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Published: November 26th 2008
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So we are now winding down on our trip and we are spending some time chilling out on the beaches. We're still keeping busy but its now a mixture of national parks with surfing, swimming and reading on the beach for an afternoon here or there. Here are our highlights:
Nicaragua We decided to spend a few days up in Nicaragua and we visited two locations - Granada and Isla Ometepe. Granada is a really small town (100,000) which still retains a Spanish colonial feeling. We spent a couple of days here hanging around and soaking up the atmosphere. Nicaragua is also refreshingly cheap after spending US prices throughout Costa Rica (and also considerably poorer).
Isla de Ometepe is a small island formed by two Volcanoes (one still active). The island is shaped a bit like a figure 8 with the two volcanoes just joining in the middle. We stayed in a very rural village and the roads into the place were so bad that the bus was driving at about walking speed and one day when we hired a couple of bikes to ride around we were overtaking the buses. We didn't do anything strenuous like climb the
volcano but instead just hung around swimming and chilling in the hammock.
Getting across the border was an interesting experience and while the Costa Rican border post was orderly, the Nicaraguan border was completely disorganised, there were people hassling us everywhere and I don't think even the locals knew what they were meant to be doing or where they should be going. Both in and out it took us well over an hour to navigate through the border ... the two immigration offices were also about 1km apart so we had to walk between them.
Surfing in Costa Rica Upon our return to Costa Rica we headed straight to the beach. In fact we travelled something like 12 hours to get down to the place we wanted to stay. The Pacific Coast here is awesome. All the beaches are proper surf beaches and there are a mixture of developed towns through to tiny low-key villages. We stayed in a place called Playa Grande where the beach backs onto a National Park. This is the prime location to see the endangered Leatherback Turtles.
I.
We also had a day surfing here and although
were both complete beginners we caught a few waves and were even standing up! The water is like a bath and the weather would be somewhere in the high 20s so its tempting to stay out in the water for hours.
We're now down the coast at a place called Samara now which comprises half a dozen streets and a few small bars and hotels on the beach. Its a great little place with a good ratio of locals to tourists (i.e. high).
Endangered Turtles We've had a couple of mixed experiences with the turtles so far. Playa Grande is the most important nesting site in the world for the critically endangered Leatherback turtles and seem to have reasonably good measures in place to protect them. Noone is allowed on the beach at night (and this is enforced, as we found out when we tried to merely stand at one of the entrances), they have strict numbers each night to see the turtles and needless to say, you are with the official guide at all times. However, the organisation process has much to be desired (we missed seeing them here two nights in a row because of this)
and their attempts to educate people on these creatures are best described as pathetic.
Unfortunately, the other nesting beaches have less than desirable measures in place. About an hour's drive from Samara are two other beaches where the Olive Ridley turtle nests (merely endangered rather than critically endangered). Here you can wander along the beach without a guide, although we went with a small group and a guide. The guides are not properly trained park guides however, they are just some guy making a buck out of taking people to see them. It makes me sick to the stomach even now, to recall the thoughtlessness of the tourists there and lack of regulation by the guides - people smoking a metre from the turtles and chucking their cigarettes on the beach right next to them, people touching them while they're laying the eggs, people standing in front to see their heads (you should only ever stand behind them) and we saw one guide widen the hole and actually take one of the eggs to pass around some people. It's a disgrace to Costa Rica's reputation as a leading eco-friendly destination and was very disheartening all round.
We're currently
deciding whether to still volunteer for a week with them. Our initial program fell through some time ago (the original plan was to do this for two weeks) and we had instead made other plans. We have found another program at the last minute but only have a week left to do it....we'll let you know.
Coming Up ... We continue heading south down the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. We originally thought we would have time for a quick trip into Panama but the travel is slow going and we won't make it. We then spend some time on the Caribbean coast before flying up to Honduras for some more well earned time on the beaches (with some diving thrown in this time)
See everybody soon.
Dave & Lisa
xxx
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Charlie
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The Mo
Mate that mo is classic - very scary though how it has taken over your entire character and transformed you into an insurance salesman! Great photos, very jealous... Charlie