Bummer, we just got a flat tire...

For the last few months, we have been pretty relaxed with the way we've been driving, meaning that we have adopted most of the local driving style. Any civilized driver would probably consider us more reckless but we like to consider it as adapting culturally to the local driving style. As such, we drive at the same speed as other vehicles as opposed to the prescribed speed limit, stop at stop signs only if others do and pass slow vehicles even on continuous lines, as some vehicles are really slow especially uphill. This last habit has just gotten us into trouble: as we passed a truck, there was a police control point in front of us that we had not seen. They waved us immediately to the side of the road, asking for papers and drivers' license. We were explained our fault, which we admitted, and we had to pay $15 each. The good news is that we could pay on the spot if we wanted. With our lack of intention to pay, the police kept our (fake) drivers license and told us to go to the police station within 30 days to pay the fine and get our license back. We will see if we come back to Esteli...

Climbing up to the coffee land

After this little incident, we decided to continue our road towards Matagalpa, a nice town in the mountains surrounded by coffee plantations. We definitively liked the cooler temperature, which made of a much better riding day, and the view of the nearby mountains was incredible. As we pulled into the Selva Negra finca (coffe plantation), we decided that the best way to enjoy the coffee making process was to start with the end: enjoy a nice cup of the finished product on their terrace facing the lake. Now, neither of us are coffee drinkers but there is something special about enjoying a locally made cup of coffee on the premises where it was picked.

After the degustation, we went to walk into the coffee fields. The finca was beautiful, all alleys lined up with trees that would open up to the coffee plants. As the berries are currently ripe, we saw many workers coming back from the field with their little baskets: all the red mature grains are picked by hand here. The finca also has a village where the workers live and go back to when their picking day is over. We loved having the ability to wonder freely around the coffee field, taking a couple of red berries and open them to see the two little white coffee beans, waiting to be dried up in the sun. We actually learned that you can eat the pulp between the skin and the beans: there is not much to eat but it has a very special and delicate taste, sweet and soft, with a distant hint of coffee taste that tickles your tongue.
As we walked to the village, a few trucks passed us on the paved road: they were filled with coffee beans. We followed them to the processing center where they were unloaded into a huge hole, where running water took them into the separating machine that releases the empty shells on one side and the two beans on the other. The whole processing center smelled of sweet coffee, and with the heat of the machines running fast, it almost felt like they were roasted the beans there. Again, we scented the sweat and soft pulp we had tasted earlier. As we walked down the processing lines, we entered a backyard where they were drying some of the beans. Almost all of the beans are dried somewhere else, only the ones that are kept for the sales in the restaurant and lodge are dried up here.

Something else draw our attention: they were drying chocolate beans. We could not resist and took one to taste. We removed the outside light brown skin and revealed the black center. It was like biting into the most bitter and pure chocolate bar you ever had (it reminded Caroline of a 99% cocoa chocolate she had bought a while back). Chocolate taste at its purest but without any hint of sugar and a overpowering bitterness. Definitively only for the tough ones!

Hit by Murphy's law on the way back

We left the plantation a little late, knowing that it would only take us about 20 minutes to reach Matagalpa. Chad was leading the way, trying to avoid the holes in the road and driving pretty carefully in the multiple gravel patched areas. Not a very good road, pretty small and poorly maintained but nothing too bad. There were so may things to avoid that Chad inadvertently hit a big pothole. First nothing but suddenly, he felt like he was riding in mud. Caroline behind him could clearly see that the rear tire was getting flat. We both stopped on the side of the road, 10 Kms from town and 20 minutes before the sunset. We found the hole in the tire pretty quickly since it was very big. As the night was coming, Chad patched the tire and pumped it up while Carolines was signaling the traffic so that we would not get run over. It was really dark now and Chad fixed it enough so that we could ride to town but the hole was definitively leaking with a plug. While do flat tires always happen right before the end of the day?

Once in town, we looked for options to fix the tire. We would give the plug one more try by putting more of it in the hole but as Chad tried, it just went straight into the tire. We had to remove the tire and put a patch. The next day, instead of fixing the tire right away, we decided to take Carolines's bike and drive back to the plantation to hike their trails in the jungle. We had a blast walking in the jungle, looking at multiple birds and Howler Monkeys. Our instinct was right since after we made it back to Matagalpa that evening, we met a guy who saw our bikes and was interested in knowing us (a friend of his had actually called him to tell him about the two big bikes that were in town!). He was waiting for our bikes in front of our hotel and we told him about our misfortune with the tire. Jose just happened to own a car and motorcycle accessories shop and not only did he sell patches but he also knew a guy that could remove and fix it for us. Chad went to his store the next day and by 11 am, the tire was fixed for all of $4. This will hold us for a little while, at least until we get into Costa Rica where we will try to find a new tire (our tires are not sold in Nicaragua). A lot of scare but we are now back on the road.