Sunday afternoon Baseball in a Nicaraguan cloudforest.

I recently spent a month in Nicaragua working, volunteering and travelling the country. A highlight was the time I spent with a small agricultural community living within a Nature Reserve in the North Central mountainous region.  MiraFlor lies in a cloud forest, a tropical forest with lots of moss, wet vegetation and yes, low-level clouds.  I stayed on a local farm, had the best horseback riding experiences of my life and explored the farms and families of the area.  On Sunday baseball took over.  Play was serious, the baselines dangerous, horses lazily spending their day grazing in center field.

Baseball was introduced to Nicaragua by an American in the 1880’s and is one of only two countries in Central and South America where it is the national sport as opposed to football.  Players were really talented, competitive and it obviously was a highlight of their week.   To be expected it was a bit of a fashion show and American hip-hop culture has infected the style of the locals.  A bit stand-off at first, machismo was in the air but camera but after chatting a bit everyone was open to being photographed and many enjoyed showing off their fancy badass Sunday afternoon duds.