Oh, You Mean HIKING. No, Thank You.
That time we accidentally signed up for an uphill race through the jungle.
Boundaries and limitations are tough, especially when you’ve felt a driving need to prove yourself your entire life.
As my mobility and capabilities have changed these last few years, accepting the things I cannot do has been a tough pill to swallow. It’s not just a matter of pushing through the pain… that only results in more pain, for days.
I’m learning to slow down. Accepting that I don’t have to race around, see every single thing, and make it all happen all at once.
And so a wee misunderstanding in booking an activity recently for my friends and I in Nicaragua’s cloud forest near Estelí became pretty comical.
Finca Neblina del Bosque is a beautiful farm-stay property inside the Miraflor Nature Reserve in northern Nicaragua. It’s much cooler there than in Granada where we rent; heading up into the mountains provides a much-appreciated break from the heat.
One of the options the Finca advertises on its Booking.com listing is that they can arrange a “farm tour” for you. Amazing! This sounds great for me and my forty- and sixty-something travel buddies (and my eighty-something-year-old bones).
Wandering the farm and being introduced to tropical plants and exotic birds and animals sounds wonderful. I messaged ahead that we’d like to book the farm tour for 4 people.
Our first night was amazing. The owner/hostess grows much of what she cooks, and the property itself is stunning. We had dinner in the open-air dining room with other guests, talked and drank too much, and turned in not long after sunset, as we tend to do in Nicaragua. We planned to meet our guide after breakfast.
I was up before the sun and took a walk through the fog down the quiet sideroad.
It was a bit eerie and lonely, but not for long. As I left the farm driveway, one of the resident rough collies trotted up alongside. Where are we headed?
Another soon fell into step with us. A third, this one the youngest with a darker coat, scampered up the road behind us a few minutes later, not to be left behind.
Soon, I had a pack of four farm dogs accompanying me on my morning walk. Nicaragua’s forest is so vibrant and alive with singing insects and birds in the daytime, so getting out there before dawn was magical.
We walked down the road 15 mins, passing a few quiet local farms, then made our way back. Yesli and Sami were up and met us at the end of the driveway.
Loreen joined us for coffee and breakfast, and we got ready for our “farm tour.”
✅ Comfortable clothes
✅ Walking shoes
✅ Water bottle
✅ Camera
Check, check – let’s go meet some birds! I’m already feeling pretty good about myself, having gotten up early and gotten some light exercise on the books.
Our wee group of four met in the dining area, where a few other guests were gathered. A young local guy in athletic clothes had arrived on the morning bus. The owner introduced him as our guide, and asked if another guest could join us on our hike.
Our what now?
We’d met the new guest in question the night before when he arrived on the last bus up the hill.
This guy was fit – he was a traveling nurse or something equally heroic – and had been backpacking around Latin America for months. Okay so wait… the guy who was talking about cycling 100km just for fun – this guy wants to join us?
I began to understand that we had very different ideas about the type of activity we were about to undertake.
And so I asked our guide where we were headed and what to expect.
“Well, we’re going to start out this way,” he said, and pointed straight up the incline behind our cabin. “And we should be back in about 5 hours.”
I burst out laughing at this point, threw my hands up, and said, “I’m out!”
This was concerning to our young friends, who immediately felt they’d done something wrong, and to my travel buddies who didn’t want to see me left behind.
But listen, I am perfectly content to be left behind to wander on my own.
Sami, bless her, decided to give it a try. We’ve had some fun adventures together, including a cycling tour outside Prague which was most definitely not “pretty flat most of the way” as described:
(The only way I survived that trip was that I’d booked a pedal-assist ebike. Sami powered through on a regular bicycle and somehow, we made it through the 3-hour expedition.)
Anyway, one of the things I love most about Sami is her willingness to just give it a go, and so off she went.
She was back within minutes, panting and red-faced, with a hearty, “%#&! NO!”
There was no gentle entry to the farm hike, she said; they’d gone straight up the hill into the jungle, grabbing trees for leverage and swatting vines from their hair.
Sami ducked out, while Yesli and Loreen continued on with the Super Adventure Bros.
Armed with my Merlin bird ID app and another for identifying plants, Sami and I wandered the farm for a couple of hours. And so this was our experience instead:
It took a bit of convincing for our host at Neblina del Bosque to believe we were okay with being “left behind.” But seriously, give me gently sloping hills and gardens to peruse any day of the week. We’re not out here trying to win any medals.
Sometimes things just aren’t what we expect them to be, and we need to adjust on the fly. I’m not always good at doing so with patience and grace, but am sure trying. Travel gives us plenty of opportunities to practice!
Excellent story, humorous too!?