Majestic Mountains Tour

Hi everyone,
So I (Britsy) went on my first, official tour with GP - a 3 day, 2 night tour to the mountains in the north. It was myself, Gemma and three Canadians...one of whom was the 2007 Canadian women's 100 mile run champion. Yeah, my two and half to maybe three miles on a good day treadmill jogs looked pretty pathetic compared to her. Anyways, it was a lot of fun to be on a tour and to get out of the heat of Leon. I was freezing both nights and wearing pants during the day, which was awesome. I added my photos to our snapfish account, so click here to check them out. It is really beautiful up there and oh yeah, wonderfully cold.
So for a breakdown of the trip. We left Leon and headed to Somoto Canyon close to Esteli. It is this beautiful, granite canyon that was only "discovered" (aka when white people stumbled into it) in 2003. We boated down part of it and then tubed a section. The guys jumped off these huge rocks at one point, so I told Graham when he leads it, if he doesn't jump off, then he's a huge sissy. So we'll see. Although to be fair I didn't jump either...mmmm, I blame the collarbone, which is pretty much 100% now thankfully.
After the canyon, we drove through Esteli to a place called Miraflor, it is a protected natural reserve, but also a working community that supports over 4,000 people. All the people have formed cooperatives and make a living through eco-tourism or sustainable agriculture. We camped on the property of the head of the largest coffee cooperative (the staple crop in Miraflor) the first night and enjoyed a HUGE tipica dinner, followed by a campfire. No one else was really eating the marshmallows we had brought, so I pounded way more than my fair share.
The night was freezing, windy, rainy and incredibly enjoyable. We woke up to a thick fog enveloping our tents. We had another huge meal with the family there, which included spaghetti noodles (no sauce), gallo pinto (mixed and fried rice and beans), a kind of crazy veggie concoction (including ground soy meat, zucchini, squash, soy beans), platanos (plantains cut thickly and then fried), whole wheat tortillas and rice pudding. It was insanely big and that was just a good, normal breakfast for them. Then we took a three hour coffee tour with Don Adolfo (the head of the cooperative and father in the family) through his coffee fields, coffee husk fermentation station, the massive de-pulper, washing stations etc. It was cool to see each step in the process.
We then drove further up into the cloud forest, where we took a sweet nature hike instead of eating lunch. We saw Golden Orioles, Parakeets as well as a slew of blooming orchids. The trees were covered in Spanish moss and we saw a 250 year old strangler fig. Basically it starts as a vine in the canopy and then eventually strangles the host tree, killing it and leaving a huge hollow space inside. We came back and I was asleep by 8 pm. In the morning, after an early morning tortilla making lesson, we visited the massive cigar factory in Esteli. It was really interesting, but the smell of the place was almost unbearable. They basically ferment the tobacco leaves and ammonia naturally comes out and it is overpowering. The Canadians took some samples home, so they were happy. We quickly visited a waterfall nearby, grabbed some lunch and headed home. All in all, it went really well and I look forward to doing it again - mainly for the cold. Hopefully Graham and I will be able to lead it together soon as well. Anyways, hope all is well and things are picking up at GP!