Selva Negra

I've been traveling in Nicaragua´s north, home to beautiful mountains and some of the world's best coffee. Specifically I´m at the Selva Negra resort and private nature reserve. Selva Negra boasts excellent examples of the region´s claims to fame - the south of the estate is a coffee plantation, while the north is a virgin cloud forest.

Selva Negra itself is an interesting meld of cultures. Like many of the coffee growers in the north of Nicaragua, the plantation's founding family hailed from Germany, specifically Bavaria. They named the area after their homeland´s famous Black Forest, hence 'Selva Negra.' The family still owns and maintains the property.

Many Germans came through Nicaragua in the late 1840s, lured west by the California Gold Rush. Back before the Panama Canal opened, Nicaragua was the fastest way from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Travelers would sail from the Caribbean up the Rio de San Juan, through the Lake of Nicaragua, and then overland to the Pacific coast.

Some of the Germans heard that the gold wasn't so plentiful in California, but did not want to return to Germany empty-handed. Many started coffee plantations, so they started coffee plantations. Many, like Selva Negra, still remain.

I arrived at the resort just in time for dinner. I decided to get in touch with my German roots and ordered the Wiener Schnitzel along with a German dunkel beer. Both were excellent. The dunkel, especially, was a nice change of pace from the otherwise omnipresent and somewhat mediocre Nica brews - Toña and Victoria.

The next morning I passed on the coffee tour and opted instead for the nature trails. I had been captivated since arriving in the north by the cloud forests - patches of trees so high up in the mountains that they´re regularly lost in passing clouds. The restaurant at Sevla Negra faces one such forest.

The first few trails were at the base of the mountain and listed as easy on the map. Despite the map's listing the area as 'Monkey Territory,' I didn´t see any monkeys. Maybe they were all on the coffee tour. The low trails were pretty, but I wanted to see some clouds.

I started up the Fuente de Juventud trail, which led up to the top of the mountains. The path wasn't so bad at first, but it soon became nearly vertical. I had to climb hand over hand at points. What was already a tricky trail was made all the harder by the previous night's rain. As I nearly reached the summit, my feet lost all traction in the mud. I tried to grab a tree root, but it gave way. I slipped a good three yards down, leaving my pants thoroughly muddied. I made a mental note to tip the laundry lady well, and tried again. This time I grabbed a tree trunk and hauled myself to the top of the mountain. Was it worth the effort? Definitely.

I could see the clouds passing through the forest, the fog moving in and out of the trees quickly. The top of the mountain had a mystical, almost haunted feel to it. Other than the occasional bird call, the forest was silent. I walked around the ridge, pausing occasionally at lookouts. I came to a point where I could see the city of Matagalpa, some twelve kilometers south. Then the fog came in, and I could see no further than the tree branches. It was amazing.

While I was quite proud of myself for getting up the mountain, it didn't dawn on me until I started my descent what kind of challenge lay ahead, or rather, below. While going up a muddy mountainside is tricky, getting down is a good deal harder, and nearly impossible to do while standing up on two feet.

I picked up a a yard-length branch to give me support on the steep muddy descent. Even with the branch I made several slides down, though these were at least controlled and going the right direction. My pants were so filthy by this point that I just hoped the laundry lady would accept them.

After about four hours of hiking, I made it back to the lodge. I got a lot of stares on the way back to my room wearing such muddy clothes and carrying a tree branch. I guess that the rain made everyone else go for the coffee tour. I still think I got the better deal.