La Isla de Ometepe - el 16 de febrero al 19
We took the (rough) ferry to La Isla de Ometepe on Feb. 16,
and the motorcyclists held on to their bikes.
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| Volcán Concepción |
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| Dining in the restaurant near our hotel |
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| Our concierge |
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| We walked across to the laguna on our second day |
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| One of the many magpie jays |
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| Traffic "laws" are different down here! |
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| Volcán Maderas |
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| Volcán Concepción (The sun sure sets quickly here!) |
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| A capuchin monkey along the side of the road |
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| Cattle egrets |
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| La Cascada de San Ramón |
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| Volcán Concepción at twilight, with car lights illuminating the nearby foliage and fence posts. |
San Juan del Sur - el 20 de febrero al 23
Then, on Feb. 20th, we journeyed over to San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific coast. Our first evening there I hiked up to the Mirador del Cristo de la Miseriocordia. An exhilarating walk!
The San Juan River - see the boat? A local operates a ferry service, pulling the boat across the river. He charges 5 cordobas, or about 20 cents, and works from dawn 'til dusk. "Mucho sol!" he said.
After the other tourists left, I waited around waiting for it to get darker, but the attendant asked me to leave, so I had to be satisfied with this photo.
On my way back down, although I had a headlamp, I didn't use it, not wanting to advertise that I'm a Gringo.
I only saw one horse in San Juan, this one along the beach.
I took this photo of the rainbow from our hotel patio.
On the evening of the 22nd, I went back to the river to capture photos of the ferry captain.
The wind blew constantly while we were in San Juan.
Motorcyclists don't hesitate to ford the river.
Many egrets were fishing at dusk.
I had my tripod in the water and a wave jiggled it, but I decided to keep the photo and enhance it a little to make it more abstract.
After sunset, I met the others in La Lancha for a lobster feast - about $8 US.
And then stopped in the plaza to admire these dancers.
Most Nicaraguan cities have free wi-fi in their central parks.
Our last day in San Juan, we took a tour through Parque de Aventura las Nubes, up in the cloud forest near San Juan. We didn't do any zip-lining - been there, done that! - but had an exhilarating buggy ride up and down the hill, a nice walk through the forest, and an interesting tour of the iguanarium.
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The view of San Juan way down below Monkeys on the side of the road |
In the Iguanarium, they raise green iguanas and then release them into the wild. Green iguanas are endangered in Nicaragua because they are a local delicacy. In the mercado in Léon, we saw live green iguanas being sold, for food or pets?
Our guide with the Papa.
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| The Mama is larger |
You lookin' at me?
And in the enclosure next door were many babies of various sizes. Iguanas can lay up to 50 eggs a year, and in the center they have a high survival rate.
That evening, we went to "Simon Says" restaurant, and enjoyed fresh bread from the clay-baked oven.
But before that, I had gone back down to the beach at sunset - just couldn't stay away! - and shot a few hundred more photos. It was probably the nicest sunset we had on the beach.
You can make out el Cristo through the palapa.
And that's it for Nicaragua. A wonderful country with wonderful people and an amazing mix of the old and the new.
Thanks John. I enjoyed your trip. I like the little ferry. Too bad he doesn't put his prices up a little. Arlene
ReplyDeleteThanks. But if he did raise the prices he might not get much business, because it's easy to ford the river.
ReplyDeleteWonderful to see from your perspective family, friends, local people, birds, ...
ReplyDeleteThanks Wendy.
Delete