Bluefields del 24 al 27 de Agosto

Pasamos la noche del 23 en Managua. La ciudad es peligrosa y teniamos que ir en taxi cuando saliamos ($2 por una carrera) Nos atrevimos a ir andando desde el hostal hasta la estación de buses para ver billetes hacia El Salvador. Estaba a tan solo una manzana (cuadra como dicen aqui) y nos paró un muchaho (pandillero). Empezó a decirnos lo peligrosa que era la ciuadad, que no fueramos por aquella calle que nos robarían, que no fueramos por la otra que aunque no llevaramos dinero nos quitaban la ropa para llevarse algo, etc. Nos dijo que era mejor que alquilaramos un taxi por una hora para ver la ciudad porque nosotros (especialmente Lauren por ser tan blanca) eramos como símbolos de dólar para la gente de alli. Tambien nos dijo que no pensemos que la gente es mala en Managua solo que tienen hambre y tienen que sobrevivir. Le dejamos hablar para no enfadarle y siguio contando cosas de Managua, de un asesinato que vio la noche antes y que aqui nadie les ayuda como en Europa asi que tienen que pelear. Acabó diciendo que nunca sabes cuando vas a morir aqui en Managua y si nosotros sabiamos cuando ibamos a morir. Le dimos la razón en todo y le dimos 10 córdobas para que comprara unos nacatamales. Así pudimos llegar a la estación de bus. Al salir tomamos un taxi directos a un centro comercial donde pasamos la tarde.

De madrugada, el mismo taxista vino a recogernos para llevarnos a otra estacíon donde salen los buses para Bluefields. El bus salio a las 5am y llegamos al Rama a medido día. Allí tomamos una lancha rápida por el río Escondido que nos llevó, tras dos horas más, hasta Bluefields. Por el camino vimos algunas cabañas de indígenas a los lados del río (el río era muy ancho) como la de Sisi. Al parecer los habitantes de esta zona son de las tribus garífunas y miskitos. Es un viaje precioso. Lleno de vegetación y numerosas curvas me hizo pensar que John Grisham debio estar en un sitio como este cuando escribio "The Testament" un libro que transcurre en el Paraná de Brasil. Bluefields fue un protectorado inglés en la costa del Caribe de Nicaragua. No es muy bonito. Las tormentas son constantes como es habitual en la costa Caribe. La mitad de la población es negra, desdendientes de los esclavos que trajeron los ingleses. Estos hablan un ingles creole, difícil de entender. Otra parte de la población habla español, y una tercera parte habla miskito que era la lengua indígena existente antes de que llegaroan los españoles e ingleses.

Teníamos planeado ir a las islas del Maíz. Había un festival ese fin de seman llamado la fiesta del cangrejo! Cada 29 de Agosto celebran la abolición de la esclavitud en esta zona. Conocimos a dos chicas francesas muy simpáticas. Audrey y Sophie. Sophie es profesora de francés en Guayana Francesa y Audrey es enfermera y había estado trabajando en Bolivia y Perú. Ahora acaba de conseguir un trabajo con Médicos sin Fronteras y está a las espera de destino.

El miercoles hicimos cola desde las 6am para conseguir los billetes. A las 7:15 abrieron la oficina y vendieron muy pocos billetes porque ya estaban reservados. Nos dijeron que había un barco privado (de mercancías) que tambien salía a las 9am. Hablamos con el capitán y conseguimos billetes. Montamos a las 8am y esperamos. Y esperamos. Y esperamos. A las 12pm aparece el capitán y dice que se baje todo el mundo porque hay gente que no ha pagado y porque hay sobrecarga. Tambien porque no hay salvavidas para todos. Vinieron con más salvavidas y literalmente la gente se tiro a por ellos como animales. La gente me aplastó contra unos sacos de patatas y me subí en ellos para gritar a todos que se calmaran y escucharan al capitán. Mientras un hombre me cogio del brazo para que me bajara de sus patatas, el capitán me dio salvavidas para Lauren, Audrey, Sophie y para mi. Después un revisor, un hombre con camiseta de hombreras y cuerpo de jugador de NBA vino con un bate de beisbol en mano a revisar que los pasajeros llevábamos billetes. Los extranjeros que estábamos en el barco no podíamos creerlo. Era como estar en una película. Nos hicieron salir y entrar al barco tres o cuatro veces (sin abrir las puertas si quiera si no saltando por la borda) A las 15:30 decidimos que ya era suficiente y decidimos irnos. Hablé con el capitán para que nos devolviera el dinero porque no ibamos a navegar de noche en un barco mercante sobrecargado (íbamos en el suelo sentados y tumbados unos junto a otros, parecido a los barcos de senegaleses que llegan a España.) Por la noche salimos a cenar con Audrey y Sophie y los cuatro probamos el ron Flor de Caña tan famoso en Nicaragua.

Decidimos volver a Managua el Jueves 27. Llamamos al mismo taxista que conocíamos (ya que nos habían advertido que en Managua algunos taxistas se organizan con ladrones para robar a los turistas y dejarles tirados en cualquier sitio.) Este taxista fue de confianza y le llamamos cada vez que lo necesitábamos. Al día siguiente, a las 4am de la mañana salimos hacia San Salvador, El Salvador. En el viaje pasamos por el sur de Honduras, que nos parecio calmado y donde solo pudimos ver algunas pintadas a favor de Micheletti. Pasamos por control de aduanas y narcóticos. Llegamos sin problemas a El Salvador. De momento hemos decidido no permanecer en Honduras por la situación actual pero es probable que lo dejemos para el final del viaje (unos diez días quizás.)

León - Capital of the Revolution

19/08/09 - 23/08/09

From Granada we made our way to León via the capital, Managua, using what seems to be quite a popular mode of transport between the three cities....minivans. It is a lot easier and more comfortable than getting a regular bus and there is not a huge difference in price, the only disadvantage being that the minivans do not leave until they are full. That was not a problem in Granada, but we had to wait almost half an hour in Managua, all the while with people swarming around the van trying to sell us drinks, biscuits, dvds, newspapers and god knows what else!

Arriving in León we headed to "Calle de los Poetas", a hostel we had picked out of the guide book, but unaware that the hostel consisted of only three rooms, we arrived to find that it was fully booked. We got chatting to the owner, Rigo Sampson, whose family came over to Nicaragua from England in the 19th Century. He himself speaks very good English having spent a year living in London. Luckily for us, he knew of a neighbour across the road who also rents rooms and so we had a bed for the next few nights. There we had the chance to meet Richelle, an American girl from Seattle, who had come to León to do a 3-week intensive Spanish course. Richelle, if you get to see this, it was a pleasure to meet you, we hope you enjoyed your time in San Juan del Sur and we hope to see you in Seattle one day :)

León was originally founded in the same year as Granada, 1524, by the very same Francisco Hernández de Cordoba, but a volcanic eruption in 1609 completely destroyed the city and so it was moved to its current location, 40km away. Culturally, it is the most important city in the country, home to several famous poets, including the most famous of all, Ruben Darío, and the site of several universities. León´s importance and advantageous position on Lake Managua even earned the city a period as capital of Nicaragua, until Mangua was named capital in 1852, as a compromise between the eternal rivals León and Granada.

León has twelve churches spread throughout the city, the biggest being the cathedral on the main square which took 113 years to build. It is the biggest cathedral in the whole of Central America and there is a legend which says that this particular cathedral was supposed to be built in Lima, Peru, but somehow the plans got mixed up and so it was built in León instead. Who knows if there is any truth in it, but nonetheless, it is a magnificent building, and the interior is breathtaking. The cathedral also houses the tomb of Ruben Darío, which is guarded by a sorrowful lion. This is meant to represent the sadness of the people of León (Spanish for lion) at the passing of the great poet, who considered León his home and always returned here after his long periods abroad. There is a museum dedicated to Ruben Darío and it is in the very building where he spent his childhood under the care of his aunt and uncle, and where he spent the final months of his life before passing away in 1916 at the age of only 49. The museum is only small but has so much information and several possessions of the poet on display, it was really interesting. Another Nicaraguan poet, Alfonso Cortés, also lived for a time in the same house and went mad there in 1927. His family used to keep him locked in his room because of his mad outbursts and you can still see where he once bent the iron girders at one of the windows in his attempt to 'escape'.

We visited two other museums in León: the Museum of the Revolution and the Museum of Legends and Traditions. The former only consisted of one room with several photos and newspaper clippings, but the man that showed us around knew so much that we ended up spending almost two hours with him. The Revolution took place in 1979 and started in León, hence why León is referred to as the Capital of the Revolution. The Revolution was led by the Sandinistas (followers of the much admired Augusto Cesar Sandino who was assassinated in 1934) and resulted in the removal of the dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. He was the third and final Somoza to be President of Nicaragua. His father and brother had gone before him, meaning that Nicaragua had been subjected to a Somoza dictatorship for 43 years. In 1979, the country was finally free, although that was by no means the end of it all. The Sandinistas had triumphed but not everyone agreed with them, and so there formed another group known as the Contras (contra-revolutionaries), and fighting between these two groups went on for another decade. The museum even has a few weapons on display that were actually used during the Revolution, including a bazuka!

The Museum of Legends and Traditions is situated in a former prison, which was used by the Somozas during the period from 1921 to 1979. It was known as Prison 21 because of the year in which building was completed. All kinds of prisoners were bought here: petty thieves, political criminals, rapists and murderers, and the prison was split into sections depending on the type of criminal you were. Members of the church were even imprisoned here if they somehow managed to get on the wrong side of the Somozas, but they were at least spared physical torture. The other inmates were tortured six days a week, from Monday to Saturday. On Sundays they had a day off and instead attended mass in the very place where they were usually tortured...ironic or what? The torture methods included having you ear cut off or your nails pulled out. They also used to file the prisoners' teeth with a huge metal file. These different methods of torture are depicted in drawings on the walls throughout the building. It was a truly awful place, even more so because Somoza´s National Guard also used to arrest innocent people and demand money from their family in return for their release. Sadly, several prisoners died as a result of the torture inflicted on them by the guards. Because of the atrocities that occurred here during all those years, in 1979 when Somoza was overthrown and the prison was shut down, it was forbidden for León to ever open another prison. The nearest jail is in Chinandega, about an hour away.

Apart from the Cathedral, we saw several of León´s other churches, including El Calvario, where in February of 1979 five students were shot by the National Guard in the bell tower. In their memory, there are five crosses bearing their names on the wall, where several bullet holes are still visible. We also saw the oldest of León´s churches, called Sutiaba. An indigenous tribe of the same name used to live in the area, and nearby there is an ancient tree called El Tamarindón. (The tree´s fruit is called tamarindo in Spanish (Eng: tamarind) and can be used to make a juice, which we have tried a couple of times.) The tree is more than 600 years old and approximately 400 hundred years ago, the Spanish used this very tree to hang the chief of the Sutiaba tribe, Adiáct. There is a plaque dedicated to him at the foot of the tree.

One morning we decided to visit Chichigalpa, home of the Flor de Caña distillery (the national brand of rum) and a sugar cane plantation, both of which could be visited according to our guide book. Alas no, the plantation appears to be pretty much deserted now, and the train that once took visitors from Chichigalpa to the plantation is no longer in service. We were thinking of getting a cab there, just in case there was a slight possibility of being able to have a look around, but in order to get in, the taxi driver advised us to say that we wanted to go to the hospital and not to the plantation itself. Apparently if we told them that we wanted to see the plantation they would refuse us entry. Needless to say, we didn´t end up going. We didn´t have any luck at the distillery either. A guard at the gate told us that in order to do a tour around the factory we needed a permit from Managua, which was three hours away! We went back to León feeling rather disappointed, but as a consolation, that afternoon, we got to see a free concert at the theatre, which was being held in celebration of 25 years of partnership with the Austrian town of Salzburg. As well as a couple of traditional singers, there was also a modern pop/rock band who we really liked, and there were lots of folklore dancers as well with fantastic costumes who were accompanied by three percussionists, including someone playing the marimba, a very typical instrument in Nicaragua.

After León, our journey would take us to the Carribean coast of Nicaragua to visit the English-speaking Bluefields and Corn Islands. Due to it being such a long journey we were forced to spend a night in Managua, which we had hoped to avoid, due to its reputation of being one of the most dangerous cities in Central America. The only time we ventured out was to the local Ticabus station (only one block from our hotel) to enquire about bus tickets to El Salvador for the following week, and outside the bus station a fairly young guy started talking to us. Not wanting to annoy him we stood talking to him for about ten minutes, listening, smiling and nodding at everything he said. He told us that we shouldn´t be walking around on our own, even during the daytime, and that if we went two blocks to the right, we would most definitely be robbed. It didn´t even matter if we weren´t carrying money, they would take anything they could. He told me that it was especially dangerous for me because of the fact that I´m so white. Apparently to the people of Managua, my white skin represents a dollar sign! He also said that we shouldn´t think that the people here are bad...they are just hungry and desperate and have to fight to survive. Obviously, he made us feel slightly uncomfortable and completely put us off going anywhere else, but in the end we decided to get a taxi to a nearby shopping centre, where we spent a nice afternoon not worrying about the dangers of the city. We went to the cinema to see State of Play with Russell Crowe, which I thoroughly recommend. This was our second trip to the cinema in the last few days as we also went on our first evening in León. That time we saw The Proposal with Sandra Bullock, a typical romcom, but I´d still recommend that one too :) We got the same taxi driver to pick us up again and take us back to the hotel and arranged for him to take us to the bus stop at 4am the following morning. More about that in the next post.

Leon del 19 al 23 de Agosto

Desde Granada, tomamos una furgoneta hacia Managua, donde tomamos otra furgoneta que nos llevó a León. Dos horas y media de viaje aunque una carretera en condiciones, de las que no abundan en Nicaragua. León, fundada en su localización actual en 1.610. (León viejo fue fundada en 1.524 junto al lago Managua pero la erupción de un volcán destruyó la ciudad.) Es la ciudad cultural más importante del país. Varias universidades y cuna de poetas, el más conocido para todos nosotros es Ruben Darío. Al llegar fuimos a un hostal llamado "calle de los poetas" que estaba lleno. El dueño, Rigoberto Sampson, hablaba inglés y nos comentó que había vivido en Londres un año. Su familia, Sampson, había llegado desde Inglaterra a Nicaragua en el siglo XIX, para la construcción del ferrocarril. Fue muy amable y nos dijo que podíamos alojarnos en la casa del doctor Morales (justo enfrente) ya que alquilaba algunas habitaciones de la casa. Y eso hicimos por cuatro noches. En la casa, lo que más nos llamó la atención fue un loro que decía "Gola" y "luego". León tiene la catedral más grande de centro américa, dice la leyenda que iba a ser construida en Lima (Perú) pero se traspapelaron los planos de las catedrales de estas dos ciudades y se hicieron en sitios distintos. En la catedral está enterrado Rubén Darío. Encima de su tumba, hay un león con cara triste que representa la tristeza de la ciudad de León tras su muerte. Visitamos la casa de los tios de Rubén Darío, donde pasó su vida desde niño hasta los quince años más o menos. Ahora es un museo que cuenta la historia del poeta y tiene objetos personales suyos. Viajó por todo el mundo y fue diplomático en Madrid entre 1.908-1.909. Una frase por la que le recuerdan los nicaragüenses es "Si pequeña es la patria, uno grande la sueña". También visitamos el museo de leyendas, situado en la antigua cárcel de Somoza, la 21. Aquí traían presos comunes, políticos y criminales. Los torturaban de Lunes a Sábado y les daban misa los Domingos. Entre las torturas estaban, limarles los dientes, arrancarles las uñas, cortarles las orejas, etc. Al parecer, este horrible lugar le servía a Somoza para meter miedo a la población. Se convirtio en un negocio de la Guardia Nacional ya que metían a gente presa para pedir un soborno a la familia. Y aunque fueran inocentes los torturaban hasta matarlos o hasta que la familia pagaba. Esto hizo que fuera León la primera ciudad en rebelarse contra Somoza y en la actualidad no puede haber cárcel en esta ciudad! Visitamos la iglesia del Calvario donde cinco estudiantes universitarios fueron acribillados por la Guardia de Somoza en el campanario. Se pueden ver las balas en la pared entre las cinco cruces con sus nombres. Tambien visitamos la Iglesia de Suitava que era la ciudad indígena antes de que los españoles fundaran la ciudad de León. Hay un árbol grande, llamado el Tamarindón, donde los españoles ahorcaron al jefe de los indígenas de Suitava. Visitamos el museo histórico de la revolución. Allí nos enseñaron quienes fueron los líderes de la revolución, quien fue Sandino, y armas reales de la guerra, entre ellas, un bazoka americano tomado a los Contras. En la casa del médico conocimos una norteamericana de Seattle, Richelle, que ha venido a Nicaragua a aprender español y nos ha invitado a visitar su ciudad si pasamos por EE.UU.
Uno de estos cuatro días fuimos a Chichigalpa donde está la fábrica del ron Flor de Caña y un tren que debía llevarnos a la plantación de caña de azúcar. Pero fue decepcionante porque ya no había tren, al parecer la plantación está medio abandonada y no nos dejaron ver la destilación del ron porque necesitábamos un permiso de Managua ( a tres horas) para que nos hicieran un tour por la fábrica. Desde León tomamos otra furgoneta destino Managua. En la furgoneta, apretados y con nuestras mochilas encima de las piernas conocimos a León (irónico eh), un chico inglés que está viajando por Nicaragua y que vuelve mañana a Londres. Acabamos de llegar a Managua y pasaremos la noche aquí antes de partir hacia Bluefields en la costa Caribe. Managua es la ciudad más peligrosa que hemos visto en el viaje. Tenemos que ir en taxi a todas partes, sin reloj ni cámara de fotos y la verdad es que impone bastante con las bandas de jóvenes por la calle (jungla urbana sin duda) (La primera y la última foto son de la catedral. La segunda y la tercera son de la casa de los tios de Ruben Darío donde el vivio su infancia y adolescencia, y donde siempre regresaba tras sus viajes por Europa y Norteamérica. Hoy en día es un museo en su honor.)

Granada

12/08/09 - 18/08/09

From Ometepe we took a boat to Granada at midnight on the 11th, arriving in Granada at 4.45am on the 12th. It was an uncomfortable journey as the boat swayed a lot and the air conditioning was up so high that we were both freezing, but we tried to get some sleep and the hours soon passed. As a birthday present to Vic, we were going to spend our first night in Granada in the beautiful Hotel Darío (named after the famous Nicaraguan poet Ruben Darío). It made such a change to the cheap hostels we have grown accustomed to, and having been allowed to check in at 6am, we were able to enjoy a full 24 hours of luxury :) Our room was huge, with two double beds, and the bathroom had a bath with hot water!!! The hotel had beautiful gardens, a gym, a swimming pool, a buffet breakfast with all of the usual delights you find at a good hotel, and its own cafe and restaurant...it was simply perfect! That first day, I also signed up for an intensive Spanish course (five classes of four hours each), starting the next day. My teacher was lovely and got through a lot in the 20 hours. I also had a lot of homework, so several nights I was up past midnight getting it all done, as we usually spent the afternoons sightseeing. It was completely worth it though and hopefully it will help my Spanish to improve even more before we finish the trip. I was presented with a certificate on my last day, and there is a picture of me with my teacher below.

Granada, along with León, is one of the oldest cities in Central America, having been founded in 1524 by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, a Spanish conqueror, who was born in the Spanish city of Granada (hence the name). Over the years it has been the victim of several attacks, including at least three assaults by pirates. The most famous, however, dates back to 1856 when most of Granada was destroyed in a fire, which had been ordered by the North-American filibuster William Walker (yes, he is infamous in Nicaragua as well!). He had been contracted by the Liberals in León to help them fight against the Conservatives of Granada, and all went according to plan until Walker named himself President of Nicaragua and insisted that English would be the new official language, which obviously didn´t go down to well. What had been a civil war between the eternally rivalrous Granada and León turned into a war against Walker and his men, who eventually surrendered and returned to the US. Walker was later executed in Honduras in 1860.

Prior to Granada being founded, the area had been occupied by an indigenous tribe known as the Chorotegas, and Granada has a museum dedicated to indigenous artefacts, which have been discovered by archaeologists over the years. We visited the museum during a tour we did one afternoon and saw, among other things, funeral urns which were used as containers for the skeletal remains of someone once the body had decomposed in its grave. The tour was very original as our guide was also a singer, so throughout the afternoon she sang us a few songs, and she was even wearing a typical folklore dress. She knew so much about Granada, both before and after its foundation, and instead of the three hours that we had agreed on, she walked around with us for five hours, talking constantly. It was very interesting, although after a four hour Spanish lesson that morning, it was quite a lot for me to take in :)

The main square in Granada is surrounded by several impressive buildings including the cathedral and several houses belonging to people of importance such as the bishop, the family Pellas (originally from Italy, this family are the owner of several business interests in Nicaragua including the famous Flor de Caña, the national brand of rum) and Vasquez de Coronado. The latter was another Spanish conqueror, and the building still has its original door dating back to the 16th Century and now houses a cultural centre and historical archive, where Vic spent a few hours chatting to a historian while I was in class one day. He had to pretend that he was doing some research in order to get in :) Away from the main square, there are also several other houses that once belonged to important people, inlcuding former presidents, successful business men and the poet Ruben Darió. This building is now home to a café which has great doughnuts, which we treated ourselves to a few times :) Granada also has several churches, apart from the cathedral, including the San Francisco church, which is the oldest in Granada and also has a convent attached, the Guadalupe Church, which is situated on the way to Lake Nicaragua and the Xalteva Church, where we were able to see a special mass given by the bishop himself.

After our first night of luxury, we obviously had to return to sleeping in hostels, and we eventually ended up in a place with a Spanish owner, Antonio. He moved here from Valencia four years ago to set up a restaurant, having been working as a waiter in Valencia. A tropical storm left him stranded in the the middle of nowhere for a week, with no electricity, no drinking water and no means of communication. The storm had claimed the lives of several victims and seeing how little these people had, he decided that he wanted to help in some way. Four years later, he has a successful hostel and social project up and running, and he is fondly known as "Tio Antonio". All of the funding for the project comes from friends and family back home in Spain, and next to the hostel he also has a hammock workshop, where he employs young homeless people. Here they can learn a trade, earn a salary and transform their lives. Each time the hostel turns a profit of $100 a month he is able to employ another person, and he currently has 38 young people under his wing. He has successfully sent five of his employees to university, when before they might have never even thought it a possibility. Over the next few years he is planning to expand the project and has already purchased a big piece of land for which he already has several ideas. He has already achieved such a lot and helped so many people, and we wish him all the best for the future and hope that everything works out for him and the people he helps. If you´re interested in knowing more, their website is http://www.tioantonio.org/.

On the one day when I didn´t have to go to Spanish, we took a bus to Masaya for a few hours, which is famous for its handicrafts. There are two markets there, although we were not interested in seeing the main market, which is huge, crowded and very dirty. Instead we headed straight to the handicrafts market, which is fairly new and a lot smaller, cleaner and calmer. We bought a bracelet each to add to the ones we had bought in Costa Rica, and Vic also bought some old bank notes from 1985 for his collection. We were really tempted to buy a hammock as they were all so beautiful, but apparently the postage to send one back to Europe would cost more than the hammock itself, and there is no way we can carry one around with us, so unfortunately we had to decide against it in the end. Another time maybe. After so many days in Granada we were feeling quite settled and it was kind of sad to be leaving, but we still have a long way to go before December, so I guess we better get a move on :)

(Video from the mass that we saw at the Xalteva Church)

Granada 12 a 19 de Agosto

Llegamos en barco desde la isla de Ometepe a la ciudad colonial de Granada. La ciudad fue fundada por Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba en 1.524. Anteriormente, esta zona habia estado habitada por los Chorotegas, enemigos de los Niquiranos de Ometepe. Los españoles construyeron aqui la ciudad, junto al lago Nicaragua ya que les permitia salir al mar a traves del lago y el rio San Juan. Lo que mas llama la atencion en esta ciudad es la gran cantidad de edificios coloniales (grandes casas con techos de teja roja y grandes puertas. Las casas coloniales no tienen ventanas) En el parque central hay una gran catedral y esta rodeada de otras grandes casas como la del obispo, la de la famila Pellas, comerciantes italianos que producen el famoso ron Flor de Caña, la de Vasquez de Coronado (conquistador español) que mantiene una puerta del siglo XVI y se ha convertido en un archivo historico que pude visitar haciendome pasar por investigador. Estuve hablando con el historiador del archivo unas dos horas y me contó cosas muy interesantes de la ciudad y de Nicaragua. Tambien vimos la casa de Ruben Darío en la que actualmente venden unos buenísimos donuts! A Lauren le gusta el de colores y a mi el de dulce de leche!
La ciudad fue arrasada en la guerra civil, entre Liberales (de Leon) y Conservadores (de Granada), por el norteamericano William Walker (que apoyaba a los leoneses) en 1.856 y que impuso el ingles como el idioma oficial de Nicaragua. Los nicaragüenses se revelaron y la guerra civil se convirtio en una guerra contra los norteamericanos de Walker.
Nuestro primer día fue un poco diferente a lo que estamos acostumbrados ya que Lauren, como regalo de cumpleaños me invitó a un bonito hotel colonial, el hotel Darío cuyos dueños son empresarios de Barcelona. Como mochileros no estamos acostumbrados a tener agua caliente en la ducha, desayuno buffet con jamón serrano, gimnasio, tv por cable (ni siquiera tv) o un jardín con piscina. Esos fueron los lujos de las primeras 24 horas en Granada. Al llegar, el recepcionista miró extrañado a nuestras grandes mochilas y pensó que nos habíamos equivocado... "el mini hostal esta 100 metros mas abajo le faltó decir, hehe" Gracias Lauren!
Los seis días siguientes volvimos a la dura realidad de los hostales baratos donde los cortes de luz y agua son frecuentes (como lo son para la mayoria de la población en Nicaragua) Nos alojamos en el hospedaje de un hombre Valenciano que lleva cuatro años en Nicaragua. Tengo que contar la historia de este hombre en Granada porque nos parecio que está haciendo un trabajao increible. Una historia muy diferente a la de aquella ONG canadiense que arrasó por Tortuga. "Tio Antonio", camarero de profesión, vino a Nicaragua a poner un restaurante. Una tormenta tropical le dejó incomunicado durante una semana en una zona rural Nicaragüense donde no hay luz ni agua potable y convivio con una familia por esa semana. La tormenta mató a unas decenas de personas y le hizo pensar que quería ayudar. Montó un pequeño hostal y abrio un taller de hamacas en el que emplea a chicos vagabundos (en Granada hay muchos niños pidiendo por la calle) Cuatro años después hay 38 niños/as menos en la calle y cuenta con una sonrisa que acaba de mandar a los cinco primeros a la universidad! Todos los beneficios del hostal van para rescatar más niños de la calle que a su vez ayudan a sacar a otros con la fabricación de hamacas. No recibe ayuda de organismos públicos y nos comentó que cada vez que los beneficios del hostal pasan de $100 mes, recoge a otro niño. Cuando le comentamos de la experiencia de la ONG de médicos nos dijo que es verdad que hay muchos que vienen con sus programas para hacerse la foto bonita y ya está pero no se quedan con la población para entender lo que realmente necesitan. Nos alegró haberle conocido y mucha suerte para el centro social "Tio Antonio".
Lauren aprovechó la estancia en Granada para hacer un curso intensivo de español en el que aprendio gramática que no puede aprender en el día a día y consiguio un diploma. Está muy contenta y creo que ha aprendido mucho! Tambien hicimos una rápida visita a la ciudad de Masaya, centro artesanal de Nicaragua donde vendeen un montón de productos hechos a manos por los artesanos de los pueblos de alrededor. El día 19, dejamos Granada con dirección a León, la otra gran ciudad colonial de Nicaragua.

Ometepe Island

08/08/09 - 11/08/09

After bidding Tortuga a fond farewell the night before, we were up early the next morning to catch our usual ride in the back of a pick-up truck, not to San Juan this time but to Rivas, almost two hours away. The last part of the journey from San Juan to Rivas was a lot faster than we are used to as there is a proper road connecting the two towns, and it was so windy! From Rivas we took a cab to the port of San Jorge (which we had to pay to get into) to catch a small boat to Ometepe Island. The boat ride took about an hour and was so bumpy that we both felt quite sea sick...or lake sick to be more accurate :)

The island of Ometepe is situated in Lake Nicaragua (the biggest lake in Central America) and is the biggest island surrounded by fresh water in the world. The boat dropped us off in the port town of Moyagalpa, but having heard that Altagracia was smaller and more charming, we got straight in another cab and within the hour we were finally at our hotel. What a journey :) That night, we went out in search of a good restaurant to celebrate Vic´s birthday with a nice meal and a few drinks, but it seems that good restaurants are few and far between in Altagracia, so we had to settle for a not-so-nice meal. Sorry Vic :( Luckily enough, the next evening, we found a great place to eat. It wasn´t a restaurant as such....the tables were actually out on the pavement and some even in the road. I don´t even know if they had a kitchen there because they do all of the cooking on a big bbq outside...it smells great and that is what first caught our attention. You can choose either chicken, pork or beef and it comes with some salad (which wasn´t very nice) and tajadas, which are crisps made from bananas and which we loved :) We went back there for dinner for the duration of our stay.

One morning we took a walk to the port in Altagracia to enquire about the boats heading for Granada, which was to be our next stop. It seemed to make a lot more sense to us to get a boat from here, rather than going all the way back to Rivas to get on yet another bus. The walk was long but took us past stretches of banana plantations and along the lake shore, where we saw groups of people washing their clothes! When we got to the port it was actually closed but a security guard was able to give us the information we needed so it wasn´t a wasted trip. That afternoon, we decided to rent bikes from our hotel for a few hours and visit the beach of Santa Domingo. The bikes were not in the best of condition...we couldn´t get all of the different gears to work meaning that whenever we went uphill we had to get off and walk up because it was just too hard to pedal. And the brakes on my bike were awful too, so whenever I went downhill I had to squeeze them so hard to make them brake even a little bit and they squeaked the whole way down. It also didn´t help that the majority of journey was over a dirt road dotted with rocks...we felt every bump :) Having finally arrived at the beach, we were a little disappointed to see that it wasn´t all that nice, and having taken so long to get there we soon thought it best to head back. The journey back was actually a little easier, apart from the huge hill we had to get back up...we did it on foot of course, but it was still tough. I was so relieved to get back to the hotel.

There are two volcanoes on the island: Volcano Concepción and Volcano Maderas, and tourists usually go to see one or both of these. We decided we had seen enough volcanoes for now, so instead we arranged to go on a small hike up to a look-out point from where you have a great view over Volcano Concepción. The look-out point is actually situated on the way up to the other volcano, Maderas, but luckily you don´t have to go to the top :) I´m so glad we decided to do only the small hike, as it was more than enough for me. It was only 2km, so compared to the 25km we had done in one day at Chirripo in Costa Rica, it was nothing, but it was quite muddy and hence slippery, and it was also very humid, so not at all easy. The walk was interesting though and took us through fields planted with rice, corn and beans, and we also saw different types of fruit tree, a few tropical flowers and our first petroglyph, depicting the God of Water.

The petroglyphs are carvings in the face of rocks, which are attributed to an ancient tribe called the Niquiranos. There are several petroglyphs in this area of the island and they are between 900 and 1200 years old. The Niquiranos believed in several Gods, such as the God of Water and the God of Fire etc. and the aim of depiciting, for example, the God of Water in stone was to appeal to this God to send them rain. We also found out that the tribe used to offer sacrifices to the Gods and there were two different methods of sacrifice: one method involved cutting the veins of the person to be sacrificed on a sacrifical stone, and the other method was to simply throw the person into the volcano! The Niquiranos also believed that the island was a present from the Gods and for that reason only the wisest of the tribe had the privilege of living on the island and carving the petroglyphs....the unwise ones apparently got left behind in San Jorge or Rivas :)

A Selection of Videos / Una Selección de Videos

Although it is actually a very easy thing to do, it has taken me until recently to work out how to upload videos on to the blog, so although some of these are a bit out of date now, we just thought you might like to see some of our favourite videos so far. Enjoy :)

Podeis ver algunos de nuestros videos favoritos. El primero es en una lancha cruzando de Sierpe a Drake Bay en Costa Rica. El segundo (donde podeis ver al frutero de siete vidas) es una fiesta de cumpleaños en Caballito, Costa Rica. El tercero soy yo ordeñando una vaca a las 6.10 de la mañana en Tortuga! Disfrutad!

Crossing from Sierpe to Drake Bay, Costa Rica



At the birthday party in Caballito, Costa Rica



Vic milking a cow in Tortuga, Nicaragua

Isla de Ometepe, del 8 al 11 de Agosto

Tras abandonar el pueblecito de Tortuga en la parte de atras de una pick up truck, nos dirigimos a la isla de Ometepe. Llegamos en un barco pequenio hasta la ciudad de Moyogalpa. De Moyogalpa tomamos un taxi hasta nuestro destino, Altagracia. Ometepe es la mayor isla del mundo en agua dulce. Se encuentra en medio del lago Nicaragua (mirad en google maps) y tiene unos 50.000 habitantes. Segun un lugareño, Ometepe es la unica isla del mundo rodeada de agua con 50.000 habitantes. Suponemos que debe ser la unica con esa cantidad exacta de habitantes porque quien no ha visto alguna vez alguna otra isla rodeada de agua!! haha. En Ometepe, ademas de descansar, alquilamos unas bicis para darnos una vuelta por la parte norte de la isla. Fuimos hasta la playa de Santo Domingo que no era nada especial. Otro dia fuimos hasta la ladera del volcan Maderas en la parte sur de la isla. Fue una caminata interesante entre campos plantados de arroz y maiz. Desde lo alto podiamos ver la silueta de la isla y el volcan concepcion al fondo. Al bajar fuimos viendo los interesantes Petroglifos, representaciones en piedra hechas por los antiguos Niquiranos hace entre 800 y 1.200 años. Los dibujos eran de animales como serpientes y monos, agua`para pedir al dios del agua que lloviera y humanos. Esta tribu era politeista (creian en varios dioses como el dios del viento, fuego, agua, la luna, el sol, etc) y nos contaron que hacian sacrificios de muchachas jovenes como agradecimiento a los dioses. Habia dos formas, una en una piedra de sacrificios donde les cortaban las venas y otra forma era arrojando a la victima al interior del volcan. Los Niquiranos que podian vivir en la isla eran los sabios y Chamanes pues consideraban que la isla era un regalo de los dioses y solo los mas inteligentes debian habitarla y hacer estas representaciones. El dia 11, pasada la media noche para el dia doce, tomamos otro barco con rumbo a la ciudad colonial de Granada. (pd: hemos puesto mas fotos en las entradas anteriores de Tortuga, entre ellas algunas de clase y de la matanza del cerdo.)

Happy Birthday Vic! - 8th August 2009

Vic, this post is for you, to wish you a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Although we haven´t done anything special and we spent the whole morning travelling from Tortuga to Ometepe (feeling sick in the boat on the way), I still hope you have enjoyed your special day. I´m also sorry that Ometepe does not seem to have any decent restaurants, and that dinner was not all that great. I will make it up to you when we get to Granada, where I am sure there are plenty of restaurants for us to choose from :)

I am happy that we were able to have a small celebration with our friends in Tortuga last night and that you got a lovely birthday cake. I am sure you will never forget it :) Te quiero mucho xxx

Tortuga - Time to Say Goodbye

26/07/09-07/08/09

So the time has come for us to move on from Tortuga and the four weeks we have spent here seem to have gone by so quickly! The biggest and saddest piece of news that we have to share with you, is that the teacher, Dennis, who was absent for the whole of our second week, sadly passed away on the weekend following his absence. A neighbour stopped by at the house on the Sunday evening to tell us what had happened, and afterwards we all made our way to his house for a vigil, where his coffin had been placed ready for the funeral the following day. Half of the village must have been there. We stayed until 2am but several people were there until the morning. We returned again the following afternoon for the funeral. Although most of the village are Evangelists, Dennis was a Catholic, as are all of his family, so a priest came to give mass. It was incredibly sad and even now it is hard to believe. After the service, one of his brothers gave a nice speech, and even mentioned me and Vic, as we were the last two people Dennis had met in his life. He had often told us during our first week how much he appreciated the volunteers who came to teach English, and he always made sure his students made the most of the opportunity to learn. He will be greatly missed.

Before the news had been broken to us, we had spent the day fishing for shrimps in the river. Although there were eight of us, we only managed to catch three shrimp, of which only one made it all the way home. Vic and I didn´t manage to catch any. They were way too quick for us, and we had enough trouble just trying to keep our balance in the water :) On the way to the river, we also stopped to visit the local mill, which we had been told about a few times. Both of us had imagined a big windmill and we were looking forward to seeing it and learning about the milling process, but we were disappointed to find out that ´the mill´was actually just a hand-operated machine, which wasn´t even working that day, so unfortunately we didn´t get to see it in action.

Back at school, the day after the funeral was very difficult for everyone, but especially so for his class and the other teachers, one of whom had worked with Dennis for 21 years. The headmaster asked if we would be able to take over his class for the rest of that week, as a new teacher wouldn´t be available until the following Monday. We were of course happy to do whatever we could, so along with our English classes and Vic´s history classes, we also began to give three classes a day to the primary class (Spanish language, Maths and Social Studies). There were no classes that Friday, although Vic had to give one final History lesson before the exam the following week. I went along too and afterwards we all watched The Patriot with Mel Gibson (one of the topics they had seen had been the Independence of the United States). Before leaving for the class, Angelica, with the help of a relative, had killed the largest of their three pigs, and Vic had watched most of it, and taken a few photos and videos. I did go out for a quick look at one point, but I couldn´t bear to stay and watch. It was awful!! Vic has put a photo below. By the time we got back from watching the film, all that was left was some bags of meat and a pot of crackling sizzling on a fire. We didn´t eat any of it, as we could not bring ourselves to eat the animal who had been living among us for the past three weeks. It didn´t seem to bother them at all, but then again, I suppose they are used to it.

We spent our final weekend in San Juan del Sur, and we had so many things to do that it literally flew by. We had to prepare two English exams and a history exam and get all the photocopies done, we had to buy treats to take into school on our last day, buy farewell presents for all of the family, buy a birthday present for Ismael and a birthday cake for Angelica. We cut it very fine but we managed to get everything done and all the presents wrapped before checking out of our hotel and catching the bus back to Tortuga. That day was Angelica´s birthday and I think the birthday cake came as a big surprise. We bought candles as well, but it was so windy that they would not stay alight long enough for Angelica to blow them out :) But the cake went down well, especially with the kids.

Our final week at school was taken up with the exams, which achieved mixed results, but we still managed to do something a bit different on our final day when we taught them a tongue twister and the 'If you´re happy and you know it clap your hands' song. We also brought in the treats we had bought in San Juan and you wouldn´t believe how quickly they were gone! After the class, a few of the students presented us with presents on behalf of each of the three classes, and we also got given several thank you messages. Afterwards a group of us went to play football for a while (bare foot on very spiky ground), until it looked like it was going to pour down, at which point we decided to make our way home. That evening was our last one in the house, and several people were there to celebrate Ismael´s birthday, which had been the day before, and also Vic´s birthday, which was the following day. Ismael had been given a small piñata (this is one of those colourful figures that are filled with sweets and coins that you have to beat with a stick until the contents have fallen on to the floor - a lot of fun to watch). They even surprised Vic with a birthday cake and this time there was no wind, so he got to blow his own candles out :) We had given our presents to the family the evening before, as Thursdays are the only day of the week when the whole family is together, and on our last evening, they also gave us a small gift each, which was completely unexpected but very much appreciated. During that final week, we also finally got to go to La Flor, which is the best-known place in Nicaragua to see turtles. It took about 40 minutes to walk there, as by the time we left home it was already dark so we were walking with torches, and we stayed on the beach for about 6 hours, without even catching a glimpse of a turtle :( Luckily, Hilario was going back home that night so we didn´t have to walk back.

We have had the experience of a lifetime in Tortuga and we are so grateful to the family for having shared their home with us for the past month and for making the effort to show us so many different things. We will miss them a lot and will remember them always. Although it is sad to be saying goodbye, we are very much looking forward to carrying on with our journey and to all the experiences it still has in store for us. We will obviously keep you updated :)

Tortuga, del 26 de Julio al 8 de Agosto

Las dos ultimas semanas en Tortuga han estado marcadas por dos tristes eventos y algunos felices. La muerte del maestro de primaria Denis y la matanza del chancho negro fueron los tristes. El maestro Denis tenia problemas con el alcohol de vez en cuando y esta semana fallecio parece que por beber mas de lo que su cuerpo podia aguantar. Fuimos con la mitad del pueblo a su casa para el velatorio y nos quedamos hasta las dos de la maniana. El ataud lo pusieron en la casa en vez de llevarlo a un tanatorio. Al dia siguiente vino un sacerdote (aunque la mayoria en el pueblo son evangelicos, la familia del maestro era catolica) y oficio una misa en la misma casa. El hermano del maestro, hizo un pequenio discuro de agredecimiento a los que alli estabamos e incluso nos nombro a Lauren y a mi ya que fuimos las ultimas personas que Denis habia conocido y como companieros en la escuela durante la primera semana. Despues fuimos todos al cementerio del pueblo. El director nos pregunto si podiamos hacernos cargo de sus clases de espaniol, matematicas y ciencias sociales durante una semana para los ninios de 5 y 6 de primaria por lo que estuvimos dandoles clase a estos grupos ademas de continuar con nuestras clases de ingles e historia a secundaria.

La matanza del cerdo fue muy triste y Lauren no quiso verla. Un vecino, Eloy, vino para la matanza. Atan al cerdo con una cuerda a un palo. Lo golpea con la parte de atras de un hacha (dos veces) y cae al suelo atontado. Entonces lo atraviesa con un cuchillo por el cuello para que se desangre. Me llamo la atencion que el cerdo no muere en unos segundos sino que se mantiene vivo unos 20 minutos pataleando a pesar del agujero en la garganta.... Una experiencia que no quiero repetir.
Tambien fuimos a por camarones a un rio. Eramos ocho y cogimos tres camarones..... Y perdimos dos a la vuelta! haha. Pusimos los examenes de ingles e historia y nos hicieron una despedida en el colegio con algunos pequenios regalos y papeles escritos con mensajes de los estudiantes. Despues nos fuimos a jugar al futbol (y descalzos) con ellos a un campo de hierba y lodo. Muy divertido! El ultimo dia, la madre de la familia me regalo una tarta por mi cumpleanios!
Ah se me olvidaba, el ultimo dia de escuela llegamos y el colegio estaba tomado por una ONG o empresa de medicos canadienses. Nadie habia dicho nada a los maestros y todos los ninios y maestros fuimos dejados afuera. Ellos traian permiso de "las autoridades" para hacer una revision medica. Aunque me parece una buena idea ayudar a paises pobres con medios me parecio un atropello a la misma poblacion. Vienen solo una vez al anio (en v ez de hacer una ayuda permanente con un centro, etc) y aunque habia 80 pacientes solo atendieron a 40 porque era lo que tenian escrito. Eran prepotentes, como si fueran duenios del lugar y no hablaban espaniol a excepcion de uno de ellos que hacia de traductor a los cuatro medicos y 10 administrativos (que se pusieron en las puertas del colegio bloqueando a cualquiera no autorizado). No comieron nada local sino sus hamburguesas precocinadas y no permitian a los profesores acercarse a la escuela. Yo me atrevi a hacer tres fotos y vino uno de ellos preguntando quien era yo, si trabajaba alli y si tenia permiso oficial o de una "autoridad" para estar alli o hacer fotos. Les comente que era profesor de ingles en la escuela y que nadie nos habia dicho que se suspendian las clases. Me dijeron que esto era una clinica (cuantas veces habeis visto pupitres arrinconados, pizarras y tizas en una clinica?) les dije que llevaba siendo una escuela 30 anios... me hicieron borrar las fotos. Ellos tenian un camara que grababa todo lo que les interesaba supongo que para conseguir fondos en Canada, etc de su buena labor. Me dio mucha pena la poca consideracion hacia la poblacion local de esta ONG o empresa. Los apuntes que habia en un aula de una de las maestras fueron encontrados en la papelera.... Una de las chicas de la familia tiene un problema en los huesos (aqui los medicos generales son gratuitos pero los especialistas hay que pagarlos) Como no tienen dinero le pregunte que porque no se acercaba a los doctores canadienses. Entonces es cuando supe que la ONG habia cortado la lista de 80 pacientes a 40 y no podia ser atendida. Despues de dos horas de interrupcion, se fueron en sus todoterrenos (al dia seiguiente repetirian esto en otra aldea de la zona, etc) y pudimos corregir el examen, enseniarles una cancion y un trabalenguas en ingles y repartir gominolas y galletas a los ninios.
El dia 8 era mi cumpleanios! Gracias a todos por las felicitaciones en el blog, facebook o emails! A las 5:30 de la maniana nos montamos en la parte trasera de una camioneta y tras dos horas de viaje llegamos a la ciudad de Rivas. Alli, un taxi nos acerco a San Jorge por 1 dolar, donde tomamos un barco hasta Moyogalpa en la isla de Ometepe.