We did attempt to do things in Matagalpa. We didn’t intend to be lazy, chicken-munching (not a euphemism) slobs but we found a grilled chicken place on our first night so we pretty much ended up spending quite a lot of time shovelling that into our greasy chops like we were raised by wolves.
Matagalpa is a lovely town though, it’s in the hills so it’s a few degrees cooler than the furnace that is the rest of Nicaragua so it’s actually just a nice place to be. On our first day people kept stopping to wave at us and shout “Hello!” for no other reason than they wanted to say hello. We strolled and enjoyed the hills surrounding the town. We’re not talking natural, unspoilt hills of course, Matagalpa spreads up them with homes and businesses seemingly clinging to the side. Fuck trying to get back up there after a few sherries in town.
On our first full day we thought we’d head to Cascada De La Luna because the photos looked epic. Three huge ribbons of water crashing into a plunge pool with a zip line to take you all the way to the bottom. Sounded amazing! We hopped on a bus and 90 minutes later we were deposited on the side of the road. Yeah… so apparently despite May officially being the start of the rainy season there’d not been that much rain (apparently it was all focused on fucking Volcán Telica the other night) and the unstoppable force of nature we’d been hoping for was more of a trickle. Well bugger. A woman was doing her laundry in the water above the falls. A kid threw a drinks can off the side into the water below. Oh.
A bloke was fixing a couple of kayaks but they weren’t running any of the activities which is fair enough, there was fuck all to run the activities for, but the restaurant was open and we considered a beer. It was 10.30am. Fuck it, we’re on holiday. They’d positioned the bar perfectly though so you can sip your tasty cold motor impairment beverage whilst putting the waterfalls in your eyeholes, if there was any water falling to speak of. We enjoyed it though, two red headed turkey vultures were circling right at our height so we knocked a couple of Victoria Clásicas back and watched them before heading back to Matagalpa. Well, we tried, guys. We went back to our lovely hotel with its lovely sofas on the lovely terrace to eat more chicken.
We had exactly zero plans for the following day but they were having a kids party for three hours at the hotel so we made ourselves scarce for most of it despite the amazing 80s soundtrack. They fucking love the 80s in Nicaragua, everywhere we go there’s an 80s song pumping from a speaker. “Self Control” by Laura Branigan is a favourite. You can’t move for Ah-ha’s “Take On Me”. I’d love to say some popular Latin song was the soundtrack for our time in the country but nope, it’s “Tarzan Boy” by Baltimora. I’m not even sad about it.
We took a big stroll through the town in search of somewhere to kill some time and found a café where we had an iced coffee but completely forgot to ask for it without milk so, British to the bitter end, Tarrant took the dairy hit rather than asking for a new one. It was our fuck up to be fair, we’d have paid for both but we didn’t want to make the staff feel bad. It’s fine, she’ll just feel like she’s been punched in the face for two days and she’ll shit her whole arse but that’s obviously preferable to upsetting the staff in a random little café in Matagalpa.
We also found a funky little bar where we proceeded to consume some rum. We asked for a quarter of a bottle and it was served in a cut glass decanter. Ooh check that out! I felt a little bit fancy though we think they did us out of a shot when they poured it. That’s it, only half bottles for us from now on, at least you get served the actual mini bottle so you know you’re not getting ripped off and fuck what my liver has to say about it.
We swung by our chicken lady, relived her of half a chook and headed back for another evening of just having a nice time. I could happily stay longer here but as we creep past the first third of our CA4 visas we figured we should make some manner of attempt to visit another country in the coalition, as much as we love Nicaragua. We headed to Esteli this morning and booked ourselves some accommodation in Miraflor, then we’re going to bugger about in Somoto for a couple of days then, all being well, we’re off to El Salvador to stuff pupusas into our faces all day long.
Jump to “Useful shit to know…”
Matagalpa, Matagalpa Department, Nicaragua
Stayed at: Casa Brenes, Matagalpa
Useful shit to know…
How To Get From León To Matagalpa
- It’s actually pretty straight forward. There’s only one bus terminal in León so head for that.
- A taxi from Volcano Day cost C$40 per person.
- There’s a microbús leaving around 11am but you’ll need to get there by 10.30am to get a seat.
- Ask around in front of Comdedor “El Mana”. You’ll see the minibuses lined up there.
- It took 2.5 hours and cost C$110 each but they also charged us C$50 to store our bags on the roof. You might not get charged this, it depends on who feels like ripping you off that day.
- If you ask the wrong person they might tell you there is only one microbús a day leaving at 5am. It’s probably their bus and they don’t care to tell you if others exist.
- There may even be other microbúses too. You have to ask around. We were fortunate that we had a good taxi driver who knew exactly where to drop us and who to ask.
- There are also three expreso buses a day at 4.30am, 7.30am and 2.40pm.
- If you’re really stuck for options the guys at Volcano Day suggested we could take a bus to Esteli but ask to be let down at the junction where one road goes left to Esteli and the other goes right to Matagalpa. I think this will be around 12.906869, -86.172447. Then you just have to flag an Esteli – Matagalpa bus which I believe are hourly.
- If you’re not getting the answers you want at the terminal just ask more people in different parts of the station. We met a couple who were told there were no direct buses to Esteli (there are) by a bloke who then offered them a taxi.
- To get to Cascada De La Luna head to Terminal Mercado Guanuca and get on a bus headed for La Dalia.
- This will also go past Cascada Blanca.
- It took about 90 minutes to get to Cascada De La Luna and cost C$50 each.
- It’s free to view the falls but I believe if you want to walk to the bottom you have to pay.
Travel & Shit 