Hello fellow families of our beloved Glimpsers,

Today we had our longest day of the trip, so far. Waking up at 4:30 am to strong winds and heavy rain, we ate breakfast on the “Roller Coaster” bus with it’s ups, downs, bumps and turns. We arrived at 6:30 am at La Garnacha, where we meet Don Pablo, the leader of the community. He then gave us a brief description of what goes on the farm. La Garnacha, small farming community in the mountains of Nicaragua, grows organic plants, and raises animals that are used to produce organic by-products. After the brief introduction by Don Pablo, the group split into two different groups. One group got to milk the cows and the other group had the chance to go and milk the goats as well. It was definitely a new, weird and interesting thing to do that our group wouldn’t normally do. Many Glimpsers had their doubts about wanting to actually milk the animals or not. Once they milked them, most of them felt  like they got to experience something many other people would hesitate doing. We then got back together and Don Pablo took us up into the mountain trail and explained to the us the layout of their community. We got to walk up to a vista point where we saw an amazing and beautiful view of the famous Nicaraguan volcanoes and mountains. Don Pablo continued to explain to us the history of these volcanoes and the myths about them. We continued the hiking trail up to where Don Pablo showed us where they farm and harvest fresh vegetables and medicinal herbs that their community use and distribute.

After the hike we split up into three groups, one group learned about cleaning coffee beans, another about harvesting and cleaning vegetables and the last one learned about the fertilization process of the coffee plants. We learned that they have been making coffee completely organic for 15 years, and they are in very popular demand by tourists and locals. We also learned that they make their own organic fertilizer by using worms and cow dung, and what it is used for. We all got the chance to visit the stores they had where they sold their famous coffee beans and lemon grass tea after having a delicious lunch provided by La Garnacha. After this visit many of us realized how much we missed coffee and warm beverages.

After a quick detour to a beautiful scenery of even more landscape and lush, green filled mountains we returned to the Hostel Tomabu for some much needed free time and rest. Each group got to explore even more of Esteli and it’s wonderful streets and people. We went to dinner at 6:00 pm and soon had our Nightly Meeting, and now we writing this blog. We would like to say “Hello” to loving families and relatives who are always there to support us on our adventures. We are off to a good night’s rest and to get ready for our very first fun day!

Good Night!