Somoto: A Canyon and a Waterfall

From León, I headed to Somoto Estelí, a little speck of a town almost on the Nicaraguan-El Salvadorean Honduran border famous for its canyon (ed: we stayed in Estelí but the canyon is outside Somoto; this is what happens when you write blog posts 4 months later).  It was only "discovered" a few years ago by a couple of Swedish (or German or whatever) travelers.  Of course, the locals have known it was there since time immemorial, but a thing doesn't actually exist until a white dude sees it.  Right?

 The whole area is a national park and development is, well, ahem... incipient might be a polite way to put it.  The dirt road down from the highway just ends in the river (on the far side) then you have to ford the river.  It wasn't terrible: waist deep at most and though the current was swift and the footing uncertain, I was able to wade across without falling, manly man that I am.

The pair of princesses that had followed me from León, though, hired the services of a couple of local entrepreneurs.  This is Rachel..

..and this is Michal.

After crossing, we walked upriver for a little ways.  Because the river was so high we were obligated to pay a farmer to cross his fields.  Entrepreneurs everywhere, eh?

Finally we found the crew that would actually row us up to the canyon itself.  But first we had to swim back across to their side of the river (it was a family operation; they farmed when not showing tourists around).

First things first: pick the boat with the least amount of water in it, bail said water.  This is encouraging.

Heading up river, the canyon walls slowly growing above us.

It was very pleasant being rowed upriver.  Oddly quiet and peaceful, without the outboard motor.

 There was a perfect little sapling in a perfect little water-carved declivity.  Like Nature wanted her own Zen garden.

As the canyon narrowed, the current quickened beyond our guide's ability to row (scrawnily muscular though he was.  Want to lose weight and put on lean muscle? Make your living rowing people against a swift current).

Up and up he pulled us..

..and when the path petered out on the one side, he just swam across.  These boys were hardcore.

We soon got as far as we could go by boat and started hiking.

But we quickly ran out of room even to walk.  Beyond this point the canyon narrows to less than 10m wide.  During the dry season, when the river is lower, it is possible to raft down the canyon, through its narrowest points.  Next time, I guess.

After returning the boats we floated back down to the ford in high style.

The only other thing to see or do in Somoto is a waterfall.  It's a ways outside town, and a pretty decent walk up from the highway.  Taxi?  And waste five whole dollars between the three of us?  Be reasonable.

Why would anyone take a taxi when there is such delightful company to be found along the road?

The views on the way up were alright, I suppose, but it was a long, hot, uphill climb.  We were all very much looking forward to a cooling dip in the waterfall.

Buut.. as it turned out, the waterfall didn't look much good for swimming. All brown and muddy and full of sticks and whatnot. No good for swimming at all.

In the end, we did that most touristy of things: spend hours getting to a place only to take a few pictures and leave.