2019: Nicaragua

Mar 3, 2019.  Albergue Ecológico El Porvenir, Santa Cruz, Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua 

• Great morning kayak ride in a double kayak with my guide Hector ($25).  Many types of herons and egrets, kingfishers, gallinules, jaçana, Osprey, long-tailed blackbird, parrots.  Lovely paddle up the Rio Istlan, with floating cabbage-like plants eventually blocking the way.  Three howler monkeys curled up sleeping in the top branches of a tree.  But no caymans.  He next drove me on the back of his motorcycle to a restaurant where I got a passion fruit juice and a sandwich for takeout (only disadvantage here: no restaurant.  Breakfast was a coffee).  

• It is now 11 AM, and I may just park my ass in the rocking chair at the back porch of my room and do very little - perhaps check out more petroglyphs, or walk to the mirador.  Both volcanoes still covered with clouds, but it may clear up.  The hotel is between them: Volcans Concepción and Maderas.  Hector said their was a 9:30 bus on the main road tomorrow morning.   Not looking forward to leaving this place!  Sleeping 10-12 hours a night, with frequent breaks for pee-pee and a little reading.  Exercising every other day (pushups - 34, 30, 25 - and triceps - 40, 35, 31?).  Plus Ogaden stretches every morning.  Do they do any good?  Still feel slow and unbalanced when walking.  Did steroids do anything?  I think so.  Will I be able to handle Mexico to Lordsburg?  No idea.

• Notes: Crowded buses.  Always a smile for a response (even if no words).  Lots of hammocks.  Dirt-poor adobe and thatch-roofed homes.  Trash everywhere- but worse in Honduras.  Some begging in Nicaraguan towns.  Very difficult to talk politics, especially in Nicaragua.  Everybody hates Trump.  Not really hot anywhere - except in León.  Squirrels.  Not much street business in Nicaragua.  Jesus / God aphorisms everywhere; example: “Si Dios esta conmígo...nadie contra mí.”  No pizza by the slice.  T.P. In wastebasket, never in toilet.  Second poorest country in Central America is Nicaragua - first is Haiti.  Main image in churches is the Virgin Mary.  WiFi almost everywhere.  Flat landscape, brown fields, acacia-like trees: looks like Africa, but with cows and horses.  Lots of guards, some vey young, with nasty looking rifles, guarding stores, restaurants, ATM machines.  Upper left leg hurts after an hour or so on buses. Mosquitoes, heat rarely a problem. Lots of hammocks.  Horse drawn carriages.  Dollars only in El Salvador.  Dollars & Cordobas in Nicaragua.  Streets with multi-color buildings.  Never really clear.  Many flowering bushes and trees.  Really cheap buses and tuk-tuks (especially the latter).  Black sand beaches.  Lake Nicaragua has sharks.  Used to be possible to go between Caribbean and Pacific by boat.  Recycled U.S. school buses.  Every t-shirt has an ad.  Atmosphere always seems unclear, vistas  washed out.  

• Back hurts after most nights.  Sleeping in 3-4 hour stretches, punctuated with pee stops and some reading.

• Deciding to skip the southern piece of the CDT: too late in the season April 5-6?  If I ever try again, it will be a month earlier.  So now flying straight to San Diego from the condo, maybe see Nicki, Hal (?), Paul (?), Commission Junction (?), and on to Nancy.  The Central American adventure is coming to a close.

• Booked some flights after Cuba: MEX > PVR, MEX > SAN, and an Avi’s car rental.  Emailed Hal I may drop by (he’s retired).

MEX > SAN

• American: $235

PVR > MEX

• Volaris: $65