Chronicle: a weekend in the mountainous Matagalpa

Faustino Salcedo | Jun 25, 2012

The crystal clear water of a waterfall falling on a river that looks not so clean, 147 kilometers from Managua and 15 km from the mountain, cold and always visited Matagalpa, a city which was conducting the "Tourist Caravan" from the central zone of Nicaragua (Boaco, Chontales and Rio San Juan) on Saturday June 23rd, an event that lasted until Sunday 24th. While the water of the waterfall went on first element in this chronicle happened, this chronicle will also have data on the atmosphere of the caravan and about a tourism and agro tourism farm.

The waterfall in question is part of the White Waterfall ecotourism center in the community of Santa Emilia in Matagalpa, on the road to the municipality La Dalia. That's the first place visited on a small tour of this northern city, organized for tourist journalists by the “Instituto Nicaragüense de Turismo -INTUR-” (Nicaraguan Tourism Chamber). After making a trip to the place where you can see the waterfall, as well as walk behind it until you reach a cave, the innkeepers await visitors with a cup of coffee grown in the area, recognized internationally for its quality.

After visiting the waterfall, he had to take the road to the city of Matagalpa, where the "Tourism Caravan" was active in the park “Darío”. This was a tourism fair in which 61 entrepreneurs in the industry, craftsmen and artists of Boaco, Chontales and Rio San Juan, exhibited their products to the northern public. It was the second time the center zone became the protagonist of these events, the first time was in Managua in May of this year.

During these fairs the public visits the awnings exhibitors, enjoys the food, and then observes the cultural events that are usually dances and sings characteristic of the area exposed. However, this time the cultural was not the most striking, as the most observed were dances from other regions such as the Pacific and the Caribbean. At least on Saturday the cowboy culture of Boaco and Chontales in their cultural events and less the culture of Rio San Juan wasn’t able to be observed.

As for the influx of people and visits to the tents, exhibitors were happy, as Mrs. Anielka Galeano, representing the "Quesilleras" of St. Thomas, Municipality of Chontales, who showed a happy face after they have sold 250 “quesillos” in three hours. Chontales department is known for its livestock, so it is said that "its rivers are milk and its stones are made of curds". In front of the “quesillos” awning, was the awning of Juana Peña from the city of San Carlos (San Juan River) offering her fish soup, which smell could be felt from a distance.

In the event it was not all about food, people also remembered to visit the artisans. Such is the case of Estela García, San Juan River artisan whose face expressions reflected dissatisfaction with previous fairs in which it had not gone well, however, this time she managed to attract more customers to her business.

Nubia Aguilar, a woman of at least 40 years came as a visitor to the event accompanied by her youngest son, said she was interested to know about Rio San Juan and now had many more eager to visit the area. She was passing by and felt the curiosity to learn about the culture of the central region.

The sun reached its twilight and took with it the first day of the Tourist Caravan, however, the tour in Matagalpa continued on Sunday 23. Leaving behind what happened in the Park “Darío”, to visit the Agro tourism Farm La Canavalia (in the Hilapo community of San Ramon), place where we visited the poultry farm improvised and observed at 5.000 laying hens divided into 4 galleys, of which 86 deposit boxes of eggs are removed daily and a small lagoon that serves the cattle to drink water.

In Canavalia you could sense a rural environment combined with adventure and bad manners by the impromptu guide who claimed to act in that way because he was in his working hours and we had to make the trip fast. The speed with which we were directed did not prevent the approach to a small plastic basin in which I arrived to the center of the lagoon, with difficulty due to lack of coordination of the two occupants who were rowing, which made the raft revolved , technical problems that were resolved in a moment.

The journey through the mountainous northern region came to an end, but the activities in the city continued. With the second d ay of the "Tourism Caravan" about to begin in the city, we started our journey back to our homes, and Matagalpa was left with the presentation of the cultural magazine of Boaco.

You can see aur gallerie of the Touristic Caravan in the following link: Gallery.

Translated by Aída Pichardo