Nicaragua, part 2

Our week in Nicaragua continued after leaving Ometepe Island in the colonial city of Granada. Built by the Spanish, the city is very reminiscent of traditional spanish towns with high walls, arched doorways, ornate designs and beautiful colors. Granada acted as our base camp for the remaining time in Nicaragua, with trips to two more volcanos, Mombacho and Masaya, and the capital city, Managua.

On the ridge between the non-active crater and the active crater (far left you can see the smoke!)

Our second volcano hike was on Masaya Volcano near Granada. This volcano is one of the most active in the world with a very large crater that spews smoke and rocks into the sky all day, everyday. Because of the high likely hood of a larger eruption, visitors are only allowed to stay at the main crater for 5 minutes before forced to leave by the park staff. The park also held 3 other smaller, non-active craters and a lagoon with ancient, native carvings on the rocks around its shore. We were fortunate enough to hike the ridge between the active and largest non-active craters for some amazing views of Lake Nicaragua, Granada, Volcano Mombacho and the surrounding areas.

The main crater of Masaya Volcano!

on the edge of the crater

Unfortunately for me, I got super sick later that day, the second night in Granada, and had to remain in the hotel for 2 days. But don't worry! I'm totally fine now. Its always a part of traveling to experience their germs as well! A 102 degree fever and annoying stomach pains kept me grounded and I sadly had to miss the trip to the capital city of Managua and the last volcano, Mombacho. Thankfully however, Managua is not known to be a very exciting city, especially after an earthquake destroyed most of the city in the 1930s and again in the 1970s. The Nicaraguans I got to talk to while stuck sick in the hotel told me that they didn't care for the city at all and it was probably best I didn't go. As for the last volcano trip, I missed out on a foggy hike through a tropical cloud forest.

The second day I was thankfully not the only student sick, as many of the others got stomach bugs. Benji, a good friend of mine, and I were the only two to stay back that last day, but Yendry, our amazing administrator, and Anna, one of the interns, stayed to take care of us.

Other highlights:

Entrance to the market in Rivas

• We got to see two very interesting markets in Granada and another smaller town, Rivas. The markets were very large, dark, and loud and like nothing I've seen before. Thankfully though, the Rivas market had plenty of opportunities to shop for souvenirs.
• Granada's bell tower had one of the most amazing views of the city and sunset I've ever seen. It was a great break from my sickness!

Nicaragua: Part 1

Ometepe Island from the ferry.

Three days on Ometepe Island just wasn't enough. This figure-eight shaped island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua has a lot to offer, but we had way too little time to see it! We got there early Wednesday after driving all morning (we left at 2am!) and after an hour and a half ferry ride across the almost ocean-sized lake, we arrived at our hostel: Hacienda Merida.

A view from Maderas Volcano

Ometepe was named by some of its original discoverers and inhabitants who came from Mexico in search of the legend of the island with 2 mountains (ome = 1 and tepetl = mountains). The 2 mountains are actually volcanos; Concepción (around 1600 mts), an almost perfect cone cutting through the clouds is still active and growing every year, and Maderas (around 1300 mts), its slightly smaller but nonetheless exciting sister. The 2 volcanos split the island in 2 and create its iconic shape.

The crater lagoon at the top of Maderas Volcano.

SFS, with the help of Achim, led us up Maderas as the pioneer SFS group to help map the trail system. The hike took a total of 7 hours with an elevation gain of about 1200 meters in total. Not an easy climb, but super rewarding with the beautiful views and serene crater lagoon at the top where we stopped for lunch. On the way down, we were greeted and cheered through the finish line by a family of 8 howler monkeys!

Even though those who climbed Maderas were exhausted, we did another hike the next day. After group lectures on invasive species (specifically Tilapia in Lake Nicaragua) and emerging diseases from climate change, we hiked another 3 km to a beautiful waterfall on the opposite side of Maderas. The hike was rough, but we made it and were rewarded with a roaring cascade down through the cloud forest. Of course the only reaction is to get right in and feel its awesome power thunder down around you and return it back with a roar of your own.

Anna (one of the interns), Benji,
and I at the waterfall.

The island holds plenty of other secrets too. After living in Costa Rica, Nicaragua is a big contrast, probably because it is the 2nd poorest country in Central America (after Haiti). Ometepe is no exception, but despite this, the people seem relatively happy with their subsistent farming lives. Pigs, oxen, horses, goats, and stray dogs roam the rocky, unpaved streets. The houses are small and unfinished, usually cut from the surrounding trees. Kids try to sell you fruit from their front steps. And yet everyone is eager to share their culture, always with a smile!


A lot of their lives revolve around the lake, one of the biggest in Central America; fishing being a huge part of their industry and culture. I swam everyday while there. At first all afternoon and into the sunset while in the shadow of the 2 towering volcanos, one morning before our breakfast, and even in a naturally purified waterhole on the isthmus between the 2 volcanos. This island is a beautiful escape and reward and I was sad to say goodbye. I would love to someday come back!


Other highlights:

• I completed my first back-flip off a rope swing at the waterhole! It only took me about 20 tries...
• There were some great times spent on the dock of Hacienda Merida. Both swimming by day and philosophizing by night
• Birdwatching with Edgardo one morning:
• red-billed pigeon
• yellow warbler
• osprey
• black vultures
• king bird
• Caracara
• plenty of parrots and parakeets
• Met a cool australian/american couple on their extended 7 month honeymoon. They've pretty much been around the world and I couldn't be more jealous. I just want to travel forever!

"We are swimming in a waterfall, on a volcano, on an island, in a lake, in Nicaragua...!" -Mike

Manuel Antonio National Park

We finally got our first free weekend! And of course, all 31 of us decided to go to Manuel Antonio National Park on the south Pacific coast. We all left together on Saturday morning around 6am which put us in the beach town, Quepos, around 9. A group of 5 of us spent the morning having brunch (where we saw our first sloth!) and walking down the mountain to the public beach of Manuel Antonio town. We finally found the rest of the crew at the house we rented a little while after! This house was amazing! All white, it was named after the white-faced monkey common here (capuchin). The living room was completely open to the weather and had an amazing, little infinity pool! The rest of the house consisted of 3 other floors with bedrooms and bathrooms practically enough for all of us. It was very surreal to get to all hangout and party in the house, kind of like being on the Real World or just being extremely rich!

The beach in Manuel Antonio national park

Of course, the house wasn't the only exciting part of the trip. After checking out the house, we headed down to the public beach and spent the rest of the afternoon bodysurfing, throwing a frisbee around and   exploring the beach. I'm pretty sure everyone got sunburnt.

Fun in the pool

A view of the pool from one
of the upstairs rooms...
this house was amazing...

The next morning, we decided to check out the national park. Manuel Antonio National Park is one of the most visited park in Costa Rica and known for its crazy monkeys and high number of sloths. Even though it was the low season, there were a lot of people on the beaches, granted it is definitely a pretty amazingly, beautiful park. The weather wasn't that great, so instead of hanging out too long on the beach, we decided to do a hike through a peninsula part of the park named La Catedral (The Cathedral). We had some great views of the pacific coast and all the small, rock islands jutting out of the water surrounding Costa Rica.

MY FIRST SLOTH! (even though he was kind of hidden)

The weekend was fantastic. It was really nice to get off campus and see more of this country! I'm excited for where our next free weekend will take us, but for now Nicaragua will do! We leave Wednesday at 2am and won't be back until the following week. The first few days will be on an island in Lake Nicaragua, Ometepe Island, where we will be working to map the trail system up one of two volcanos for the national park there. Then we head to Granada and Managua for the rest of the time!

The past week has been pretty intense. Here are the highlights:

• Monday: we went to San José for a lecture at the University of Costa Rica on genetically modified foods. Of course, its sparked a pretty heated discussion later that day, but still interesting to see everyone's take on GMOs. After the lecture, we also had to conduct surveys for our Economics class. It just created a lot of awkwardness for pretty much everyone. 

• The rest of the week we spent working on our Field Exercises for Tropical Ecology and Natural Resource Management (NRM). Benji, Matt and I worked together in Monteverde collecting data on the abundance of mining larvae and its relation to other herbivory damage on leaves. We had two days to analyze that data and write a scientific paper. It was a lot of work, but we thankfully finished on time.

• And just to make things worse, wednesday morning we had to collect data on the farm for our NRM field exercise. It was due by Friday night, and Lina and I spent all day Thursday trying to get it finished! We had to monitor the pests and diseases of the orange trees on our orange and mango farm on campus. All sorts of stuff afflict the trees here because the farm only made the transition to organic and sustainable management two years ago. All out data and the paper we wrote are going to be used to help the Integrated Pest Management system so chemical pesticides, herbicides and fungicides and synthetic fertilizers aren't used.

• Everyone was completely exhausted from the two field exercise this week and needed to get off campus friday night. We went out, but only to realize it was a bad idea because the next morning we were going to stay with a local tico family for the weekend! The homestay was awesome! My family had hosted kids before and lived right in the centro! A girl from my program was with my host mom's brother and his family, who lived right next door in an attached house. It is very common in Costa Rica for whole families to live on the same property and be super close! We had a really nice birthday party for Liz (the girl from my program) and they even taught us how to salsa!

Liz's birthday party with our host families!

It was a good week even though we were super busy! We have mid-term exams this week and plenty of time to study! This coming weekend we have both days off and most of us are going to travel somewhere close by! And after that we are going to Nicaragua for a week!