a few photos...firstly the beach, Las Peñitas.
next, the streets of León.
El Museo de la Revolucion.
next, the streets of León.El Museo de la Revolucion.
in and around the cathedral.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
non-linear thinking
i feel i must offer an explanation before i start this entry, not an excuse per se but some sort of reason to explain the random thoughts that will be shared below.
i am sick.
thankfully not the kind of sick that most people think of when they consider travel to Mexico or Central America. it isn´t anything serious or even anything much to speak of but i do believe it should be noted. it has probably been building the past week, sore throats in the morning, restless sleep, coughing, and yesterday the near loss of my voice. i have no doubt that the late hours i have been keeping have contributed to this recent development. hopefully today is the culmination...coughing, congestion, no voice, no appetite and a fever. it is also my last day in Leon so i am not inclined to lay low at the hostel. not to worry (yes family i am speaking to you) i have been drinking lots of liquids and even went to the store and bought 2 different types of tea to drink for the remainder of the day.
thought 1: i do not have many photos of my week in Leon and i wonder if it is because i have been spending so much time with new friends that i have forgotten, or maybe i have chosen to focus on the experience and the interactions rather than the scene.
thought 2: it is easy to enjoy and even fall in love with a place when the people who live there welcome you to their city and into their lives. i have been incredibly lucky while in Leon as i have met some wonderful people who have introduced me to places, foods and music, taught me words and games that are either unique to Leon or Nicaragua, and most importantly have shared their time (which we all know is precious all over the world) with me.
thought 3: this is more of a question than a thought...for me it is something i have been pondering. Are we more of ourselves, meaning are we more true to ourselves, when we are traveling? or stated a different way, Are we more open to life and new experiences when we are free of stress, responsiblities and/or a daily routine?
thought 4: in the age of digital cameras, when we can take thousands of photos i find it interesting that i am limited in both my ability to take photos and limited in the number of photos i can take. why am i limited in my ability to take photos...well sometimes it is just not respectful or appropriate, other times it can make you a target, and still other times in the time it takes to get your camera out to catch that spectacular moment you miss it, which means you miss seeing it and capturing it. as for the photo limit, well i didn´t bring enough memory cards and one flash drive isn´t enough to transfer photos. oh and flickr sucks. so i try to put my favorite photos here or on FB and periodically email them to myself, but of course all that takes time. i have decided these 2 things are good though, they make me more discerning and thoughtful about when i do and do not take photos.
thought 5: my attempts to learn chess have again been thwarted by my clear ineptitude. after a lengthy lesson and 1 game the Salt Man gave up on me. i give him lots of credit for his patience. luckily i fared better in the Nicaraguan card game and the Nicaraguan version of checkers.
thought 6: for all the talk of the greatness of the States, especially the infrastructure, Central America puts our public transportation system to shame.
thougth 7: again, not much of a thought so much as a rhetorical question i asked myself this morning as i was repacking my backpack: how many more things can i lose on this trip? current count: one bottle of contact solution, 1 ring, 1 tank top, 1 carabiner, and 1 cell phone. there is only one thing i ever lose in the States, sunglasses. without fail i lose them after a few months. but on this trip, they remain with me while other things, rather important things go missing. of the items listed, the most important is the contact solution. do you know how hard it is to find contact solution in CA?
thats all for now, off to drink more tea.
see you in Honduras!
i am sick.
thankfully not the kind of sick that most people think of when they consider travel to Mexico or Central America. it isn´t anything serious or even anything much to speak of but i do believe it should be noted. it has probably been building the past week, sore throats in the morning, restless sleep, coughing, and yesterday the near loss of my voice. i have no doubt that the late hours i have been keeping have contributed to this recent development. hopefully today is the culmination...coughing, congestion, no voice, no appetite and a fever. it is also my last day in Leon so i am not inclined to lay low at the hostel. not to worry (yes family i am speaking to you) i have been drinking lots of liquids and even went to the store and bought 2 different types of tea to drink for the remainder of the day.
thought 1: i do not have many photos of my week in Leon and i wonder if it is because i have been spending so much time with new friends that i have forgotten, or maybe i have chosen to focus on the experience and the interactions rather than the scene.
thought 2: it is easy to enjoy and even fall in love with a place when the people who live there welcome you to their city and into their lives. i have been incredibly lucky while in Leon as i have met some wonderful people who have introduced me to places, foods and music, taught me words and games that are either unique to Leon or Nicaragua, and most importantly have shared their time (which we all know is precious all over the world) with me.
thought 3: this is more of a question than a thought...for me it is something i have been pondering. Are we more of ourselves, meaning are we more true to ourselves, when we are traveling? or stated a different way, Are we more open to life and new experiences when we are free of stress, responsiblities and/or a daily routine?
thought 4: in the age of digital cameras, when we can take thousands of photos i find it interesting that i am limited in both my ability to take photos and limited in the number of photos i can take. why am i limited in my ability to take photos...well sometimes it is just not respectful or appropriate, other times it can make you a target, and still other times in the time it takes to get your camera out to catch that spectacular moment you miss it, which means you miss seeing it and capturing it. as for the photo limit, well i didn´t bring enough memory cards and one flash drive isn´t enough to transfer photos. oh and flickr sucks. so i try to put my favorite photos here or on FB and periodically email them to myself, but of course all that takes time. i have decided these 2 things are good though, they make me more discerning and thoughtful about when i do and do not take photos.
thought 5: my attempts to learn chess have again been thwarted by my clear ineptitude. after a lengthy lesson and 1 game the Salt Man gave up on me. i give him lots of credit for his patience. luckily i fared better in the Nicaraguan card game and the Nicaraguan version of checkers.
thought 6: for all the talk of the greatness of the States, especially the infrastructure, Central America puts our public transportation system to shame.
thougth 7: again, not much of a thought so much as a rhetorical question i asked myself this morning as i was repacking my backpack: how many more things can i lose on this trip? current count: one bottle of contact solution, 1 ring, 1 tank top, 1 carabiner, and 1 cell phone. there is only one thing i ever lose in the States, sunglasses. without fail i lose them after a few months. but on this trip, they remain with me while other things, rather important things go missing. of the items listed, the most important is the contact solution. do you know how hard it is to find contact solution in CA?
thats all for now, off to drink more tea.
see you in Honduras!
Friday, August 20, 2010
a moment of ranting and raving
yesterday i updated the blog with 2 entries, one that summed up the last week or so and culminated in many many photos and explanations and the other that talked about the volcano boarding. as you may see the first did not post and i am not amused. i would love to say i will try again, but uploading all the photos and recreating the thoughtful prose and witty asides just may be too much for me.
i suppose i will start with the photos. these first few are from and in the cathedral.
the next few are actually from the bell tower of the cathedral at the edge of parque central. it was a beautiful evening and the perfect moment to take photos. the cathedral itself is lovely and they allow visitors to climb up the precarious steps to the bell tower with only this plea, ¨please refrain from ringing the bells.¨now normally i wouldn´t consider it, or maybe i would but then it would immediately leave my mind. but in this instance, with every step i took, i looked at the ropes hanging from the bells and it took almost everything i had to resist the urge to pull. why is it when someone asks us not to do something we are compelled to do it?!
from Granada, Charlize, my travel buddy i met in Ometepe (upon realizing we were headed in the same direction we decided to go together) and i headed up to Leon. actually she and i joined with two others who were also heading up as well. always much more fun to travel together, especially when you are going to be switching buses at random locations outside of Managua. we all had formed a tight bond the night before when we went out to El Club in Granada where not only did we girls get in free but also were served the ´ladies drink´for free the entire night, it was a fruity concoction with some rum (not flor de cana) that our sole guy deemed one more reason he was glad to be a guy. El Club was a scene, not only with a DJ and a random mix of music but fog and lighting that would put some clubs in the states to shame.
After a bus, a taxi and a minibus we arrived in Leon where we then walked and walked to our hostel. one more reason i love Nicaragua...3 times during our walk we were stopped by people asking if we needed help or directions. there was no doubt we were tourists and our maps and confused looks surely made it easy for people to see that we were clueless. still, i have had that look many many times in my travels and only on one other occasion has someone stopped to ask if i need help. Even the guy at the hostel who told us there were no beds called other hostels until he found one with space.
here´s another reason to love Nicaragua and specifically Leon...the welcoming nature of the people. we went on a tour with one of the owners of the hostel who does ´cultural tours´to watch and learn about the cockfights and not only did i learn a lot (maybe more than i wanted but that has yet to be determined) but was also made to feel completely comfortable by the many men i interacted with there. more than a few times people leaned over to myself or one of the others to explain something that was going on or to answer our questions. and believe me we had many questions. our guide worked hard to explain and answer questions and help us along and his entourage from the hostel also weighed in as well. all in all it was a unique and interesting experience i will not likely forget.
i suppose i will start with the photos. these first few are from and in the cathedral.
the next few are actually from the bell tower of the cathedral at the edge of parque central. it was a beautiful evening and the perfect moment to take photos. the cathedral itself is lovely and they allow visitors to climb up the precarious steps to the bell tower with only this plea, ¨please refrain from ringing the bells.¨now normally i wouldn´t consider it, or maybe i would but then it would immediately leave my mind. but in this instance, with every step i took, i looked at the ropes hanging from the bells and it took almost everything i had to resist the urge to pull. why is it when someone asks us not to do something we are compelled to do it?!from Granada, Charlize, my travel buddy i met in Ometepe (upon realizing we were headed in the same direction we decided to go together) and i headed up to Leon. actually she and i joined with two others who were also heading up as well. always much more fun to travel together, especially when you are going to be switching buses at random locations outside of Managua. we all had formed a tight bond the night before when we went out to El Club in Granada where not only did we girls get in free but also were served the ´ladies drink´for free the entire night, it was a fruity concoction with some rum (not flor de cana) that our sole guy deemed one more reason he was glad to be a guy. El Club was a scene, not only with a DJ and a random mix of music but fog and lighting that would put some clubs in the states to shame.After a bus, a taxi and a minibus we arrived in Leon where we then walked and walked to our hostel. one more reason i love Nicaragua...3 times during our walk we were stopped by people asking if we needed help or directions. there was no doubt we were tourists and our maps and confused looks surely made it easy for people to see that we were clueless. still, i have had that look many many times in my travels and only on one other occasion has someone stopped to ask if i need help. Even the guy at the hostel who told us there were no beds called other hostels until he found one with space.
here´s another reason to love Nicaragua and specifically Leon...the welcoming nature of the people. we went on a tour with one of the owners of the hostel who does ´cultural tours´to watch and learn about the cockfights and not only did i learn a lot (maybe more than i wanted but that has yet to be determined) but was also made to feel completely comfortable by the many men i interacted with there. more than a few times people leaned over to myself or one of the others to explain something that was going on or to answer our questions. and believe me we had many questions. our guide worked hard to explain and answer questions and help us along and his entourage from the hostel also weighed in as well. all in all it was a unique and interesting experience i will not likely forget.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
volcano boarding
before i left i created a list of things i hoped to do while on this trip. while i had lots of ideas of places to visit, things to see and foods-drinks to try i considered that list just a guide something to look back to periodically while the ¨to do list¨ was more serious. i am happy to say that i have checked off the final item on that list (there weren´t that many items really)...the final item, VOLCANO BOARDING!it is a big attraction here in Nicaragua, specifically in Leon as it is only done on one volcano, Cerro Negro. it is the youngest and most active volcano in Nicaragua; the last erruption was in 1999 and apparently it erupts about every 8 years...yes it is overdue for an erruption. so what is volcano boarding? well i could make some random attempt at describing but basically it is sledding down a volcano on a small, narrow peice of wood with a metal piece nailed to the underside.
to go you must go with a group and Charlize and i decided on Quetzaltrekkers because they are a great organization that supports a local organization that helps children and young adults called, Las Tias AND on their trek you not only get to board down 2 times you also get to hike into one of the craters (see below).
much like any other new and rather extreme activity once you get to the edge and are minutes away from taking the proverbial leap there is the thought, ¨what the hell am i doing?!¨it is that moment that i find most thrilling as it is the moment your brain registers all the information and does all the computations and comes to the understanding that all the logical evidence points to this being an illogical idea that is clearly motivated by emotion. hahaha and as all that becomes clear...you are off! speeding down the side of an active volcano!!!
want a better explanation and some cool photos, check this out...
http://www.outpostmagazine.com/2010/03/16/thrillseeker-volcano-boarding-in-nicaragua/
Friday, August 13, 2010
San Juan del Sur
since i have a fairly flexible schedule, i am open to changing my ¨plans¨ and this occured a few days before i was supposed to leave Ometepe. everyone at Little Morgans had either been to San Juan del Sur or were planning to go. i had not really thought about going, but was given pause as i heard more about the beaches, surf vibe and was reminded of the glory of the pacific ocean. the final push though was this argument, "you have quite a bit of time so if you go and do not like it you can leave the next day and it will not affect your trip or your schedule in the slightest."
the 2 days later i was on the ferry with 3 australians and a fellow californian heading to SJDS. a small beach town that has become popular with the surfing crowd, it is quaint in a funny kind of way and i came away appreciating what it had to offer. still, i would not say it is my favorite place in Nicaragua, that spot is still reserved for Granada and followed at a close second by Ometepe.
here are a few photos...
a few more from Ometepe
below are photos of Little Morgans and some of the plant life on the premises...
back in Granada...on Friday the 13th
arrived back in Granada mid-day and felt immediately at home, a nice and generally rare feeling. rather than spend the day on the bus from San Juan del Sur to Leon, myself and the newly acquired traveling buddy opted to stay the night in Granada and head to Leon tomorrow. so now, as we escape the pending storm (again) we are online...even at the same cafe as before!clearly there is so much that has happened in the week that i have been through Ometepe and San Juan del Sur. but at the moment i am not sure where to start or even what to say...so i will start with some photos and hope that they will help me along.
we start with a view of the ¨chicken buses,¨this one going to Managua. took this photo from the van i was in on my way to Ometepe. i will be taking this bus, or one like it, tomorrow since there is no direct bus to Leon. So at the least, we will be on 2 buses tomorrow.
this is the ferry i took across Lake Nicaragua to the island of Ometepe. it is 15km from San Jorge (where i picked up the ferry) to Moyogalpa, the main city on the island.
this is my first view, from the ferry, of the volcanos- Concepcion and Maderas.
this is from inside the crater of Maderas. you can see the lagoon-lake to the left. it was a tough and muddy climb through cloud forest and with our group of 11 plus a guide it took us 10 hours total. we were sweaty, dirty, wet and sore by the end...of course we all had a wonderful time and were bonded for life!
this was one of the views of the lake, the island and part of Concepcion.
this is from the next day, a day of rest which included a walk along the lake and a visit to the cold water springs of Ojo de Agua. that is Maderas behind me.
Ojo de Agua...so beautiful and refreshing. perfect for the day after a big hike!
the rim of Concepcion. experienced sweat and chills up there at the rim as the wind blew and the sulfer heated the rocks below and a combination created a phenominal mist. an amazing experience and a challenging hike. i am proud to say we made it to the rim in 3.5 hours (9:30am) and came down in 3 hours...it was not easy and much of it was climbing rocks at quite steep angles but undoubtedly it was worth it. also, Maderas was a great warm-up for Concepcion.so i met some fantastic people in Ometepe and specifically at Little Morgans, a wonderfully rustic and welcoming location with dorms, hammocks and casitas (great for any budget traveler!)...not found in any books just yet because it is so new this was definitely one of the best places i have stayed so far. mainly due to the people, both travelers and those that run it. great conversations, many laughs...good times overall and on this amazing island. i am so ridiculously lucky.
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