to be greeted by a “guide” who showed us his six pack (which was kind of strange) and then offered to show us around the park, we declined and kept walking and shortly happened upon the “official” tourist office where we were offered another guide, but declined again and started the three Km walk down into the park, along the river bed, and finally into the canyon, where we found a little row boat that took us another 500 meters into the canyon, where we relaxed and ate oranges and Raphaela watched nervously as I clamored over some precarious rocks with the aid of our boat captain in order to see a little further into the canyon.

Riverbed on the way out of the Canyon

Me on my way in el Canyon


Raphaela feigning death after a long walk into the canyon

We spent about half an hour in the canyon before heading back for the long uphill walk in the midday sun. We waited about twenty minutes at the side of the road an only one cab passed and it was completely full of people. Finally, a big chicken bus pulled up and we were back in town before lunch time.

We stopped to buy some fruit and soap making supplies (so Raphaela could make me some medicinal soap for my stinky backpacker feet) and I jumped in a cab to go home. I got home hot and tired and ready for a shower- but when I went to turn on the tap, nothing came out – we were out of water again – so I changed my clothes, ate some lunch and sat for a bit until it was time to head down the hill in search of water and for a final meeting with Ada and Raphaela at 4pm – I went to Ada’s place at four – and just as she was suggesting I come back at 5 o’clock it started to pour with rain – a freak rainstorm that came in with some phenomenon of a weather system – usually it doesn’t rain at this time of year. I waited in out on Ada’s front porch and wandered back into town as soon as the rain stopped, to check the internet and make some phone calls.

Freak rainstorm outside of Ada's house

By the time I got back to Ada’s house later that evening, Raphaela was there waiting. We said our goodbyes and I left loaded down with soap, coffee and letters from the beneficiaries of Sonya’s project. Sitting in front of the tienda that evening I was advised to catch the 5 am bus out of Somoto in order to arrive in Esteli in time to catch the early express bus to Leon so that I could catch my connecting bus out to the coast and be on the beach before noon. I was also instructed to stay down at the tienda that night, because the bus passed by only a block away from there at 4:30am and because then I could shower because they had water.

The family hanging out outside the tienda post freak rainstorm on my final night in town.

We all headed back to the house in the back of the truck, with about a 45 minute detour at the bus station to pick up a shipment of ropa Americana. By the time I got home and packed and fed and back down to the tienda it was well after dark and well after showering hours. It had also started to pour with rain again. So, I passed on the shower (since there was no light to see by) watched the family sort through hundreds of freshly arrived second-hand dresses. Said goodbye to Christi and Geraldo and went to bed.