22
Mar
2009
Goodnight Nicaragua y Costa Rica
The thing with journeys is they pretty much all end. Obviously Nicaragua and Costa Rica ended months ago now. But I carry these trips with me for awhile longer as I pour through the photos, editing and culling the ones that I most want to share. And in the process, reliving the moments, remembering new friends, recalling all those little moments of connection with the larger world that made me go and made me sorry to leave.
This is my way, of course, to say that the Costa Rica and Nicaragua album is complete. It’s filled up with memories that I hope you enjoy and maybe it will encourage someone else to make the leap to leave their warm cozy beds and see a little more of this wide world.
Masaya Mercado
This was where we had lunch on our last day in Granada, a little market near Masaya Volcano. Although you saw tons of locals, the market was filled with trinkets for tourists. It’s actually an old market but it was destroyed during the war in Nicaragua in the 70’s and 80’s and was recently resurrected.
Granada Cementerio
Having seen the main cemetery in Granada twice from a van, I had to find my way back to it one afternoon before we left. I didn’t have nearly enough time to really take it all in. If you’re ever there and the least bit into cemeteries, check it out, it will not fail to amaze.
I also had to check out what I was told was the oldest church in Granada before I left, and I just made it there at dusk.
Dusk at Iglesia de San Francisco
The colors were very nice especially against the dusk sky…
Judy Wants A Close Up
Judy was pretty much a pet. She flew free but she knew that Daniel and Olivia who ran the eco lodge would feed her and take care of her. We had been watching her and Olivia got her down for us for some close up shots from the paparazzi. Solentiname was a beautiful and challenging place. I definitely saw that I could only live without some of the western basics for so long while staying here, but I still look back on it happily as a very cool life experience. Why is it so often that those are the experiences we wouldn’t be so keen on repeating??
Things to do while on Solentiname
Tranquility - Sunsets over Solentiname
Goodnight Nicaragua!
After leaving Nicaragua, we had two nights in La Fortuna and then a final night after a late arrival into San Jose. Believe it or not, I hardly took any photos. After a week in Nicaragua, a gorgeous place with some truly nice people, La Fortuna seemed so touristy that I just didn’t see anything I wanted to shoot. Instead, I did a canopy tour and soaked in the hot springs at Baldi every chance I got! I basically did the bum thing for two days before the long drive to San Jose and the early morning rise to the airport. Still here’s a shot of one of our group, Chrysta Brown, a photographer, who bungee jumped and the most photographed church in Costa Rica (apparently because of the volcano behind it).
Chrysta Jumping!
Iglesia de la Fortuna y Arenal
There’s a ton more of course, but that’s all in the album for the adventurous ones to hunt through. I’ve no idea where the wind will take me next but it it’s even half as much fun as this trip was, I’ll be a happy camper.
21
Feb
2009
Granada And Masaya Photos
Have been delayed in my photo editing by various things of late, but managed to get up the rest of day 1 and a little of day 2 in Nicaragua’s colonial city of Granada. As I’ve stated before, Granada was a place I already wanted to come back to before I had even left. If you’re traveling on your own, in my opinion, you should plan for several days here to really take it all in.
Pulperia Guadalupe!
Granada Cathedral
Granada Crosses
On the morning of day 2, we took a drive out to Masaya Volcano Park. I had been holding out for this chance to see a volcano. It was an included (i.e. pre-paid) activity and best of all, it was a drive-in Volcano! Putting it in perspective, most of the volcano’s we’d seen previously either involved hours of walking, slogging through mud, or both. Masaya Volcano hasn’t been particularly active since an eruption over 300 years ago. So, there’s a road leading to the edge of the main crater and you can walk a few trails near it to get varous views of the active crater and nearby extinct craters. A very nice activity for someone who’s interested in seeing a volcano but doesn’t want to, say, walk for 8 hours.
Masaya Volcano Crater
Contemplating - Masaya
Masaya - Ants Marching
There are more photos of both Granada and Masaya Volcano in my album of photos from Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Hope you’ll check them all out!
3
Feb
2009
Flavors of Nicaragua
Continuing the upload of photos from my trip, these will all be from Nicaragua. In fact, the vast majority of my photos will be from Nicaragua. We were barely in San Jose. Liberia was only a couple of days, and by the time we got to La Fortuna, once more in Costa Rica, it was a touristy place and I was all about zip lining and relaxing in the hot springs. Ha! I digress!
After our departure from the beauty of San Juan del Sur, we made our way to the island of Ometepe, which is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. If you’re as remotely uninformed as I was before this trip, you’ve never heard of Lake Nicaragua, a large freshwater lake, in fact, the largest in central america. It has a number of islands in it, the largest being Ometepe, home to two volcanos. I’ll state now that I didn’t visit either of them. They were gorgeous from a distance, but an 8 or 10 hour hike did not hit me as how I wanted to spend a day.
When we got off the ferry, we muddled our way to a spot to wait as a group while our guide found our driver. It was a busy little port, being the only real way on or off the island. The first thing I spotted standing there was this lovely sign. The bright colors against the bright sky screamed for a photo. As we were in travel mode, my camera was buried, but I dragged it out anyway.
Deliciosa Aqui!
We stayed at a cute little hotel that would have been on the beach if the rainy season hadn’t just ended. Most of the group went for nature hikes or slogging up muddy volcanos. I decided that neither fit the bill for me. I just desparately wanted to wander some streets, which were nowhere to be seen near our hotel in the midst of a long dirt road. Luckily, there were buses running frequently and my guide was able to hook me up with what bus would take me where…. I didn’t really care where so accepted Altagracia as my destination. I got there on what most of us gringos would refer to as a chicken bus. Called as such because people carry whatever they need to on the bus, be it livestock or other. I experienced a few of these in Mexico. The trip into Altagracia wasn’t much to comment on. Seats were full but there was plenty of standing room. The ride back later would be totally the opposite, hopelessly overpacked by any standards but somehow everyone was cheery about it, even me.
The neat thing was, that these buses were all former school buses from the states. The first one I got on, I took a look, and sure enough, not only was it a Blue Bird, it was made in Fort Valley, Georgia, a hop and a jump from home. Here’s one of those so familiar blue bird buses on the streets of Altagracia.
Blue Bird Bus!
While the streets of Altagracia were cool, it was a small town and my absolutely favorite find was tucked a few blocks off the main square, a small cemetery. Actually, for the size of the town, it was a respectable size. Anyone who’s meandered through my photos know that I jump at the chance to wander cemeteries. There’s something really intriguing about seeing the different burial practices in different places. It varies even in the states, but I digress! I worry when I wander foreign ones, especially where I don’t know the language and might have trouble explaining my purpose, but when I saw the grazing horses and bull, I figured no one would worry about me desecrating anything.
Resting Places
Crosses To Bear
Crosses of Altagracia
Time on Ometpe passed by quickly and before we knew it we were on our way to Granada, probably one of my favorite places of the trip. A bit bigger and a gorgeous city. I’m just starting on the photos, but here’s one to whet your appetite for the colors and textures of this place.
Worn
There’s more of course, if you check out the full Costa Rica and Nicaragua album, even a few more of Granada, and of course more of Ometepe!
27
Jan
2009
A Few Days In Central America
Things have been busy the last few weeks, but I’ve also found some time here and there (like on a plane back from Chicago one late night) to edit some of my photos. And thus I have the chance to share some of the warmth and beauty of Central America with you all.
My first full day in Costa Rica found our GAP adventures group bound for Liberia. After a long bus ride and checking into the hotel, we made for the beach! Even coming from Atlanta, it was like someone turned the clock back to summer suddenly. While it doesn’t equal the gulf beaches, Playa Hermosa, which means beautiful beach, was as advertised.
Stand By Me - Playa Hermosa
We Three - Pacific Sunset
The next day, we enjoyed a boat ride through Palo Verde, that although near Liberia was quite a bumpy ride. The highlight of the boat ride for me was definitely the monkeys, although we saw a couple of crocs and a ton of birds as well. The monkeys were totally looking for handouts and were used to them despite the signs that predicatably said to not feed them. We were good travelers and didn’t offer them a morsel.
Really No Food? Panhandlers of Palo Verde
The afternoon was free to wander. I did a bit of ambling on my own and later with a couple of other photogs in the group, Chrysta Brown and Jennifer Young. Liberia had a hint of tourism, particularly on the main strip, but the town had plenty of bright colors and peeling paint and was really what I had hoped to find.
A Little Bit of Everything - Liberia
Iglesia Católica de Liberia
The next morning found us bound for Nicaragua. I honestly didn’t have a lot of expectations for Nicaragua. I had heard a lot of great stuff about Costa Rica and what I had heard about Nicaragua was encouraging. Our first stop was San Juan del Sur, an up and coming coastal destination and a perfect place to ring in the new year on the shores of the Pacific, literally on the beach. The first New Year we saw in together was the UK in honor of the guys from Scotland. UK new year happened to be very close to sunset.
San Juan Del Sur Sunset
If Liberia had been colorful, then San Juan Del Sur was positively a riot of color, mostly pastel. Between New Years Eve celebrations, a day spent on a sailboat and a night watching sea turtles hatch, I only had one morning to really explore SJDS, but it was a rewarding morning.
Pick A Color - Streets of San Juan Del Sur
Yellow Meets Blue - San Juan Del Sur
This is just a taste, if you want to see more of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the full album is going up here.
12
Jan
2009
Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and back again
On our second day in La Fortuna, the only activity I had planned for the day was an activity our entire group had signed up for. I had been mentally prepping for this one the whole trip. The planned activity was zip lining, AKA Canopy Tour and several other monikers.
In brief, these are tours of the tree tops. Strong cables are strung between trees and people glide on them on little pulleys while strapped into harnesses. While I can’t say that there was no trepidation, I can say it was a highlight of the trip. I can’t say that I was looking that much at the trees and the wildlife, but I can say it was a genuine adrenaline rush. We made ten jumps between various trees on a resort near La Fortuna. Some of the jumps were small, some were really quite long. The last real line was over a river and quite long.
When you zip line, you were a harness that’s strapped to a pulley and you use a sort of leather strap on your dominant hand as a brake to control your speed. On our first jump, like several of us, I fell short of the next platform, having applied too much brake. I resolved after having to use my hands to pull myself up the last little bit of cable that I wasn’t doing that again. I barely slowed down afterward and was one of only a few in the group to make each successive leap to the next platform. I simply refused to brake! At least until the guide on the platform was having his hands at me to slow down!
After our last leap, we got onto a cart and drove back to the resort. They sold us photos of ourselves taken while we were going between the trees. I think I should work on this as a new profession – one CD cost $45! They told us we could make as many copies as we wanted at least. So, after we got back into town and had lunch, I was duly appointed to get some blanks and sit down in the internet cafe and make copies. The fun part was that the software was in Spanish and apparently the first computer I sat at had an issue with it’s CD drive as it broke after the 4th copy! The next machine was much faster.
Didn’t do much else that day. We had our last full group meal that night as one of the group was staying there to go to Monteverde with her Aunt. Afterward, hung out with part of the group (Lenny, James, and Sidra) who didn’t go to La Disco until retiring to the room to more or less do my last packing for the trip. I knew the next night in San Jose would be rushed so I wanted to have my stuff together. My bags needed to be ready to be loaded up when the rafting group left in the morning.
All but three of us were going whitewater rafting. I had considered doing it, but all in all, if I wanted to white water raft that bad, I have plenty of choices here and it was one of the more expensive activities. I just didn’t have that much interest basically. So, the three of us, James, Lenny, and I were staying behind that morning and would be picked up to rejoin the group at 1:30pm. Instead, we went back to Baldi Hot Springs for the day! Perfect way to spend my last full day in Costa Rica. Resting in hot springs, going up and down the water slides several times and just generally feeling like a complete bum!
When we met back up with the group, we had lunch and then took the long winding roads back to San Jose. It was a three hour drive into the city. We all wondered what it would look like after the earthquake, and ironically we couldn’t see any damage. Apparently the bulk of it was outside of the area we were staying in. I’d seen lots of photos on TV and heard conflicting stories about death tolls, but didn’t feel it and never really saw it. It was very odd, like being at the scene of an event but not sharing in it. Don’t get me wrong, very happy not to have been harmed in anyway, but it still created a surrreal feeling.
We had our last group meal at a restaurant that served Thai and Indian food. I had Indian chicken curry! Yum!! The restaurant was nice and it was a great way to end the trip. After dinner and chatting, we all made our way back to the hotel for our final night. We chatted a bit and said our farewells. Jenn and I were the first out the next morning. We had to leave the hotel about 5am. I took one more hot shower (my second since getting back to San Jose and the magic of hot water) and went to bed for all of four hours before I dragged the last of my belongings into my bag and knocked on Jenn’s door. Our tax driver was waiting for us and made good time to the airport.
Of course, we get to the airport, and our flight to Houston was delayed (apparently one of many that day). We made up a lot of time in the air but still think we got to our gate late. Both of us had tight connections, I to Atlanta, Jenn to Toronto. I still don’t know if she made hers but the last I saw her she was still in the immigration line. I managed to run and get far into the line. But as soon as I got through passport control, I stood and waited for my bags forever. People were complaining vehemently all around me. I swear it’s either Continental or Houston or both, but every connection I’ve made there has been a nightmare. My bag finally shot on to the conveyor and I was off to the races. I managed to get through customs quickly and re-checked the bag and ran to my airplane. By the time I got there, I felt half dead and looked only slightly better. I barely made it onto my plane.
The whole flight, I wondered what the chances were my bag had made it. It wasn’t long after landing before I figured out it hadn’t. The funny thing was there were a lot of people without their luggage who weren’t making connections like me. It’s like they left a pile of suitcases sitting somewhere in Houston. I stood in line, filed my luggage claim and was told I’d get it delivered to my house by 10pm.
I dragged myself home, only stopping at the grocery store to replenish the cupboard enough for a day or two and collapsed on the sofa to wait for my bags.
I drifted in and out of sleep for awhile. About 10pm, I woke up and called Continental about my bags. They told me they came in at 9pm and it shouldn’t be long… I drifted back to sleep. About 11pm, they called me to say my bag would be delivered about 3am! And asked if anyone would be awake or if there was someplace outside they could leave it! I think not! I asked if we could just schedule it for today so I could properly go to bed.
Somewhere in all this, I also got an e-mail from Lenny and James that they had gotten stuck at the airport here in a missed connection back to the UK. They got put up at a nice hotel near the airport at least.
We exchanged emails today. I suggested some places they might do touristy stuff and where to shop if they were interested. They ended up deciding on the shopping spree option. I can’t entirely blame them. We had the fastest reunion dinner ever at the airport this evening, only the day after we all left Costa Rica! HA! Hopefully, they are 30 minutes into their flight home by now!
Oh, and yes, I finally got my bag, a bit before 3pm today! So, I finally feel like I’m back. It may take me a few days to get back into the swing of life here. It was a great trip. I’ve told several people now that it feels like ages since I left for this trip, not two weeks. And not in a bad way, it’s just that I saw and did so much, it just feels like a month passed while I was away. Much to catch up on, much to remember.
I’m not sure when I’ll next call on Costa Rica or Nicaragua. They were both interesting in their own way. The trip did concentrate more on Nicaragua, so maybe more Costa Rica some day. I’d particulalry like to see some of the non-westernized parts. La Fortuna was so tourist-driven that I hardly took any photos there. It seemed like they’d look like they could have been anywhere. That said, there were parts of Nicaragua that, even without hot water, I much enjoyed and I’d like to see more. Granada could have been easily a day or two longer and I heard good things about Leon. Nicaragua was probably one of the poorest places I’ve been. We were told only Haiti in this hemisphere was poorer, but it’s also one of the safest places in Latin America and the people I met were unfailingly kind. Also due to the conflicts of the 80’s, a very young country, we were told between 60 and 70% of the population is under 30. I definitely left with a warm place in my heart for Nicaragua and had fun in Costa Rica, but there are so many places I’ve yet to see that it’s hard to say that I’ll definitely go back soon.
Hopefully I’ll get to start going through the photos from the trip soon!
