We are heading north towards Honduras in bum numbing local chicken buses (retired US school buses).  Three big Nicas squeeze in where once a couple of kids sat. Nicaragua´s countryside is parched, waiting for the wet season. The northern highlands where coffee, cattle and tobacco are grown is a little cooler and a relief from the oppressive humidity of the coast. Matagalpa [4], the coffee capital, sits in a small valley and sprawls up the surrounding hills. It has a blinding white cathedral from the 19th century.

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Our school bus laboured uphill through cloud forest, winding past coffee farms, taking an hour and a half to travel the 34 kilometres to sleepy Jinotega, 1100 meters [5].  At the market delicious looking and smelling fresh fruit and vegetables were being sold from stalls lining the roads. Men in cowboy hats saunter around town.

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After a 3 hour bus from Jinotega to Estelí [6] we had had enough for one day. There was not much to do in Estelí, but there were no tourists either. Maybe this is the “real” Nicaragua.

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Our last stop before Honduras was Ocotal [7], founded by Spanish colonialists in 1543.

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