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As northern Nicaragua is dominated by the highlands so the south of the country centres around Lago de Nicaragua, the second largest body of fresh water in Latin America after Lake Titicaca. Separated by a narrow strip of land from the pacific and connected to the Caribbean by the mighty 199km Rio San Juan, historically the lake was of great strategic importance to the colonial powers; Nelson commented on his 1780 expedition that "once we took possession of , we would cut in two pieces the Spanish America". Before the Panama Canal, this waterway was the principal crossing point across the Americas, in fact it was the obvious location to build a larger crossing & the Nicaraguans may yet build a transithmian canal.
Founded in 1524, Granada typifies the rich history of the region. Perched on the northern edge of the lake the city became rich on trade and was a prime target for English buccaneers, today much of the colonial grandeur remains and the numerous churches give some wonderful views across the old cities terracotta roofs.
Just outside the city is the beautiful Laguna de Apoyo, surrounded by rainforest the waters in the crater of an extinct
Masaya Market
Hammock workshopvolcano were clean, clear and infused with minerals, a wonderful place to relax. I stayed a couple of days here swimming and kayaking around the lake, I was the only one in the hostel and as the surrounding area has not been overdeveloped at times it felt like I had the whole lake to myself. The tranquility of the days was markedly contrasted by the deafening cacophony of sounds that emanated from the surrounding forest at night; cicadas, howler monkeys, tree frogs and crickits all competed to be heard above the rest.
Another draw of the Granada region is the Masaya market a few miles up the road. Hundreds of stalls pack together in a maze of narrow alleys to sell a breathtaking array of goods; the market is divided roughly into districts, one selling fruits and veg, another clothing and so on covering every type of consumer good you could want; in addition cobblers and tailors all ply there trades. I still don't understand how thirty stalls all selling identical goods adjacent to each other survive the competition but its seems to work? The majority of the market was ostensibly for locals but one corner was reserved for
Masaya Market
What you looking at the artisan (read gringo) market; here much of the produce is manufactured on site such as the hammocks woven on huge looms, large sectors also sold leather goods, pottery, and wood carvings as well as an impressive array of wooden masks. I find this kind of place fascinating & happily wandered the market for hours; possibly my favourite stall sold only plastic figurines of Jesus in various sizes and skin tones according to your preference, appropriate in a town named Masaya.
I've visited many markets in the last four months and there is always a huge variety of fresh fruit, vegetables and spices available; but I've hit upon a conundrum, practically every meal I've had over here has consisted of six base ingredients - eggs, beans, white cheese, rice, cabbage, tomato; prepared into various dishes. That's it, nothing else except maybe some meat makes it into the regular fare, my question is what happens to everything else?
While travelling everything one brings gets worn and falls apart from constant use, I have a well stocked sewing kit and have made numerous repairs to my shirts, trousers, board shorts and even my backpack, mother would be proud. This ethos
fits it well over here as there is a far better developed infrastructure to make do and mend. Both my shoes and flip-flops haver fallen to bits & I´ve made use of numerous cobblers who, after initially laughing at the scale of my footwear have done excellent repair jobs.
At the centre of the lake is an island that is seemingly conjured from a child's imagination; two perfectly conical volcanos rise from the lake connected by a low-lying waist of land to form Isla de Ometepe. The larger of the two volcanoes, Concepcion, rises 1610m & is still very active, the intimidatingly steep sides rather put me off an attempt & I opted to climb Ometepe's smaller (1394m) and dormant Volcán Maderas. I went with a group from my hostel which happened to consist of two marathon runners and two iron-men, I have never felt like such a pudding in my life. Maderas is covered in thick jungle and we spotted many monkeys, lizards and creepy crawlies on the way up, or rather I did, my group were skipping up the mountain some way ahead, I was very much the Pooh Bear in a group of Tiggers, to
Isla de Ometepe
Volcán Concepción towering above the lake at 1610m be fair they did bounce back occasionally to make sure I´d not fallen in a ditch. As the climb progressed the trails got steeper and the ground muddier and by the end we were scrambling up tree roots and narrow gullies. After five hours I reached the summit which formed part of a ridge ringing a pretty crater lake below, obviously by the time I hobbled my way down the steep crater ´team keen' had already been sunning themselves by the lake for a half hour. We took an alternative route on the decent and were rewarded with some spectacular views across the entire island to Concepcion, strangely its very hard to appreciate scale with volcanoes as there are very few features for reference and the slopes are so smooth, I had to keep reminding myself that it was bang on a mile high. After nine hours being bounced at I made it back to the hostel; I summoned the energy for a quick swim in the lake and a welcome beer before passing out at 7:30.
All along the southern shore of Lago de Nicaragua the lake drains into numerous rivers and streams feeding the encompassing wetlands. One
Isla de Ometepe
Volcán Concepción viewed from volcán Maderas such river, the Río Papaturro, flows through a former minefield close to the Costa Rican border, ironically its former surroundings have preserved much of the natural diversity of the region and both the forest and the wildlife have remained intact. (This border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica has been the source of tension between the neighbors for more than a century, and recently a row erupted when Google maps got the border line wrong & the Nicaraguans invaded to claim there territory back). Having been given the all clear a few years ago the river now supports a few villages and is home to the catchily named Refugio de Vida Silvestre Los Guatuzos, a biological research station which also takes in the occasional backpacker. The river is accessed first by a 12 hour overnight ferry from Ometepe to San Carlos at the mouth of Río San Juan and then by an interminably slow moving 40´ wooden launch called a bongo. The second boat trip was a slog, after 5 hours sat on a wooden plank surrounded by bananas I did start to wonder if the excursion would be worthwhile, luckily it was.
The concentration of wildlife around the ecological
Río Papaturro
I travelled to the river across the lake in one of these intermanable slow boats called Bongos reserve is extraordinary; monkeys, reptiles and birds all lined the river banks and wetlands in abundance & to make the most of the location I went on a couple of guided tours. The lodge where I was staying was adjacent to the river but backed into the rainforest; the previous evening my guide Henri had discovered an unexpected guest; a 2m Boa Constrictor had found his way into one of the rooms thus our first activity of the morning was to release him (or her?) back into the wild a safe distance from the lodge; I got some really amazing close up views of the snake slithering back into the jungle. Henri carried the boa in a bucket like it was made of dynamite, he explained that the snake could easily break his arm if he got a good hold so liked to be careful. The centre is involved in local wildlife conservation & I was shown round numerous pens full of adelassant camen, crocodile and turtles. Henri then took me for a walking tour in the jungle, the centre had constructed a series of suspended bridges between the trees over the wetland channels which were perfect for spotting sloths,
capatuchins and howler monkeys, as well as the other wildlife common to the area.
Having seen the jungle we had still to explore the wetlands, we went by kayak as paddling sliently in the water is the best way to see wildlife undisturbed, one could approach birds to within a few feet before they took flight and most animals seemed quite indifferent to our presence. At one point an otter poaked his head above the water just as I was passing, he clearly wanted a closer look as he promptly climbed onto a rock an arms length from my kayak, gave me an appraising stare then slipped back into the water - amazing. The branches on either side of the river were jam packed with birdlife as well as lots of lizards such as, iguanas and the odd looking emerald basilisk, really quite a spot. Four hours into the trip my arms were leaden but Henri was determined I saw a crèche of camen & sure enough just as we turned for a home, nestled under a tree were fifty odd eight inch camen blinking up at me.
Returning to civilisation (and an email from Rachel checking I´d
Río Papaturro
Kayaking on the river not been kidnapped) I took yet another boat a third of the way down Rio San Juan to El Castillo. This small town surrounds a Spanish fort built in 1675 at a strategic bend in the river beside an area of white water known as the ´devils rapids´ which were apparently the bane of invading (English) pirates. The heavily restored fort had some great views of the river and the surrounding farmland, much of which was green pasture dotted with mature tree, if it weren't for the occasional palm tree it could have almost been a English country park.
The Río San Juan is also home to Camens, as they´re easier to spot at night when their eyes glow red in the torchlight I headed out for a night tour of the river with a group from my hostel. I had expected just to see them from a distance but when we spotted our first specimen the guide jumped out of the boat & waded through the water to grab the surprised creature by the neck & bring him back to the boat for a closer inspection. The one he´d caught was about 1m long and 10 years old,
Río Papaturro
River otter surfacing becide my kayak. we all got to hold him under strict instruction to keep a tight hold on the neck, one american girl observed "ooh it feels just like a handbag", well yes. Interestingly the camen was quite docile while out of the water but when placed back in the river they thrashed around like mad. The guide continued his Steve Irwin routine and brought back frogs, lizzards & iguanas for us all to have a closer look. the strangest thing was the roosting birds which fast asleep in the branches could be touched on the beak before waking up and flying away, very funny.
After El Castillo I headed back upstream to San Carlos then rather appropriately crossed the border into Costa Rica by boat along the Río Frio, I´ve loved Nicaragua and really diverse and beautiful country but its time to move on, only six weeks to go...
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Mazza
non-member comment
Another chapter
At the risk of sounding like one of your relatives I wish to say that I absolutely loved reading this blog and laughed out loud over and over again - most particularly about the plastic Messiahs. Your style is getting more and more fun to read and I end up feeling I am travelling with you (without the bore of having to travel for 5 hours in a box of bananas). Best of luck for the rest of your trip Willo. Maz x