La cascada y el sol

A family of kittens living on a hot tin roof, though it wasn't
hot at that time.

Wow, it is still pretty early and I am exhausted.  Two of my colleagues and I walked up to the waterfall that is near Esteli.  It is 6 km away, but we're not sure where they start measuring that amount.  It was quite a walk.  We left around 8:30 in the morning and got there around 10:30 or 11:00.  I didn't really look to see what time it was when we arrived.
Along the way, we saw some interesting things, like crop fields and the national bird.  It was also just peaceful, and nice to get some exercise.  We did talk a little about how odd it was that our other colleagues decided to go to Miraflor today when they knew that the three of us would not be able to join them (because the travel agent they went with needed to know that day who was going and how many).  We talked about how if it had been one of us, we wouldn't have even thought about it.  We would have just decided to go Sunday so that we would have the time to see if the others wanted to go.

Selling aguacates (avocados)

But, it turned out all right.  If I had to choose between Miraflor and La Cascada, I'm glad I went to see the waterfall here.  Mainly because Miraflor is a two or three hour bus ride from here, which would be pretty miserable, and it was really nice to walk rather than be stuck in a bus.
Anyway, we just thought it was odd.  But the nice thing is that I finished buying souvenirs today.  I don't anticipate wanting to buy anything else.  I sure hope I don't because I don't have much money left.  Well, relatively speaking anyway, at least thinking about how much I've spent since I've been here.  I still have some money in dollars left, but I would rather not spend that if I can help it.  But if I have to, that's ok.  I think I have enough set aside for the taxi to the airport and the ride back to Managua.
That's been my day so far.  I think the three of us are going to go out after dinner.  It's amazing how this heat just zaps the energy right out of me.

Our breakfast.  This is basically what we've been eating
every morning for the past week.

The Pan American Highway heading south from Esteli

One of the many emaciated cows I've seen since arriving in
Nicaragua.

The view along our way to the waterfall

The road, simple, but pretty

A house on the side of the road with a calf.

Esteli from a far . . . yes we did walk that far from the city

A sign for the waterfall (Salto de la Estanzuela), almost
half way there!

View along the way

This it the national bird.  I didn't
take this picture, but we did see
the bird.  You just can't see the
colors in the picture I took.

The natural reserve!  Almost there!

Resting on the side of the road, it was
very hot and humid.

The waterfall!

The stairs we walked down to get to the waterfall.

The lovely private bathroom . . .

The road back up from the waterfall.

The side path I took by myself led to this shelf
of rocks that I walked along.

More waterfalls . . . no people

The top of the big waterfall

Cows chasing us down the hill on our way back.  They were
really afraid of us and took great pains to avoid us.

Riding in the back of the truck for the last little bit.

Back in Esteli.

Green grass looks so alien to me now.