Time. You need a lot of it here.

I am beginning to appreciate the concept of time here. We are so used to things happening immediately and at convenience.
The one thing I knew I wanted to do was interview the women in Cerro Coloardo, way on top of the mountain we can see from the streets of El Sauce, who make the handmade pine-needle baskets.
When we discussed this at Geneseo, I think we all imagined that I would get into a car and just drive up the road to the town and get out.
Pronto.
Here's how it really works:
Kellan had to arrange a truck from the mayor's office to take us up there and had to find a driver and negotiate a price. Most people don't have cars. We rode standing up in the back of a 1960s pick-up truck, outfitted with metal roll bars on the sides so we could grip for dear life and not get tossed out over the edge and tumble down the mountain as the driver navigated dirt roads with big rocks, twist and turns. We crossed three rivers in the truck and slammed against the back with every pitch. We were a mountain bus. We picked up farmers holding rice sacks, little girls in flip flops and their Sunday best holding their mothers hands and anyone else on the side of the road who wanted relief from the day's walk up to Las Minitas and Cerro Colorado.
There's no public transporation so they either ride a horse or hike, three hours each way.
The driver — who we dubbed "Stunt Driver" — wasn't sure the road to Cerro Colorado was actually passable. Sometimes it is not and it's been six months since anyone drove there. A bit from the cluster of homes, it was not passable.
We get out and walk a half mile down the path on rocks the size of footballs and loose stones.
At Angela's house, we waited a half hour for the other basket makers to arrive on foot or horse. We then walked back up the half mile, rode a half hour in the pick-up truck to Las Minitas, where we visited Alfonso's coffee farm, took a horseback ride and saw all of Nicaragua from the very tip top of the peak.
It was an hour and a half down again, gripping the bars and surfing with squats to brace ourselves.
That meeting took a week of prep, five hours of standing up in a pick-up truck and remembering to purchase thread for their artisan works last week in Léon, because you can't get it here.