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But despite this, by the time Central America became for once solid land, it had produced its own distinct life; ages of animals and plants trapped on isolated, lonely jungles in the sky. Certainly such wonders as the resplendent quetzal, a bird with a thirty inch long tail, or the blue poison dart frog; such ornate wonders are the production of these isolated mountains of before.
The completion of the isthmus meant the craziest sorts of things; like floods of great two-storied sloths into Mexico and Texas. It meant great cats learning to hunt them down. But most of all, to people like you and I, the story behind the formation of the isthmus helps us understand the story of all those rainforest treasures that we use everyday, perhaps in our morining coffee. Chocolate and vanilla, so much richer when we remember the jungles in the sky that formed them.
Ramón says, "Do you think women or men are more up to no good?"
By this time, it is getting dark, and we are heading back for the Sandinista truck, which is leaving the mountain soon. Ramón hands the driver a bribe in dollars, and slowly, we creep out of the clouds. The taxi driver, who we arranged to meet at the guard station, never arrives.
"What do we do now?" I ask. If Ramón were leading a regular guided tour, this day would have been the worst kind of flop. Here we are again, among the cattle, stranded. Ramón, he realizes its no sweat with us. We are having a blast. Ramón says, "Why don’t we walk to Granada."
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Puma Trail, Mombacho Volcano, Nicaragua
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