Having spent almost 2 weeks:
- hiking through the rural countryside
- dealing with flooding “motels”
- having an allergic reaction to a Nicaraguan bee sting
- visiting a woman owned coffee co-op, talking to banana plantation workers suffering the after effects of being poisoned by Nemagon (a chemical pesticide)
- nearly getting locked in a clothing assembling factory in the free trade zone
- and a million other things (Posts for another day)
I just wanted to collapse. Instead, I let myself get talked into waking up super early to go on a hike through some dark, dense, and damp forest.
I woke up early, met with my hiking buddies, and we started exploring Selva Negra, a cloud forest in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. I had never been in a cloud forest before, so while it was really (really) early, the experience of stepping out into the strong morning sun for a quick hike with friends before breakfast was rather startling. However, I was more startled by just how quickly we were then swept into the shadows as the low lying clouds of the forest blocked out the sunlight and the fog, mist, and dampness surrounded us.
The trail that had been recommended to us seemed a little bit unkempt, as we found many fallen trees, a broken bridge, and several rivers we needed to cross. Somehow all that didn’t seem to matter the more enveloped in the mist we became.
The momentary respite from the mental and physical drain of traveling around Nicaragua studying the history, the culture, and the ongoing development projects was washed away. In the still, quiet beauty of this cloud forest I remembered that while the country of Nicaragua still faces many obstacles, it has great strength and much beauty to offer.
“The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods” – Robert Frost
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