Blogs from Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 191

Advertisement


Hola! Costa Rica ist schon ziemlich touristisch gepraegt, was man an den Menschen, den Strassen, eigentlich der ganzen Infrastruktrur merkt. Ist ja nicht verkehrt, fuer mich jedoch, ein bisschen nach dem Abenteuer suchend, aber etwas langweilig. So verliess ich San Jose mit dem Bus Richtung Nicaragua. Habe mir den Grenzuebergang Los Chiles ausgesucht, wo man nicht ueber den Landweg sondern ueber Wasser und mit Boot einreist. In Los Chiles endet die Strasse auf Costa Rica Seite, man holt sich seinen Ausreisestempel bei der "Migracion", die uebliche Ausreisegebuehr wird nicht verlangt und macht sich dann zu Fuss auf den Weg zum Fluss, wo die Boote nach San Carlos (Nicaragua) ablegen. Die Fahrt auf den Rio Frio dauert ca. 30 Minuten und auf halber Strecke passiert man den Grenzpfahl, kurz danach ist auch der erste militaerische Grenzposten, den ... read more
El Castillo
Shopping


Hola Familia y amigos, Well we have completed another week of Spanish school in San Juan del Sur and we are still not speaking as well as we had hoped, however, our comprehension has improved greatly. With old minds like ours I guess it just takes longer. Actually I missed two days of school last week, home with a high fever. I had been battling some congestion in my lungs and sinuses for nearly two weeks and I think it developed into pneumonia or bronchitis. It has been extremely windy down here and the air is very very dusty, I have talked to other travelers afflicted with the same congestion. The fever seemed to help clear it up, that and I started taking grapefruit seed extract when the fever started. Don't worry Mom, if the fever ... read more
The Watermelon Lady
Another Beautiful Church in Leon
Enter the Church


Hola once again, Well I know I just bored you all with a very long posting, so I will try to keep this short. We left city Leon for a beautiful beach not too far from the city called Las Penitas (there is a tilde over the n, I just can't find it on this keyboard). Of course as soon as we arrived at the beach I realized I forgot to email the school in San Juan del Sur to arrange more classes so I caught the bus back into the Leon this morning to find a computer. While on the computer I figured I may as well email you all again. We had a great Valentines Day watching the German Orchestra. Apparently the group won some kind of competition and is touring Central America playing ... read more
La Playa  Las Penitas


Hola Familia y Amigos, We have been deep in the mountains of northern Nicaragua for the last week. Wow, what a great time we have had. We spent a few days in a small ranching and farming town called San Rafael del Norte. It is a very small town with a very grand cathedral. The church was beautiful inside with wonderful statuary and murals. It was quite impressive for a small town. Then above the town was another beautiful chapel and a retreat facility. The caretaker showed us around the grounds. The gardens were very lovely full of beautiful flowers, we saw our first fern tree here. The walk up the hill to the chapel was really something. You climb many steps visiting the stations of the cross on the way up. What a spectacular view ... read more
Terry Admires the Petroglyphs
The Chapel at Selva Negra
Resident Geese at Selva Negra


The church bells started clanging at 5:30 AM. It was Sunday morning in Leon, Nicaragua home of at least 17 churches including the largest cathedral, actually a basilica, in Central America. Construction was started in 1747. It is so large that the story told is that a bogus set of design plans were submitteed to the Spanish imperial authorities because they feared the real plans would be turned down. And, like the Santa Croce church in Florence where so many notables are buried, hereto are the tombs of the some of the most famous figures in Nicaraguan literature amongh them the poets Ruben Dario, Alfonso Cortes and Salomon de la Selva. But I was not there to just sight see. On this day I was there to grieve for an aunt who had passed away last ... read more


Perhaps some of you are wondering what a 63 year old woman with bad knees is doing roaming around 5 countries in Central America. Having a darn good time for one thing, learning Spanish for another, and to be really honest, escaping another fun New England winter. For the last 4 years I have gone to wonderful countries and cities to learn Spanish ( Oaxaca, Mexico; Seville, Spain; Cuenca, Ecucador and this year to Costa Rica). I have enough certificates that say I have completed ' Curso1' to paper a closet. Finally, I am happy to say, I am in 'Curso 2' and pretty proficient with the present and past tenses of those damn Spanish verbs. Today I met my private guide Edgar, a green eyed, movie star handsome young man. Today was his lucky day ... read more


Mark Twain or Ben Franklin or Paul Theroux or Robert Louis Stevenson -all great travelers and writers said it best:" Your trip begins the minute you leave the door of one 'home' and enter another." And so it was yesterday as I made my way on what I thought was going to be a zippy little 45 minute flight from San Jose', Costa Rica to Managua, Nicaragua. Knowing my way around a few So. Am. airports I know to give myself more than enough time since there are 2 types of time in the world: Latin and Central Am. and the rest of the world. I arrived at the airport with lots of time to spare. Paid my rip off 'exit tax' and went to my assigned gate. The gate guy appeared and put the correct ... read more

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua February 5th 2006

We arrived in Somoto, a sleepy little mountain town near the border of Honduras on Friday. We feel very comfortable in this town, the pace is much slower than it has been in many of the other cities and towns we have visited. The locals like to emphasize how safe the town is. Of course, we have felt safe everywhere we have been in Nicaragua. I think traveling the United States would be more frightening to a foreignor who did not know the language. The Nicaraguense people are very welcoming to tourists, at least that has been our experience. Somoto is very comfortable to us. We are staying in a really great hotel the Hotel Pan Americano owned by a wonderful man named Danilo who speaks good English and has been a wealth of information. He ... read more
Swimming in the Grand Cañon de Somoto
Rum On The Rocks
Typical Market Scene

Central America Caribbean » Nicaragua January 30th 2006

Hola Familia y Amigos, We have been in the town of Esteli for the last week, again studying Spanish. The town is in the northern mountains at an elevation of around 4000 feet. The climate is much cooler and dryer than it is on the Southern Coast. We are wearing long pants and jackets in the evenings as the temperature dips into the 50´s. It has been very refreshing to us, of course not nearly as refreshing as the Colorado cold must me right now. Hope you all are enjoying your winter. We talked on the phone last week to a friend in Oak Creek, the guy who recommended the school and family that we stayed with in San Juan del Sur. He tells us that Steamboat has been dumped on this year. Maura, are you ... read more
The Grandson´s of Felipe
Felipe´s Sons
Felipe Himself


Hola amigos, Deze zaterdag is compleet anders verlopen dan gepland. Ik wilde vanochtend met de boot het eiland verlaten, maar kon mijn kluissleutel niet vinden... Hopelijk verloren en niet gestolen.... Mijn kluissleutel lag op een tafel, mijn kluisje was open,... en leeg. Geen paspoort, travelercheckes, cash, credit card of bankpas meer... Niemand in het hotel wist er iets van dus gestolen... wat nu? De eigenaar van het hotel zei dat ik me om de rekening niet druk hoefde te maken en dat ik het beste nog 2 dagen kon blijven, omdat de ambasade in het weekend gesloten zou zijn. Dus: mijn ouders gebeld die mijn credit card, bankpas en travelcheckes hebben geblokkeerd. Gelukkig waren alle andere backpackers super aardig! Heel wat mensen hebben me wat geld gegeven om de komende dagen door te komen (ook mensen ... read more




Tot: 0.133s; Tpl: 0.006s; cc: 13; qc: 73; dbt: 0.081s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb