Pictures from Granada, before the camera incident (glad we had saved them!!)
Pictures from SJdS, AFTER the camera incident. (Thanks Becky and Chris for letting us borrow your camera!!!)
Showing posts with label Nicaragua. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicaragua. Show all posts
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
W-w-w-wipeout!!!
We hopped into the truck to head to the beach for our surf lesson, unfortunately there was no more room in the back so we had to ride up front, with air-conditioning.... shame. We were particularly grateful when our short journey to the beach turned out to be an hours ride on another wonderful Nicaraguan dirt road. It was worth it though, as when we arrived we were treated to a great view of the secluded beach we were to spend the rest of the day on.
After a quick how to with our instructor, an older local guy, we were in the water, floating on our boards with him holding us. As a wave came along he told us when to start paddling and gave us a nice push onto the wave, all we really had to do was stand up! It wasn't quite that easy but we gave it our best shot and both of us (in fact Jen before I) were standing on our boards, wobbling along within 15 or 20 mins. It was now time to try it on our own and 2 and a half hours later our bodies were battered and broken but content (edit: Jen just wants me to recognise here that she was the only one in the water the whole time and the teacher said she was the best student.)!
We spent the whole afternoon in the water, trying again and again, succeeding and failing! The most frustrating thing was that even if one was successful, for 30 seconds of standing up we had to walk/swim/paddle for 10 minutes to get back to the same spot to start over again! It was great fun and we both surprised ourselves as to how well we took to the water, we did suffer though - sore knees, bruised ribs and especially for Jen, more bruises unaccounted for! Who knew it would be such a brutal sport?!?
After another long truck journey back (again, we were a little slow getting into the back of the trucks and just HAD to sit in the cab!) we knew it was time for a big meal and several beers, so the group of us went to Jerry's Pizza and feasted on good slices and great company...... and cold beers! We hung out for the evening, played some crazy 8 countdown, and headed off to bed after a grueling game, as we were getting up at 6am to the bus to the border of Costa Rica!!
After a quick how to with our instructor, an older local guy, we were in the water, floating on our boards with him holding us. As a wave came along he told us when to start paddling and gave us a nice push onto the wave, all we really had to do was stand up! It wasn't quite that easy but we gave it our best shot and both of us (in fact Jen before I) were standing on our boards, wobbling along within 15 or 20 mins. It was now time to try it on our own and 2 and a half hours later our bodies were battered and broken but content (edit: Jen just wants me to recognise here that she was the only one in the water the whole time and the teacher said she was the best student.)!
We spent the whole afternoon in the water, trying again and again, succeeding and failing! The most frustrating thing was that even if one was successful, for 30 seconds of standing up we had to walk/swim/paddle for 10 minutes to get back to the same spot to start over again! It was great fun and we both surprised ourselves as to how well we took to the water, we did suffer though - sore knees, bruised ribs and especially for Jen, more bruises unaccounted for! Who knew it would be such a brutal sport?!?
After another long truck journey back (again, we were a little slow getting into the back of the trucks and just HAD to sit in the cab!) we knew it was time for a big meal and several beers, so the group of us went to Jerry's Pizza and feasted on good slices and great company...... and cold beers! We hung out for the evening, played some crazy 8 countdown, and headed off to bed after a grueling game, as we were getting up at 6am to the bus to the border of Costa Rica!!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Huevos Tortugas
Hola Amigos!
So after the brutal mugging yesterday, we decided to wander the streets and explore the town. Very quiet, full of surf shops. Cute though! Hot as hades.. We went back to Casa Oro to read a bit, and then have some cervezas before the big event..... TURTLES! We are very close to La Flor, which is one of the biggest nesting colonies in the world. They are in the middle of a big arrival, with as many as 3,000 mamma turtles reaching shore nightly and dropping off their eggs. Fantastic!
We signed up for the tour, a whopping $30 each, and arrived at 6:30 for the very technical powerpoint presentation. Woohoo! Did you know that turtles mate with many partners, some at the same time, and then self fertilize? Did you know that a turtle can lay up to 120+ eggs in one sitting? Did you know that out of every 1,000 baby turtles that hatch, only one will make it to adulthood? If you answered ¨No, I did not know that!¨, then you would have been thoroughly enthralled at this presentation! We felt the same way.
So after our little lesson, we all piled into the trucks and vans to ride off to the turtle sanctuary. What a long, bumpy ride! I lucked out and the only seat left was in the front, so I enjoyed some rockin´ eighties tunes and nice air conditioning, while the others melted behind me. The 22k ride took a little over an hour. Yikes! We arrived at 8:30, had a little briefing, then off to the shore! Keep in mind that we were with a large, large group of gringos- who wants to take a guess as to how many of them followed the rules once we reached the sand???
When we reached the beach, we were stunned. The moon cast a bright glow over the sand, and there were TONS of big mamma turtles, en route to the sea or just emerging. Some were digging their holes with their back fins, some were filling the holes with sand.. and some were plopping out eggs. Wow! I have never seen a reptile fill their nest, and it was a sight to be seen.
Unfortunately, because there are so many turtles that surface each night to lay their eggs, the beach isn´t large enough to accomodate all of them. So each night, many turtles end up digging up the nests that were laid the previous nights, and laying their own eggs in their place. Because of all this digging and uncovering, a potent egg odor lingers over the beach. Mmmm.
Exciting evening! We hung around for an hour, dodging these determined turtles, while spying on this intimate time in their lives... Then it was back in the van for the long drive home! I slept quite comfortably, though Oli said he felt very violated by the bouncy benches in the back. Poor poppet.
We are off to go surfing... hang ten dudes!!!
So after the brutal mugging yesterday, we decided to wander the streets and explore the town. Very quiet, full of surf shops. Cute though! Hot as hades.. We went back to Casa Oro to read a bit, and then have some cervezas before the big event..... TURTLES! We are very close to La Flor, which is one of the biggest nesting colonies in the world. They are in the middle of a big arrival, with as many as 3,000 mamma turtles reaching shore nightly and dropping off their eggs. Fantastic!
We signed up for the tour, a whopping $30 each, and arrived at 6:30 for the very technical powerpoint presentation. Woohoo! Did you know that turtles mate with many partners, some at the same time, and then self fertilize? Did you know that a turtle can lay up to 120+ eggs in one sitting? Did you know that out of every 1,000 baby turtles that hatch, only one will make it to adulthood? If you answered ¨No, I did not know that!¨, then you would have been thoroughly enthralled at this presentation! We felt the same way.
So after our little lesson, we all piled into the trucks and vans to ride off to the turtle sanctuary. What a long, bumpy ride! I lucked out and the only seat left was in the front, so I enjoyed some rockin´ eighties tunes and nice air conditioning, while the others melted behind me. The 22k ride took a little over an hour. Yikes! We arrived at 8:30, had a little briefing, then off to the shore! Keep in mind that we were with a large, large group of gringos- who wants to take a guess as to how many of them followed the rules once we reached the sand???
When we reached the beach, we were stunned. The moon cast a bright glow over the sand, and there were TONS of big mamma turtles, en route to the sea or just emerging. Some were digging their holes with their back fins, some were filling the holes with sand.. and some were plopping out eggs. Wow! I have never seen a reptile fill their nest, and it was a sight to be seen.
Unfortunately, because there are so many turtles that surface each night to lay their eggs, the beach isn´t large enough to accomodate all of them. So each night, many turtles end up digging up the nests that were laid the previous nights, and laying their own eggs in their place. Because of all this digging and uncovering, a potent egg odor lingers over the beach. Mmmm.
Exciting evening! We hung around for an hour, dodging these determined turtles, while spying on this intimate time in their lives... Then it was back in the van for the long drive home! I slept quite comfortably, though Oli said he felt very violated by the bouncy benches in the back. Poor poppet.
We are off to go surfing... hang ten dudes!!!
Monday, November 10, 2008
We have been mugged....
by a troupe of bandit jellyfish. They were a vicious bunch, and took no mercy. They snuck up while we were chin deep in the cove of San Juan Del Sur, and took advantage of the murky waters. They eyed up our gorgeous, 4 week old camera, and went for it. They caught Oli by surprise, with repeated lashings to his forarm. He dropped the camera, and I caught it under my feet. As we went down to grab it, the waves took us hostage, and knocked us off our tip-toes. Then when we dove for it, they came back for more flesh. My arms, legs, and feet fell victim to their ruthless ways. We kept on fighting the good fight, with the help of our new friends Becky and Chris, but to no avail. The attacks continued, and we were outnumbered. We returned to shore with our tails between our legs, and stingers in our extremeties. Oli had it the worst, but opted to head down the beach to a cafe for some vinegar instead of taking Chris up on his offer to pee on him.
Sad, sad day. We will not let the ocean gods beat us. We are going back for more later, but without any flashy valuables. And don´t worry, the pictures will continue- we are going to borrow one for the time being, and replace our dearly departed in San Jose. Lets hope number three´s a charm. I wonder if the insurance company will pay to replace this one as well.....
Sad, sad day. We will not let the ocean gods beat us. We are going back for more later, but without any flashy valuables. And don´t worry, the pictures will continue- we are going to borrow one for the time being, and replace our dearly departed in San Jose. Lets hope number three´s a charm. I wonder if the insurance company will pay to replace this one as well.....
Sunday, November 9, 2008
"I'm gonna get ya little fishy... " - The Cat, Red Dwarf
So the boat ride to Roatan was a little rough..... well it was a lot rough. Despite all odds though, none of the 4 of us got sick..... several others did though - the wonders of Dramamine! When we did finally arrive we were hoarded by a huge number of cab drivers, still with a dodgy belly, this was a little overwhelming but we managed to find a nice local guy who took us to the West End, via the shop and liquor store, to the sweet sounds of very loud Reggae!
We got to the west end and the place we wanted to stay at, The Mariposa Lodge, was full, so after a short trek we arrived at the 2nd choice, Chillies, and an awesome 2 bedroom cabana right at the back of the property, seemingly in the middle of the Jungle. We went out to explore and get some food and some cash and investigate the diving situation.
We arrived back at the lodge 2 hrs later, with no cash, all the ATMs were down, sore feet and a PADI course booked the next day with the Native Sons, starting at 830 am. So we opened up the rum! Several cocktails later we had walked down the beach with Angela and Ulla to a Reggae bar and were dancing away. 830 am came around a little too early!
Instead of it being just the 2 of us, 3 others had joined right then but fortunately our diving course started with a video. Our instructor, Andrea, was great and after a quick set-up tutorial, somehow, we found ourselves in a boat, suited up and ready to go. 3 - 2 - 1 and we were over the side backwards and in the ocean. Without really knowing what we were doing we ended up kneeling on the ocean floor (at least we were - not everyone had too much control!) and purposefully filling our masks with water and other fun stuff!! Despite the initial anxiousness and slightly dodgy feeling, it was awesome and we got to have our 1st experience of breathing under water, the reef, the little fish, the big fish and the general awesomeness of SCUBA - at least that is what I thought!
Who knew learning to dive took so much studying?! We watched more videos and read more chapters as the days progressed. We did "confined" water training in the bay and managed to stay out of the pool and everyday we had an open water dive. The reef in Roatan is dubbed as the 2nd best in the World, I have no basis for comparison, but would have to agree! As each day went on we both fell more and more in love with Scuba and the reading wasn't that bad!
Tuesday night was the last night for Angela, Ulla and Claudia (now that we had finally found her)so we all went out and had a few to drink, and then a few more! We also found out that Obama was the new President, so we had a few more!! Yay!! On Wednesday we woke up much earlier than we wanted and had our 3rd open water dive in the morning and came back for lunch, after which we took our final tests, and passed.... yay!! Only our 4th open water dive and we would be away!!
That afternoon things got messy..... I got ill and the power went out - no running water, no flushing toilet! And there was civil unrest on the Island. We stayed in! Come Thursday, still under the influence of a stomach bug, I was unable to dive but Jen went out and finished her course and came back a certified Open Water Diver! To celebrate we had lunch, and I kept it down... woooooo! Another quiet, powerless evening lay ahead and in the morning I was able to take my final dive and Jen had her 1st fun dive. Before lunch I was certified too and with the power back on we were even able to get some cash, pay our bill and get back on the road by lunch.
The boat ride back to La Ceiba was no where near as bad and we were able to enjoy our books and arrived safely on mainland Honduras, ready for a full 2 days of travel! We jumped on a bus and started our journey to Nicaragua, first stop Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
6 hours later we arrived and took a cab to the hotel there, where we even had a TV! But no remote! Come morning we trotted over to the TICA bus office for the 9am bus all the way to Managua, Nicaragua. It was full. So the journey began. A cab to the other bus station, a chicken bus to El Paraiso, another to the border. Another chicken bus (chicken buses are old US school buses, made for little kids, most Central Americans fit into these seats. I, however, don't.) to Ocotal and then a bus from Ocotal to Managua. We had a cab take us to the other bus station were we finally arrived in Granada, Nicaragua around 730pm last night. Long day! We met a friendly Aussie girl and Coast Rican guy who led us to the hostel, we wished however we had taken a cab as after 45mins of walking with our packs, we were a little hot!!
After getting a room we needed to eat and desperately wanted a beer. Just our luck, no alcohol may be served here for the 3 days we are in towne due to the election..... what are the chances? Early to bed it was!
Today we are exploring here and deciding where to go next before we head to Costa Rica, maybe stay here, maybe to the beach to surf and chill, who knows??
Till next time....
I'm gonna get ya little fishy...........
We got to the west end and the place we wanted to stay at, The Mariposa Lodge, was full, so after a short trek we arrived at the 2nd choice, Chillies, and an awesome 2 bedroom cabana right at the back of the property, seemingly in the middle of the Jungle. We went out to explore and get some food and some cash and investigate the diving situation.
We arrived back at the lodge 2 hrs later, with no cash, all the ATMs were down, sore feet and a PADI course booked the next day with the Native Sons, starting at 830 am. So we opened up the rum! Several cocktails later we had walked down the beach with Angela and Ulla to a Reggae bar and were dancing away. 830 am came around a little too early!
Instead of it being just the 2 of us, 3 others had joined right then but fortunately our diving course started with a video. Our instructor, Andrea, was great and after a quick set-up tutorial, somehow, we found ourselves in a boat, suited up and ready to go. 3 - 2 - 1 and we were over the side backwards and in the ocean. Without really knowing what we were doing we ended up kneeling on the ocean floor (at least we were - not everyone had too much control!) and purposefully filling our masks with water and other fun stuff!! Despite the initial anxiousness and slightly dodgy feeling, it was awesome and we got to have our 1st experience of breathing under water, the reef, the little fish, the big fish and the general awesomeness of SCUBA - at least that is what I thought!
Who knew learning to dive took so much studying?! We watched more videos and read more chapters as the days progressed. We did "confined" water training in the bay and managed to stay out of the pool and everyday we had an open water dive. The reef in Roatan is dubbed as the 2nd best in the World, I have no basis for comparison, but would have to agree! As each day went on we both fell more and more in love with Scuba and the reading wasn't that bad!
Tuesday night was the last night for Angela, Ulla and Claudia (now that we had finally found her)so we all went out and had a few to drink, and then a few more! We also found out that Obama was the new President, so we had a few more!! Yay!! On Wednesday we woke up much earlier than we wanted and had our 3rd open water dive in the morning and came back for lunch, after which we took our final tests, and passed.... yay!! Only our 4th open water dive and we would be away!!
That afternoon things got messy..... I got ill and the power went out - no running water, no flushing toilet! And there was civil unrest on the Island. We stayed in! Come Thursday, still under the influence of a stomach bug, I was unable to dive but Jen went out and finished her course and came back a certified Open Water Diver! To celebrate we had lunch, and I kept it down... woooooo! Another quiet, powerless evening lay ahead and in the morning I was able to take my final dive and Jen had her 1st fun dive. Before lunch I was certified too and with the power back on we were even able to get some cash, pay our bill and get back on the road by lunch.
The boat ride back to La Ceiba was no where near as bad and we were able to enjoy our books and arrived safely on mainland Honduras, ready for a full 2 days of travel! We jumped on a bus and started our journey to Nicaragua, first stop Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
6 hours later we arrived and took a cab to the hotel there, where we even had a TV! But no remote! Come morning we trotted over to the TICA bus office for the 9am bus all the way to Managua, Nicaragua. It was full. So the journey began. A cab to the other bus station, a chicken bus to El Paraiso, another to the border. Another chicken bus (chicken buses are old US school buses, made for little kids, most Central Americans fit into these seats. I, however, don't.) to Ocotal and then a bus from Ocotal to Managua. We had a cab take us to the other bus station were we finally arrived in Granada, Nicaragua around 730pm last night. Long day! We met a friendly Aussie girl and Coast Rican guy who led us to the hostel, we wished however we had taken a cab as after 45mins of walking with our packs, we were a little hot!!
After getting a room we needed to eat and desperately wanted a beer. Just our luck, no alcohol may be served here for the 3 days we are in towne due to the election..... what are the chances? Early to bed it was!
Today we are exploring here and deciding where to go next before we head to Costa Rica, maybe stay here, maybe to the beach to surf and chill, who knows??
Till next time....
I'm gonna get ya little fishy...........
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