Smokin' Esteli

With the batteries fully recharged from a relaxing week in and around Lake Atitlan, it was time to start the mega journey of 750km to Nicaragua via bus, through Guatemala City, El Salvador and Honduras. Not the three safest places in the world sadly. With that in mind, and a pair of lanky legs that don't like small spaces (guess what: It's Matt writing this, not Sarah) we stumped up for a pair of platinum class bus tickets, for 17 hours of Mad-Men watching. Check out the size of these seats! 

Backpacking in style...

Sadly the bus was delayed at the Guatemalan border. And at the El Salvadorian capital. Then it took too long to get to the Honduras border. Where we then waited for two hours. But we did it, we got to Esteli in Nicaragua (the safest country in Central America, and relax!) for 11:30 at night! Unfortunately that's not where the bus journey ended (for us or for everyone else still on it) and we were the only ones who got off at a gas station on the edge of town.

Then the adventures really began. Tired but with a hostel booked (and hoping it's open and that our bed hadn't been sold to someone else) we wandered in to the station and asked for directions. No-one could read our map or knew of our hostel. Wait outside on the road for a taxi, they said. 15 minutes later, and a bit concerned, the owner came out and took pity on us. Throwing our bags in the back of his jeep, we drove around town in circles before he admitted he wasn't from around here - and didn't speak English and our Spanish is still very poor. So he drove us to a nightclub, because there'd be people outside. They didn't know either. So we drove to the other end of town, to see if anyone there knew. They didn't. So we drove to the middle of town, and a man started shouting at us for driving the wrong way up a one-way street (even though it was dead and the middle of the night, all of a sudden road rules apply for the first time in months!) We get out and ask him directions, and our jeep-driving-gas-station-owner shouts "Japanese Nicaraguan!" at me, as a point of interest. Bingo. Here we are, past midnight, in a deserted Nicaraguan town, exhausted and confused and I bow, go through the how do you dos and then have a very productive (but brain bending) conversation in Japanese about our current and desired locations. Five minutes later we're in our beds.

And wake up to this, market day!

Drive thru

We spent the morning mooching about round markets, churches, cafes and the Museum of Heroes and Martyrs of Nicaragua, which taught us all about banana republics, interference and foreign interests; something the country has really suffered from. But it's a country that's fiercely proud of where it's been and what it's had to do to keep it. We loved this mural on the wall:

After a lunch of rice and beans (yum!) we booked ourselves on to a co-operative cigar tour of a local factory. With relatively relaxed expectations we were blown away by the process, the smells, the tastes and the variety. So here's how to make cigars in 14 (incomplete and out of order) simple steps:

Step 1 - make a box

Step 2 - make more boxes

Step 5 (growing tobacco steps missed out) - funk those
leaves up until the room they occupy makes your eyes water

Step 6 - Dry, then moisten, then unfurl the external leaves

Step 6.1 - Sniff it

Step 7 - Sort it

Step 8 - Gossip over it

One of our group was a young couple with
a baby. The whole room stopped and had
photos with the baby when we walked in!

Step 10 - After rolling and coating them (step 9), store them!

Step 11 - Choose your poison

Step 12 - Light up and enjoy!

Step 13 - Fill your suitcase ready
for returning home

Step 14 - Try and smoke a cigar that's too big for you