Day 19: Cascada Blanca

On Thursday, we took the bus early in the morning to visit one of the majestic waterfalls surrounding Matagalpa: the "Cascada Blanca". After a crowded bus ride that took us through the beautiful hills and small villages of the Northern Highlands of Nicaragua and during which we got to see herds of cows and horses as well as coffee plantations in the middle of rain-forest-type landscapes, we arrived at the "Cascada Blanca". 

Small break before continuing our adventure to the falls

 Once we climbed down a small path that lead us to the waterfall, an incredible view opened before our eyes. 

We're following the leader... wherever he may go! ( Peter Pan reference)

La Cascada Blanca

Small versions of Ben and Jerren about to walk behind the Waterfall

Me at the waterfall

Views of the "Cascada Blanca"

We continued our exploration of the "Cascada Blanca" by following the path behind the waterfall and entering the caves nested in the rocks next to it. While we were taking pictures their, we woke up a family of bats that rapidly escaped to another cave. 

Me under the rocks behind the waterfall

After climbing down the rocks, I decided it was time to test out the water and jumped into the ice cold river. Considering how hot it was outside, it turned out to be a great and very refreshing initiative. I was therefore followed very shortly by Jerren. Ben on the other hand decided to explore the river by foot and jumped from rock to rock, falling in the water frequently. The others hung out on the rocks and enjoyed the great weather while watching us making our way through the river. 

Me walking through the river

Ben trying to hold on to his rock and Emily and I watching

Me and the waterfall

Sitting casually by a waterfall

While exploring the river, we found a natural jacuzzi created by watercourses that where flowing between big rocks. Jerren and I jumped on the occasion and got free spa-time in the middle of a tropical paradise that seemed to be completely isolated from the rest of the world.

Our natural jacuzzi

Jerren and I when we found the natural jacuzzi

Chilling in the natural jacuzzi

After enjoying the refreshing water for a while, Jerren and I competed against each other to see who could best swim against the current and reach the rock in the middle of the rapids first. After numerous failed attempts on both our parts and as I was loosing my strength in the middle of a last attempt, I managed to push myself off a small rock I had discovered earlier which gave me enough momentum to swim the rest of the way and finally reach the rock, snatching away the victory!

Victory!

My competitor ended up adopting my strategy and reached the rock shortly afterward.

Jerren finally reached the rock too

Finally we all made our way back, fully refreshed and some of us a little tired from swimming against the current. Regardless of soar muscles, definitely one of my top ten things we've done and seen so far in Nicaragua. Absolutely fantastic experience!

Team "Impacto" at "La Cascada Blanca"

Once back at the hostel, we finished our project presentations for the next morning and made the last small adjustments to the product catalog for "Las Mujeres Ecologistas de la Pita".

On the next day, we took the bus to San Ramon and gave our first micro-business consulting presentation in front of Jessenia Diaz and Mabel Sanchez, the two women representing "Las Mujeres Ecologistas". We introduced ourselves again as well as our mission and delivered to them the  different flayer designs from which they could choose from, the  inventory and finally the product catalog. Just the surprised look on their faces and their smiles made our work in the past week  completely worthwhile. I had written down what I wanted to say in Spanish beforehand to help me out during the presentation and to my relief I performed my part in decent Spanish and the whole presentation ran quite smoothly. We then, taught the two women how to replicate the work we had done in the future and how to maintain the catalog and inventory using simple Microsoft office tools. Although Mabel was hesitant to touch my computer and manipulate the document on Word at first, she ended up doing a great job at writing, changing text styles and inserting pictures after we'd guided her through the process. We ended with a discussion on how to generally improve their marketing strategy and gave them tips on how to build stronger relationships with former and potential clients.  The main goal of the presentation was to not only provide them with tools they can use in the future to improve their business model but also open their eyes to opportunities and ideas that have the potential to enable them to become self-sustainable. Witnessing their enthusiasm about what we were presenting to them, even if the amount of information was a little bit overwhelming for them, most definitely reinforced my conviction that "Teaching a man to fish" rather than "giving him fish for the day",  is the way to go when it comes to development work.

In the early afternoon, we left San Ramon (but not before buying some souvenirs for our families and friends back home) and went back to Matagalpa where we discussed our results from the morning and started preparing for next day's campaign in Esquipulas, a village up in the mountains, three hours away from Matagalpa. Special focus of the campaign: Solar lamps!