Nicaragua, getting tropical

It feels like we entered the tropics as we crossed the border into Nicaragua. The first 60km or so we rode through ¨humiditos¨, or swamp, to get to the first major town of Leon. Between the border and Leon there was little to no evidence of people, only occasional houses keeping a few head of cattle on the land not sumberged by water, and people sitting on the side of the road selling diesel by the bucket to the trucks on the Pan American Highway.

So when we first arived in Leon, we were pleasantly surprised. The town felt relaxed, the buldings quite well kept colonial buildings and the centre of town had some quite impressive churches and public buildings. This would be the trend for most of Nicaraguas towns and cities.

Streetscape in Granada. The typical spannish style buildings and a popular tool in Nicaragua, horse.

Another thing eveident was the change in attitude amongst the people, who basiacally didnt give us a lot of attention (unlike the crowds we would attract in a town centre in El Salvador). This maybe due to Nicaraguas past, it has in the last 50 years it has emerged from a long and bloody civil war, known as the Nicaraguan revolution. The feeling i get is that people are quite proud of their identity, and have fought so hard for life they are enjoying now that there is no fake smiles or tollerance towards subjecting what they have to change.

¨I have faith in that (......) human, in the future life, in the utility of virtue and in you.

Part of a mural which i think is trying to capsulate the struggle shared by people and the hope for the future¨.

The most enjoyable thing for me was the chnage in food. We were both happy to discover Nicaraguas national dish, vigaron (pronounced bigaron). This is the defining moment when it felt like we entred the tropics. Vigaron is a boiled root vegetable called yucca, served on a banana leaf plate topped with fresh and pickled vegetables and some either fried pork skin or stewed meat. There was also plenty of street food of stewed meat with bananas, tomatoe and fresh green pepper corns. It was the first time we had seen people stewing bananas, we had eaten plenty of fried banana in other countries, but adding them to a pot of stewing meat and vegetables was a first. The bananas are not ordinary bananas, they are plantain bananas, which are less sweet, starchier and HUGE. I really enjoy to eat them fresh, and ive been trying everyday to find the biggest plantain from the local markets, theyre great riding food!

Life on the road is quite a simple one. The biggest problem we face is finding a place to sleep. At the end of the day we start asking around for a place to camp, usually around someones house, a church or sometimes at the fire station. We have been rewarded with many great meetings at these times. We ask is it ok to put our tent here? and a lot of times people say, sure, if you want to, or you can stay in my house! We have lost count of the number of times we have been invited into complete strangers houses, given food and help in any way we need it.

The coolest kids in Nicaragua. We spent hours talking into the night with these kids. They were so keen to learn English, and even helped us with some of our Spannish.