Blogs from Southern Pacific Coast, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 4

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Hola, chicos. Well into my last week at the Bona Fide project on Ometepe Island Nicaragua. I have mentioned and shown pictures of the farm but thought would try and give a better eplanation of the farm! As mentioned in earlier blogs the farm is 26 acres and was back in 2000 a cow field, reforested by planting 11,000 plus trees and 1,000 fruit trees in 2001. That owner then sold the farm due to illness and the current owners still run it as a Permaculture farm,Bona Fide, a non profit organisation. It has been designed and planted as an agroforestry farm, incorporating various species within each other. I am told over 76 number of plant species,. The farm runs an annual Permaculture Design Course, has intern programmes and also educational group visits. The main food ... read more
Big hands or small Bannanas!
Bits sunbathing
Last bit of the door


Ich sitze im (völlig überfüllten) Bus von San Jorge nach Managua und schreibe dir diese Zeilen - natürlich ohne Internet, vorerst einfach nur als Notiz... Ich liebe diese stundenlangen Reisen, „gefangen“ in Bus, Flugzeug, Zug oder auf Schiff. Viel Raum für Nichts, viel Zeit für freie Gedanken. Ich hab die größte Übelkeit der letzten Tage überwunden und finde mich emotional wieder in Dankbarkeit, was für ein tolles Wochenende auf Ometepe. Einer wahrlich magischen Insel - offenbar mit etwa 270 km² weltweit die größte vulkanische Insel in einem Süßwassersee, danke Wikipedia... In unserem "Dschungelcamp" El Zopilote war ein ganz besonderer Flair, ein freundschaftliches Zusammensein mit allen anderen Reisenden, manche bleiben mehrere Wochen sogar Monate lang hier. Wenn man die Umgebung betrachtet ist das nicht verwunderlich. Ich hab in einem Baumhaus geschlafen, leider aber kein Foto d... read more
Flying (oben) Basing (unten) - schon etwas fortgeschrittener
Unsere Gruppe
Wieder Zuhause - Arbeit ohne Lola geht nicht


Buenas chicos, Only been a week since the last blog but done a few things and lots of new pictures to share so another blog! Mentioned in my last blog the list of things I want to see and do while here on Ometepe, well this week managed to tick one off, the hardest one, hiking Volcan Concepción. Levis, who also works at the farm, was our qualified guide for the hike, he has done this hike over a hundred times and only a handful has he seen it cloudless. Unfortunately it had clouds the day we went, however the plus is that if hiking in full sun it must be a killer! Also dont realise how high you are and I am not great with heights! The hike is approx 6.5km up and down with ... read more
Up we go
Getting steeper
Another needed rest


Hola, so I have been enjoying my stay at Bona Fide Ometepe, over xmas and the New Year, been here 4 weeks already, 6 weeks left, it is going too quick! Been a few weeks since the last blog. So how is life on Bona Fide permaculture farm on Ometepe? Well things are great, plenty to do in the mornings and time to chill and wander about afternoons and weekends. Except the downer of when your new buddies leave on their travels or going home. One guy , Dylan my roomie,, who left a week ago surprised us all and came back for new years! Great to see him come back but sad to see him go again! He is back home now in Florida. All of the original people here when I arrived have gone ... read more
My new safe place
View from my new home
Concepcion


Ola, a short blog of my week between volunteering projects. Originally I was just going to have a couple nights in San Jorge which is where you catch the ferry to Ometepe, where my next project is (Bona Fide Permaculture farm). However Javi at the Cabuyal camp had told me about San Juan del Sur (SJDS), a cool surf/backpacker town not far from the border, so thought I would give it a go. So I left Liberia on the shuttle bus, lots of fun crossing the border into Nicaragua, glad I did with shuttle company as had to do lots of different things, over complicated! Pay a leaving fee for Costa Rica which you receive a ticket for, back on bus to passport control, out of bus for customs and another passport check, walk through no ... read more
Just arrived San Juan del Sur
Sunset
Bless you my son


LEAVING COSTA RICA After our disastrous journey getting to Ostional we were pleased to have an uneventful journey back to San Jose and it took under 5 hours. Rolf the hotel owner of Luna Azul recommended Louis, a local driver to take us to the airport and he arrived promptly on time. As it was at least a 10 hour round trip for him he bought his wife Jessica to join him so we spent a pleasant five hours with them in their car. He stopped so Paul could get some money in Santa Cruz to pay him as we had run out of cash, not having a bank anywhere near us for the last couple of weeks. The roads were so much better leaving the area via the northern route and although there had been ... read more
Nicaragua rural homesteads
Local Bus heading into the city
Granada Street Life


Hotel Hacienda Merida is one of the hostels along this trip which has made a great impression on me. They found a way to keep the village clean and educate their children. The idea is so simple and so genius. 1. Instead of bringing their non-organic trash to the landfill, they stuff plastic bottles with their trash until they have a solid bottle with compressed plastic. 2. They use these compressed plastic bottles as bricks to build walls of classrooms for an elementary school. 3. They convinced the village to collaborate. Now, everyone compresses its trash in plastic bottles instead of dumping it at the side of the road or burning it in their yard. Hacienda Merida is paying them 50ct (15 Cordoba) for 1 bottle. Every bottle becomes an EcoBrick. 4. A good part of ... read more
 a classroom wall build with EcoBricks
Number of bottles they collected every month.
3 month of bottles


13.6. Um 6 Uhr haben wir eine Tour gebucht zu den «Islitas», den angeblich 365 kleinen Inselchen in der Nähe von Granada – bewohnt von einigen Reichen und einer Vielfalt an Vogelarten. Als wir um 5.30h aufstehen regnet es in Strömen. Als ich um 6 Uhr draussen stehe um zu fragen, ob wir eventuell später gehen können, hört es innerhalb weniger Sekunden auf und ein Sonnenstrahl lugt durch die Wolken. Wir sind allerdings erst kurze Zeit mit dem Boot unterwegs, als es wieder zu tröpfeln beginnt. Unser Capitano kann noch gerade vor dem schlimmsten Wolkenbruch in einen Bootsunterstand auf einer der Inseln steuern, dort warten wir das Gröbste ab. Unterhaltung bieten ein paar Kolibris der Grösse von Nachtfaltern, die im Busch nebenan trotz des heftigen Regens fleissig von Blüte zu Blüte schwirren. Es regnet ab und ... read more
Eisvogel
unser herziges Hüsli auf der Finca del Sol, Ometepe
Chillen auf der Veranda


7.6. Vor der Rückfahrt nach La Ceiba im «Vomit Comet» haben wir uns unnötig gefürchtet: sie dauert nur 60 Minuten und verläuft absolut ruhig, es kommt keine einzige Tüte zum Einsatz. Wir haben den einfachen Weg gewählt für unsere Fahrt durch Honduras und haben einen Touristen-Bus gebucht. Allerdings - entgegen der allgemeinen Empfehlungen, Honduras gilt immer noch als unsicheres Reiseland – die zweitägige Variante mit kurzen Ausflügen. Unser «Fahrer/Guide/Freund», wie er sich vorstellt, beruhigt uns jedoch, seit zwei Jahren sei die politische Lage stabil und es gäbe keine Schiessereien mehr. Leider habe sich aber der Tourismus noch nicht erholt und die meisten Leute würden nach wie vor so schnell wie möglich das Land durchqueren. Nach vierstündiger Fahrt erreichen wir den Wasserfall Pulhapanzak. Ein lokaler Führer bringt uns mit abenteuerlichem Klettern, Klippenspringen und Schw... read more
Lago Yojoa
Atlas
Höhle von Taulabe


Geo: 11.249, -85.8633The Pacific Princess arrived in the harbor of San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua early this morning—about 7 a.m. She anchored very near the port and tenders started running as soon as the ship cleared customs. Our tour was scheduled for the afternoon, so Philip and I had a leisurely breakfast in the dining room. He did the final upload of grades before we left on the tour and checked for messages from students about their grades when we returned in the late afternoon. Everything is fine so far. He'll check again tomorrow, I imagine.Our tour was rated E for easy by the cruise line so that means it would be very, very easy. I only walked about 1800 steps during this tour and that included getting from the tender to the bus which was ... read more
San Juan del Sur Christ Statue and City View
San Juan del Sur Port
On the Highway




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