Rio San Juan

El Castillo with the Spanish fort above.

Last week, the group and I spent four days in the mythical Rio San Juan. Rio San Juan is the river that forms part of the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica and connects the Caribbean Sea to the Lago de Nicaragua, and it is massive. On Thursday, we piled into a taxi and went to the airport, where we then rode in a tiny, 10 or so passenger, plane to the town of San Carlos. After the 45 minute plane ride, we touched down on the small dirt runway in San Carlos, and then had to go to the boat station to take the 3 hour boat ride down to the river town of El Castillo, where we would be staying. The boat ride was incredibly long, but never boring as we got to take a look at some of the more incredible scenery this country has to offer. We'd pass by houses on the river that were elevated off the ground to get away from the seemingly unavoidable mud. There were people fishing with both nets and poles in the river and families including grandma and the baby riding in their canoe, waving as we passed. The boats here operated more like the city bus, dropping people off and picking them up in what was seemingly the middle of nowhere. It's like, "Hey this is my stop." "Where? The taller tree next to the stork and that coconut tree?" "Ya. That's the one." That's how it works here. 

We finally arrived in El Castillo and went to our hotel which had an amazing view of the whole town (which was tiny, like it had one street tiny) and the river. Castillo means castle in English if you didn't know. The town is called that after the 17th century Spanish fort built up on the hill overlooking the river. The fort was built to protect the cities on the lake from the actual Pirates of the Caribbean during their hay-day after the city of Granada was sacked something like five times over a span of three years. For me it was really fascinating looking out from the walls of the fort thinking that Henry Morgan (yes the rum guy) rowed up this river with his mates in canoes to go blunder some towns. On Friday, we went to check out a cacao farm. As usual, the adventure to get there was equally as cool as the destination. After hiking through the cows and the mud, we ended up on the shore of the river. On the other side of the river was a house that had a canoe type boat. Our guide whistled and out of the house and into the boat came a mom and her son, who paddled out to our side to ferry us across the river. There were eight of us in the group, and they claimed that we could all fit without sinking the boat and turning us into crocodile and shark (yes the only fresh water sharks in the world live here) food, but this was debatable. We all piled into the canoe anyways which put us about three inches above water level, and remained as still as we could as to not rock in either direction during the crossing. Somehow we made it to the other side, where the dad of the family offered us some coconuts, prodded them out of their tree, and hacked them apart with his machete. Delicious.

Our lovely "ferry".

The river crossing process had to be done two more times, one by sketchy canoe, and the other (my favorite) was a contraption that the cacao farm guy had built that was a zipline swing where you would sit on this board and fly across the river to the other side. We had arrived to the cacao farm, where we got to cut open some cacao pods and eat the seeds. The guy who worked at the farm showed us around and pointed out some of the wildlife living there like bats, iguanas, and even a sloth. After the farm, we went to a place where they use the cacao seeds to make actual chocolate. The women who worked there showed us the process of how to make it and we got to help. We then tried the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted and also made our own chocolate candy to take with us. After a long day of hiking and chocolate indulgence, we returned to El Castillo to prepare for another fun day on Saturday. On Saturday, we made the drip down the Rio San Juan to a nature reserve called Indio-Maiz. The entrance of the reserve was also a military outpost since we were in the part of the border where Costa Rica is on one side of the river and Nica on the other (and they don't like each other very much). After some passport information from the very young looking soldiers strapped with AK-47's on their backs, we were off again, shin-deep in mud in the jungle. We got to check out some gigantic trees, tiny poison frogs, and some curious monkeys passing by above us. We even saw jaguar paw prints, which our guide told us were no more than a day old! After a long, muddy hike that had changed my definition of both hot and humid, we ended up by a smaller river surrounded by massive trees and the sounds of howler monkeys, where we got to swim for a little.

We returned to El Castillo and got to relax for the rest of the day. The town is very peaceful and has no cars. The only road is more like an oversized sidewalk where everyone hangs out in their rocking chairs and windows and talks to neighbors. We were on our own for dinner, so the five of us and Morena went to a restaurant and had some Flor (Nicaraguan rum) and played a drinking game called King's Cup. I don't want to boast, but I'm pretty sure we were the very first people to ever play King's Cup in this sleepy fishing town. This of course was made much more difficult as it all was done in Spanish. We awoke the next morning at 4:30 to catch the 5am boat ride back to San Carlos and the airport. The morning boat ride on the river was amazing. We picked up many morning commuters, farmers with mud boots and machetes, and saw hundreds of birds hovering above the river going to town on some bugs. The trip was definitely very cool and very tiring. I will be returning to the Rio San Juan in the future. 

Tremors in Managua/Granada Weekend

I am teaching a semi-behaved second grade class the numbers in English on Wednesday with as much enthusiasm as possible to keep their attention when outside the class I see all of the first graders, of whom I had just taught in the previous class, standing in the courtyard laughing and screaming. The teacher, dressed in her semi-nun attire, pokes her head into the class and looks at me,

 "No lo sentias?" (You didn't feel that?) 

"Feel what?" I asked.

"Los temblores (the tremors)!  That's why my kids are outside cause they're scared."

Confused, I looked at my class and asked them, "Did you guys feel that?" They all laughed and said yes. For roughly 15 seconds, there were slow tremors that were felt all over Central America due to a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that took place in northern Costa Rica, of which no one was killed to my knowledge. I asked the teacher if she wanted my students to stand outside as well and she said, "No, it's fine, you can keep going." I laughed, "Oook!" and continued my lesson. This was the second time that tremors have been felt in Managua since I have been here, and the second time that I have not felt them. This was probably due to my oblivious nature as I was trying to focus on teaching these kids some English. Apparently, this one was pretty strong. One girl in our group, Jennifer, said she almost fell over in the shower when it happened. The tremors were all the buzz here last Wednesday. School and some work was canceled and a tsunami warning was in affect for the Pacific coast (now lifted). This phenomenon is not at all rare here, however. Nicaragua is one of the most geologically active regions in the world, situated on the edges of the Caribbean and Cocos tectonic plates, which explains the 40 some-odd volcanoes and constant seismic activity. Managua especially gets a lot of activity because of a vast intertwining network of even smaller plates constantly moving around underneath the surface. But hey, gotta live life on the edge, right? (insert drum sound).

After a few days of listening to semi-pesimistic news anchors warning us about the end of the world as we know it, and a week of class, Bobi, Zoe, and I decided to head on down to the colonial city of Granada for the weekend. We hopped on the bus in an increasingly familiar fashion and took the hour journey south. Granada is awesome. The two places that everyone hits up when they travel here are San Juan Del Sur and Granada, and it's obvious to see why when you get there. The town is very pretty with old, colonial style buildings painted in the brightest of colors. Every building and house is painted differently. The streets and sidewalks are narrow and the central plaza features La Cathedral de Granada, a huge yellow and white cathedral that towers over the city. The guidebook I read claims that you will want to take as many pictures as you can when you walk around here, and it was spot on in that regard. I might have taken over a hundred pictures. The combination of freshly painted and up kept  buildings with older rustic ones would make any photographer go nuts. We arrived Friday night and found a hostel someone had recommended to us called Las Oasis. It costed $10 per person per night (a little on the expensive side) but did come with a pool, some hammocks to hang out in, and free coffee, so that it was well worth it. 

On Saturday, we decided to walk into the marketplace to find a place for some cheap food. Markets always have areas with tables and food that people will cook for you called comodores. Granada's marketplace was pretty nuts, but not as intimidating as those found in Managua, so we found a comedor fairly quickly and had a delicious and cheap breakfast consisting of rice, beans, pork, and  sweet plantain. We then walked down to the main street where there were places to rent bikes for the day. For $6, you can rent a bike for the entire day. We rode along the shores of the giant Lago de Nicaragua, home to the only fresh water sharks in the world (although a sighting is now rare), we ended up at this peninsula named Asesse, which is surrounded by hundreds of tiny isletas (islands). The paved road turned into dirt at the beginning of the peninsula, and this turned into a little adventure. The bike I had rented was alright to take some bumps even though it had no shocks, however Zoe had a road bike, and her back tire was already losing air. About 20 or so minutes into the ride, it had gone completely flat. Since my bike was good to go, I sped ahead to see if anyone around had a bike pump. I ended up asking a few people in their homes along the side of the road and they said there was a place close by where they'll fix it. We quickly found these guys working on some motorcycles and they said that they could patch it up the tire. After fixing Zoe's bike, we rode around the jungle some more and headed back to town. 

Later that day, I headed off on my own to find this cigar 'factory' that I had read about where you can watch people hand roll cigars and even make your own. Once I found it, however, they were open but the employees only make cigars a few days a week and today wasn't one of them. Whatever, I bought a pack of small cigars and lit one up as I continued walking around the city, taking photos, and listening to someone music from someone's PA speakers. I found this other old cathedral nearby and noticed that there were a few people standing on top of the bell tower some 80 feet up, so I decided to see if I could join. I ventured up the steep and narrow spiral staircase all the way to the top and found myself looking at yet another incredible view of Granada and the surrounding area. After a few minutes of pictures and soaking it all in, a priest in a white and red robe walked up there and said to stand aside cause he had to play the bells. Awesome! I took out my camera and filmed it (should have the video up soon). It was really neat seeing him swing these huge ropes clanging the bells over and over again. The amount of sound those things make is absurd (sorry eardrums), but it was something to see! Granada weekend=great success.

I have now been in Nicaragua for two months and am still having an experience of a lifetime. How this place seems virtually unknown as a travel destination to many Americans is a question I find myself asking with every new volcano I see looming over a new town, every empty beach we find, every colonial city I walk through, every tourist I hear speaking English in every accent except and American one, and every time I ask "Wait, for one dollar?" Yes. One dollar for: this entire meal, that beer, the bus ride to another amazing city, an infinite supply of various fruits, and so much more. Nicaragua is stupid pretty, and stupid cheap. I hate to say it, but the guidebook nailed it. "World class views, from a $3 boat/bus ride," was an incredibly accurate description of this country. Many won't even consider Nicaragua when thinking of a travel destination, but sometimes, when you're standing on top of a cathedral bell tower with an entire view of a beautiful colonial city and not one, not two, but three different volcanoes in different directions, you're kind of ok with that. 

Trip to La Garnacha

Last weekend, the group and I took a trip north to the department of Esteli (es-te-lee) to a small town in the mountains called La Garnacha. Our purpose was to view the community project that they had going on over there in the area of ecotourism. We got in the van and headed off for the 3ish hour voyage north near the Honduras border. This part of the country is completely different than in Managua (I feel like I'll be saying that a lot). First off was the topography. This region of the country is very mountainous. Esteli is situated at an altitude of about 1200 meters (3,900ft), meaning the climate was much cooler, like 70's and 80's year round. That was a great relief from the sauna that Managua can be. But what threw us all off at first was the drastic change in plant life. As we climbed higher, the tropical life we were used to seeing began to mix with tall pines and oak trees. "You won't find pine trees in Costa Rica!", our guide said proudly. Think the climate and mix of plant life in Southern California and you've got a pretty good idea.

The cabins we stayed in.

 When we got to La Garnacha, which was nothing more than a block of rural homes on a single dirt road, we stayed in the cabins that they had built to support their semi-new ecotourism industry. The town used to be a cooperative farm for the Sandinista regime during the revolution years, which means they pooled their resources to help each other out (a wild socialist idea), and now they are still doing much of the same with their tourist project. This gives outsiders access to some great hiking trails that lead to absolutely stunning lookout points, but the profits go directly into the community. Another place you can check out is an area dubbed "La Cultura y Historia de Nicaragua" which was interesting to say the least. We hiked about 30 minutes out of town through the farms and into the woods. We stopped at this house where there was this old skinny man, Roberto I think was his name, who had to be in his 70's. "Bienvenidos a la Cultura!" (welcome to the culture) he said proudly and he made us follow him into the woods where there were these stone carvings everywhere. At first, I thought that these were some sort of ancient carvings of animals and symbols, but it turns out it was all the work of Roberto. He lead us up the hill to this cliffside that had a stupid-pretty view of the northern department of Esteli. The cliffside had even more carvings he had done that featured everything from elephants and eagles, to the Bible and even the World Trade Center. There were hundreds and hundreds of sculptures carved into the face of this mountain. Roberto showed us his latest project, another eagle, and his method of carving. He created everything we saw with a metal chisel and a rock and not only that, but that he has been doing this for 40 years! For 40 years, almost everyday he walks into the hills and carves on the cliffside. Hector then told me that he was also did not know how to read or write. All he knows how to do is make these amazing stone carvings that he imagines in his head. That was really something to see. After our visit to "La Cultura" we continued to hike up this steep hill, and we got to watch the environment change around us. We began in a tropical jungle, but we then climbed into a forest of deciduous maple trees, something similar to the northeastern US. But after climbing a bit higher, we were surrounded exclusively by huge mossy pine trees. It felt like Colorado! It was definitely a little disorienting.

La Cultura

Roberto (I think) with his latest work.

The next day, we checked out some of the farms and their local cheese business. We ate some bomb goat cheese and talked about their project they had going on there. After lunch, we left La Garnacha and headed further north to this town called Somoto. There we went on another hike to a 40 or so foot tall waterfall. But we didn't just look at it, we rappelled down it (swimsuit required). After some lunch and waiting briefly for a monsoon like storm to pass by, we got back in the van and headed for Managua. What I took back from this trip was the immense diversity that this country has to offer. Nicaragua is half the size of Colorado geographically, but is jam packed with vast environmental and cultural diversity in such a small space. Almost every town is unique and can show you something that you've never seen before. It's something everyone should experience.