Nicaragua 2014: El Tuma

On Thursday morning we packed up our backpacks, and loaded up into our two trucks and one jeep for a one night stay in El Tuma. 

Before we left Matagalpa, we stopped at "the lookout". This basically a platform at the top of a mountain over looking the beautiful city of Matagalpa. 

This "small" city is home to around a half a million people. Yet, the community is very tight. I was sad to say goodbye to the city we had been a part of for 3 days. It was such a blessing to us, and will forever be in my heart. 

After taking some photos, we departed for El Tuma. We had to drive through the mountains for about an hour and a half to get there.  The mountains were breath taking. They were filled with jungle plant life and beautiful views.  

One of Nicaragua's major crops is coffee. The shade provided by the jungle trees makes these mountainsides the perfect place to grow coffee. We also saw many banana trees, coconut trees, sugar cane, rice and corn. 

These are coffee plants growing in the shade. 

Here is a cocoa plant from our front yard. 

Our favorite part of El Tuma was riding around the mountains in the truck beds. 

We would stand up and hold on to the roll cage. It was kind of like waterskiing in that your legs absorbed all the shock and bumps. It was much more comfortable than all cramming in the cab of the truck! 

And you couldn't beat the views!!

We stayed the night in a plantation community. 

Here is our street. 

This was the house we stayed in. 

The guys play euchre every night. 

We slept under the protection of mosquito nets. :-)