Tisey.

Its full name is 'Reserva Natural Tisey Estanzuela'.

Estelí, I might have mentioned, is nestled in a mountain valley at an altitude of about 2750 feet in north western Nicaragua. All around us are mountain peaks and ridges, many of which are home to natural areas where tourists and locals can go to enjoy walking in very steep forested areas such as Tisey. Another, which I hope to go to next week if possible, is called Miraflor.

Fourteen of us headed out at about 1 in the afternoon, for the 45 minute road trip to Tisey. I rode with six other men of various ages in the back of a pickup truck, which is a very common means of transportation all over this country. I am not a big one for this particular mode of transportation, but I managed to enjoy it this time by mostly keeping my mind off the inexorable laws of physics. Anyway, after a short trip on a highway, a slightly longer one on a cobbled road several kilometers long, and an even longer one on a very bad dirt track (longer in time, but much shorter in distance), we arrived at the park, which is actually a farm decked out with a small 'hotel' -- really not much more than a bunkhouse and outdoor eating area, though they do have a 'bridal suite'.

The bridal suite is an isolated cabin, with nothing more than a single small room containing a very large bed, and no decorations of any kind. It's clean and solid, and isolated, and costs three times what you would pay for a bunk in the main 'hotel'. Incidentally, that bunk would cost you about 50 córdobas, or roughly four dollars canadian.

When I called this a farm, you probably thought about cows, barns, and fields of corn or something of the sort. What you should have thought of was cows (yes), sugarcane, and a thick forest of fruit trees of various kinds, all growing together. The cattle, incidentally, were longhorns.

They also had some small patches of cabbage, which the cattle were in when we were there, and a large greenhouse where they grow plants for sale to visitors. It's quite an operation, billed as ecotourism.

Our main interest in going was to climb the side of the ridge to the top, where there is a very impressive lookout. From one side you can clearly see Estelí laid out before you. Imagine being in an airplane looking down. In the other direction is a range of volcanic mountains, including 4 live volcanoes visible from where we were. Two were smoking actively, and gave quite a show. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a decent picture of them, since they were so far away.

To give you an idea of how high we were, from our location, we could see lake Managua, and we were told that with a telescope you can see Managua from there, but to get to Estelí­ from Managua is over two hours by bus, and we are significantly north of the lake, too. It's also a good hour and a half by bus from the pacific coast, but we could see the ocean from our vantage point: a glimmer of light on the far horizon as the sun went down.

It was cold and windy up there, too, but still I managed to get sunburned. The cold mixed with the tropical environment meant the somewhat surrealistic sight (for me) of pine trees with cactus growing beneath them. Kinda cool.