Esteli

For our last adventure we drove up into the interior north of the country.  It is wonderfully mountainous with incredible valleys that offers you panoramas of the landscape.   

Wow.

Nicaraguan soil is incredibly fertile in the northern region.  It is here that they grow coffee, chocolate, all the vegetables for the entire country, and of course tobacco.  In the early 1960's, Cubans began moving to Esteli, along with their precious tobacco seeds and so the industry began.  Today, we toured a cigar factory.  Not the average school field trip for children, but hey, it was still a field trip.  We saw how the tobacco was brought in and each leaf was de-veined.  The leaves were then pressed and left to dry.  Strangely, the leaves are not crushed or shredded as I had originally thought.  The leaves are rolled whole.  Different plants with different leaves are used for rolling the outside of the cigar.  

Unfortunately,  there are less things to do with the children up here.  There are few watering holes, no shells to collect, and the central parks are great places to play, but they just don't cut the allure of the beach.