Flavia & Gregory go LA

After spending a full week in expensive Antigua, we have finally made it to Lake Atitlan, where we are staying for a few days.
Antigua was good - I finally calmed down after the first two days of incessable walking around, revisiting the old places I knew and checking out the new ones. Antigua is like a Restobar-Disneyland, there are venues of all sorts and taste. Most businesses are unfortunately foreign, and in effect foregneirs are buying our the city leaving the locals with a very high cost of living and low salaries. But the place is vibrant and the city beautiful and still worth a few days, despite not being anything like the real Guatemala. So, while Gregory spent his entire week going swimming in the morning and taking Spanish lessons with Teresa in the afternoon, I spent my time looking around and planning our last month in Mexico. We now have a fairly detailed itinerary for Mexico, though we still dont know if we will be able to spend any time on the coast for New Years, since everything seems to be booked out.
In Antigua we indulged in some reall nice restaurants, the best experience being a jazz brunch at Panza Verde, the top restaurant for refined cuisine as well as a beautiful colonial hotel. We also managed to go dancing at the Villa Antigua with Teresa and Janet like in the old days - meeting at Janet's for drinks before getting to the venue, where drinks are expensive.

On Sunday we took the shuttle to Lake Atitlan. Prices for shuttles have come down from the time I was here, or the price of the public buses have gone up - one of the two - so it does not make a lot of economic sense to travel on Guatemala's famous chicken buses. Chicken buses are beautifully colourful, noisy, vibrant buses, and people transport all sort stuff on them, including small animals - from there their name. They are not as elaborate as the ones in Panama City, but they are still exceptionally beautiful. Once on the lake we took the lancha to S Pedro La Laguna, where Adi was waiting for us. We checked in at his hotel - Hotel Tepepul Kaan - a really nice little hostel incredibly quiet for the location in the very centre of S Pedro.

S Pedro is quite a peculiar place. It is the hippie capital of Guatemala - and maybe of the whole of Latin America - you see the weirdest people walking around, most with long, uncombed hair and very few teeth in their mouth. Not really pretty sights to be honest, and quite effective to put you off drugs forever... Nevertheless, the place is pleasant, there are lots of nice cosy venues where to have excellent cheap food and enjoy life.
We didnt really do much there apart from eating and drinking - food is about half price than back in Antigua. The town is full of places that will show movies for free, plus facilities to download music and films, so you can keep quite busy just doing that. The best places we found were D-Noz and their super nachos dish, by the jetty, Buddha, a moldy place that dishes out fantastic thai food and where on Mondays a really good blues band plays live, and Shanti Shanti, another little rudimentary restaurant with very good breakfasts and falafels.
Apart from pigging out, one day we managed to go hiking on a section of the lake, walking along the path that joins the villages from Santa Cruz to San Marcos. That took a few hours and was enjoyable and worthwhile.

Today we are back in Antigua for one night, in the morning we are off to Lanquin to see the famous Semuc Champeys limestone pools and caves, which is about 8 hours north of here, on the way to Tikal. Tikal will be our last stop in Guatemala.

Here it is, the most typical Atitlan pic..

The path and views from Santa Cruz to San Marco

Mural in S Juan

The journey from Granada to Antigua went really smoothly. In the queue at the Ticabus station we bumped into a couple of familiar faces again: Lone and Lars, who stayed at Elsas on Little Corn, and Ade, whom we crossed back in Granada after first meeting him in Ecuador. Lone and Lars were working on taking their friends car from Nicaragua to Canada and had offered us a lift, however things went wrong and they couldnt leave on time. So Lone went to take the bus all the way to Mexico while Lars remained in the country to see if he could succeed to get the car out eventually. So we had some nice company all the way to Guatemala. The first day it was about 11 hours to San Salvador, where we had to stop overnight. On Sunday we had another early start and by 11:30 am we were in Guatemala City. We shared a taxi directly to Antigua and got there a lot earlier than expected, urrah.

I couldnt wait to get to Antigua, this is where I have first learnt Spanish and have a lot of nice memories. I had lost contact with Teresa, my teacher, a good while back, so I was really full of hope to go and see if I could find her again. And I did!! She was there, exactly the same, and her mum and 4 sons. I was almost in tears from the joy! The funny thing that happened was that we reserved a hostel online before getting to Antigua, El Hostal. When we got there, I realised this hostel was in the same road as my old school. So we are walking down the road looking for the hostel, when I spot the school building from a few steps away: I am just there telling Gregory how that was my old school, when I realise that the school IS the hostel we have booked!!! The school relocated across the road and the building got adapted into a hostel. WOW, did not expect that. But actually an excellent choice, we have now been here for almost a week and have really enjoyed it. It is really quiet, super clean and we have, Wi-fi in our room, which means access to the Internet as we please, from our bed. This is a luxury we have not had for a long time.

Beautiful Antigua

Gregory having Spanish lessons with my old teacher in my old school... in our hostel!!!

El Hostal

The other day I managed to convince Gregory to go and see Volcan Pacaya, which I climbed the last time I was here. Things have changed quite a lot since then though... four years ago we went all the way to the smoking crater, it was really hard because the last 100 meters or so you climb the cone and the cone is made of soft dark sand. This time, things were completely different. Pacaya is one of Guatemalas three active volcanos and is pretty active, so active that it was like climbing a different volcano altogether! We walked uphill for about one hour until we got to a viewpoint from where we could see the lower crater spewing lava and a black dry lava field underneath us, very similar to the one we had seen on Santiago island in Galapagos - EXCEPT that things here were a lot more live than in Galapagos. We walked down to the lava field and crossed it to get at the very feet of the hot lava, walking on a lava bed that, while it looks dry and old, it is actually very recent and still hot and glowing just a meter or so below. We had to hop from one lava rock to the other for 300-400 meters to the point where the current lava river flows. In fact, we did not go all the way, we starting feeling rather uncomfortable with the heat coming to us from ahead and below and felt that we did not actually need to get all the way right up to the flowing lava. Most people did, but frankly it looked INSANE. We only had one guide for about 30 people and no guidelines were given as to how close you could get, people were all over the place and on top of it all you only had one hour to get there and back before it got pitch black. The lava rock is very sharp and uneven, all you need is to jump badly and there you are. You could even fall into a glowing crack and catch fire... It was an awesome experience but potentially quite hazardous, and we are obviously chickens.

Yesterday we went to Chichicastenango market, the most famous market in Guatemala, some 2.5 long hours from Antigua. It was a nice day and we manged to only spend a handful of dollars on a hammoc and a couple of other trinkets, which will cost an arm and a leg to send from here, as usual. This time it seemed that the indigenas were less bothered about being photographed and we could get quite a few shots, especially Gregory seems to have no problems at all.

Tortillas...yummm!

On Sunday we got to Managua at dark - the bus ride is only an hour or so, but we left Granada a little late. We went straight to hotel Jardin de Italia, which we used as a base for departing to the islands (leaving some of our luggage there) and then to catch the bus to Guatemala, since the hotel is located round the corner from the Ticabus station. At Jardin de ltalia we wanted to go and have dinner, but Lesbia, the owner, forbade us saying it was too dangerous. When we first stepped outside and she saw us, she and the neighbours told us that we should not walk around and we heard them discussing it they should escort us or how could we get hold of some food. In the end Lesbia got the yellow pages and we ended up with a chicken home delivery. It was only 7 pm!!!!!

The next day was 4.30 a start to the airport for the Corn Islands. The plane was a small 15-seater just a little bit bigger than the mosquito plane we took to the waterfalls in Guyana, still a bit spooky, especially when the pilot decided to open the newspaper wide and read it while flying over Nicaragua....
The Corn Islands are two islands 70 kilometers off the Caribbean Coast, in front of the coastal town of Bluefields. These two islands offer the opportunity to see the Caribbean side of Nicaragua in a beautiful and mostly unexplored environment. Big Corn and Little Corn are both quite small and quite different from each other - the former has an asphalted road with plenty of taxis driving around it, while on Little Corn there are no cars at all and it is generally much less developed - you can walk it north to south in about 30 minutes, if you don´t get lost.
Once we got to Big Corn, we went straight to the jetty to catch the 10 am panga to Little Corn. The panga ride from Big Corn to Little Corn was an experience in itself, best described as powerboat racing. There had been strong winds and rain constantly for the past 2 weeks or so, so the sea was particularly rough ... While the guy at the front of the boat stood holding on to some ropes to look out for other boats, the guy at the back had his finger on a high speed engine. Every time he cut the power you knew that you were about to hit a big wave and that the panga would fly for a few seconds to then come crashing down HARD on the bit of 2X4 you were sitting on... It was real fun, like being on the rides. Less fun for Gregory, who was not sitting on the life jacket like most of the other passengers and who took some really hard blows where it hurts. Most of the passengers got soaked, if not all, but it was a really good laugh. Every now and then a negative thought would pass, like, erm, what if the panga breaks into two when coming crushing down?? Never mind losing all of your stuff, the real problem is that it would be a sharks´ feast.... but it did not split into two and we got there and back quite safely, if soaked.

From Granada we had booked an economy cabin over the internet at US-run Casa Iguana. Casa Iguana is a nice place, only problem being that it is overpriced. We booked an economy cabin for $25 without bathroom, since the ones with bathroom were a staggering $55. The place looked nice and particularly the dining/social area was really pleasant, however our cabin was very basic and we still had to go walking 50 yards to toilets & shower. On top of it all, it is located on a cliff away from the beach under some shady trees home to many lovely insects. After the first night of a few long trips to the loo, we decided that Elsa' s place at $12 for a cabin with bathroom ON the beach was a much better choice. So, despite having had a real fun night at Casa Iguana playing cards all evening after a very nice dinner with very nice people, and despite the running water we had there, we decided to move to Elsa's, owned locally and with no running water but much more appealing. The other thing that annoyed us about Casa Iguana is that they sent us a taxi to pick us up on Big Corn without telling us, and the friendly taxi driver charges us three times the normal fare!!! Elvis - do not get in his taxi if you ever bump into him.

While Gregory quite liked the islands, I was quite disappointed. When I think Caribbean island surrounded by coral reefs, I think of a nice island where you can snorkel and enjoy the sea. But that was not what we found on Corn this round!!! While all the regular ‘Caribbean’ features are present, such as turquoise water, white beaches, green palm trees and stunning reefs and marine life, the weather was a disaster. We had heard that it had been raining etc, but never really took into consideration the factor WIND. It was very very windy and the sea was choppy to say the least, so the beaches were covered in algae and rubbish and snorkelling was not really much of an option. Even those who dived were complaining of poor visibility. We later found out from the locals that the time to visit when the sea is calm is between March and May - don' t bother to come here at any other time if you are looking at swimming peacefully in the sea... Gregory still managed to do some snorkelling and test out his new underwater camera, but only got some 40 mostly brown-looking pictures which were quickly erased...

That said, during our stay on Little Corn we met lots of nice fellow travellers and the setting on the beach at Elsa's was really pleasant. We also managed to walk around a little, going all the way around the north end and almost getting lost. We went hoping to find calmer waters but no luck, it was just all the same, big waves and rubbish everywhere. The island is notorious for getting people lost at night, and indeed a young couple did end up spending the night in the jungle after their torch batteries run out...Gregory bumped into them the next morning all covered in mud and asked them what happened...

We left Little Corn back to Big Corn for a day with Lina, a nice Portuguese girl who was staying also at Elsa's. The hope was to find calmer waters...what a mistake!! It was worse than Little Corn, and without the nice beach setting of Elsa's. We drove around to three different hotels till we decided to stop at Best View, which was practically abandoned, though still about functioning. Only and fortunate guests there, we had a TV in the room, so we spent most of our time watching the X Files as there was an all-day special on Sci Fi that day. We also managed to go and console ourselves with some lobster dinner and a lunch with run down, the local fish specialty of coconut milk and boiled roots and plaintain.

On Friday evening we were back at Jardin de Italia, where this time there were a lot of people on the street and the restaurants were open around the hostel. Lesbia explained that as it was Friday and people just got paid, they were out having a nice time. It reminded us of old little England...small world isnt it. On Saturday we took the 5 am Ticabus to Guatemala, which is where we are now at last!!

The only way to Fly......

boyz chillin with Lone

Girls just Chillin......

Mans best friend followed us all round the island

Our cute cabin cleaner

little corn crew assembled......

De famous national dish- RUNDOWN

a view from casa iguana's

a view from Elsa place

have you ever seen your crab so blue......oooh!

greg-flav and Misses Corn islands 2017

We managed to stick it out at the Oasis Hostel and planned our journeys and tours from there. The Oasis did grow on us after a while and was a good base of operations in which to plan next steps, while spending hours on their abundant free Internet stations. It is really an Oasis, really tranquil and relaxing. Not sure if it deserves the ´best hostel in Central America´title that we have seen around, but certainly a very nice one.

The first trip we planned was to the Laguna de Apoyo, organised by Oasis. A mini bus took us from the hotel a hour up a bumpy road to the laguna at a place called The Craters Edge http://www.craters-edge.com/. A really nice setting with some nice facilities. The lake is a really huge crater which acts as a water reserve and really nice to swim in, although the water can get a little rough. Fortunately there were no bull sharks in there, unlike Lake of Nicaragua. Apparently, Lake of Nicaragua was once full of bull sharks migrated in there from the Carribean - then in the Somoza´s years they were almost run to extinction by overfishing for fins, so that these days they are very rarely spotted. The day trip to Laguna de Apoyo was really peaceful and tranquil and we enjoyed every minute - Gregory swimming for hours and working on his kayaking skills, while Flavia spent the whole day reading on the hammock.

The next day we booked a 5-in-1 trip with WOW Tours http://www.wowtoursnicaragua.com which included visiting the fortaleza Coyotepe, a fort originally built by the Spanish that Somoza turned into a political prison where many political opponents were tortured and killed. Then we drove up to Volcan Masaya followed by the Market in Masaya town, followed by the picturesque town of Catarina and San Juan del Oriente with their pottery and garden centres and splendid lagoon viewpoint.
The prison was a particularly gruesome place, modern and totally concrete, but still had the feeling of a 15th century chamber of torture linked more to the Torquemada than to anything modern. It is said that on the last days of the civil war with Contras and Sandinistas, by the time the Sandinistas got to the prison the guards had killed all the political prisoners in the jail.

Coyotepe prison

Volcan Masaya is an active volcano. At the craters edge, on the day we visited it seemed to be spurting out steam instead of the sulphuric and acidic mix of gas and vapour. The crater is accessible by car - you park right next to the active crater and can literally look down inside it, 200 m below. There are actually 5 craters around the site, but the rest are inactive. At the car park you are advised to to face your car in the right direction for a quick get away in case it erupts, while the leaflets they hand out at the visitor´s entrance also suggest to use the vehicles as shelter in case it starts blowing out big rocks...

Masaya market is the usual mix of artesan products and restaurants, though the bits on sale did not quite catch Flavia´s attention, for once!!! Especially good are the low cost good quality hammocks of all descriptions. The knitted ones are particularly good, but we decided not to buy any so not to have to carry them around all the way to Guatemala and Mexico. Hopefully we can buy a couple there.

The town of Catarina is really nice and seems to be where Nicaraguans frequent for a day out The road to Catarina is interesting because you see lots of children and adults with spades and tools who are busy filling in the pot holes in the road - then they stand aside and want you to pay them for fixing the road that the government has no money for. At the very top of the town you have a spectacular view of the Laguna de Apoyo >>>

S Juan del Oriente has really great pottery of all descriptions - very hard not to buy anything.

Today, after three nights here, we finally had the chance to walk around Granada itself and take a look at the beautiful architecture. We actually didn´t walk around a great deal, as we kept bumping into people and chatting for ages. We started the day at Kathy´s Waffle House, possibly the best place in town where to have breakfast. There we met a Canadian couple and stayed for ages. As we left, we then bumped into Aidey, a British-US chap who we met back in Canoa, Ecuador, at the fabulous Bambu hostal. In a nutshell, we walked very little and only saw the central area of Granada, but still managed to get a good few pics together >>>

This is the best hamburger we have ever eaten in our lives - it costs $5 and it can be ordered at Zoom Bar in Granada.

This evening we are moving on to Managua (only an hour away). Tomorrow morning we have a 6.30 am flight to Corn Islands, where we will stay till Friday. We are planning to go to Little Corn, which is the smaller island, nice and remote and with no internet access.
In Managua we will be staying at the Jardin de Italia hotel.

While the first impression of S Juan del Sur granted a one-night stay, we ended up spending three nights there. Different reasons for this: 1) after we went to see the turtles, we were so tired that we decided to trade the upcoming 5-hour journey to Ometepe for the very comfortable bed we still had 2) Hotel El Puerto incidentally had the BEST BED we have come across in 8 months 3) S Juan del Sur is actually a really nice little touristy town which becomes particularly nice at night 4) we wanted to see Playa Majagual to get an idea of what the Pacific beaches in Nicaragua are like. So we booked the shuttle camion to Playa Majagual and spent a nice day at the beach - a fairly mediocre beach with big waves and strong currents, not really suitable for swimming. It was nice to be at the sea though, and we did enjoy the day - even when we had to endure a lunch in the only restaurant available where the next table was being served turtle eggs. And Gregory telling me to shut up and let the people enjoy their eggs... ARGHHHH! I understand that this is a cultural thing and they have eaten eggs for hundreds of years here, but times
change, don´t they. If you do not say anything, then they will never
t day we moved to Ometepe.

We spent 3 nights on Ometepe island - the maximum allowed by our by now incredibly tight schedule, though we could have easily spent a few more... Ometepe is a volcanic island made up of two volcanos, Concepcion and Maderas. The former is the highest and stripped of vegetation by lava flow and altitude, the latter is covered with dense cloud forest and its top is filled with a lake. We decided not to hike to either of them - this is a hot place and climbing up volcanos at high temperatures did not quite appeal to us that much. We went straight to the Maderas sector - 30 or so km which took us almost 3 hours by local bus - and stayed at the Monkey Island Hostel for the first two nights. This is a small place run by Señor Jacinto and his family near Merida - we felt good being there because this was a genuine family business run by nice people, really cheap ($8 a night for both, private room with bathroom), and nice and tranquil in nice surroundings. They have a small monkey on site which unfortunately they keep chained to a tree because it is a nuisance if let free - it likes to pick fruit and all food that can be found... surprise surprise. So the poor monkey sits there and hugs anybody who goes near and gets really cuddly and never wants you to leave. Really heart-breaking. At least they treat it ok and give it plenty of room by chaining it to a steel cable that runs between two trees, giving a lot more space than otherwise. But still, chained-up monkeys are not really the type of sight that we like to see, are they. Especially when the island is absolutely rife with monkeys - any small walk into the green will reveal some and also they can be heard howling all over the island (they are howler monkeys). A particularly bad story was the one of the close-y Monkey Island (Isla Congo). As per Jacinto, it appears that some tourism minister has decided to attract tourists to Merida and the Hacienda Merida by putting 12 monkeys on this small island, where there is hardly any food for them. So they survive by eating leaves and insects and they hate the rest of the world. If you decide to kayak to the island and desembark there, the monkeys will attack you and bite and scratch you to bits. We had read some blogs about these nasty monkeys but not many people seem to know why they are like this and that someone has purposedly put them there.

Anyways! Apart from the horrible predicament of some of the local monkeys on Ometepe, the island is actually a really nice place. It is extremely lush with an amazing agricultural output, owing to its fertile volcanic soil. We went to visit Finca Magdalena on Maderas, which is an organic farm producing organic coffee, where the Sandinistas used to operate. Today it is run by a cooperativa of 24 families and offers rustic accomodation to tourists. We visited the coffee production there and had a nice long afternoon, walking back to our accomodation along the main and only road. Transport on the island is really difficult, buses are not frequent and the road is soo bad that it is almost quicker to walk it than sitting on the bus... But of course we tried to sit on the bus whenever we saw one.
On the way to Finca Magdalena Gregory managed to lose his wallet. After spending a good half an hour looking for it in the streets, we assumed that he must have left in on the bus in the morning. Later on in the day, while walking back home, we bumped into the same bus that we took in the morning and, when Gregory approached the driver asking if he had found the wallet, there he pulled it out! So we got the wallet back along with all its contents. Quite amazing.

On our second day we decided to walk down to the lake to take a glimpse of Monkey Island - except that we were intercepted by some dogs and Gregory came running back down the path, with a scary worried face clutching a very thick stick in his hands... so we retreated and never actually made it to see this infamous islet. From Monkey Island we went to famous Charco Verde, probably the best spot and best hotel on the island. We were lucky enough to get the last available room and really enjoyed our short stay there. The hotel is inside a reserve with a looping trail - a beautiful spot with a calm beach, kayaks, monkeys nearby and lots of birds. We spent ages trying to take a good picture of one of the urracas, blue parrot-like birds with a long tail that are very very shy and fly away as soon as they spot you looking at them. They are all over the island and also probably Central America, but extremely elusive.
Charco Verde was one of the highlights on Ometepe - definitely recommended if anybody is thinking of going there, but best booked in advance.

We left Charco Verde yesterday morning and got to Granada at around midday. We are staying at the Oasis Hostel, which is acclaimed by everybody as one of the best hostels in Central America. Our first impression was quite disappointing - most rooms are dark and windowless - but other than that it is quite cosy.

PS: A real great find in Nicaragua has been the ESKIMO ice cream that they make worth trying for sure !!!!!

The boat to Ometepe

Volcan Concepcion

Monkey Island Hostel

Flavia and Chico

Finca Magdalena

Mono Congo (howler monkey) around Finca Magdalena

Charco Verde lakeside

Charco Verde ecological reserve

Our border crossing at Peñas Blancas went very smoothly and fairly quickly. Only glitch is that we hopped on a bus at the last minute and it turned out that it was a long distance bus to Managua where they wanted to charge us 200 cordobas ($11) for going only 20 km up ahead!!! We paid but started making a lot of fuss and demanding a receipt, but of course they did not want to give us one, because they were not supposed to pick us up and they were ripping us off. I kept arguing loudly till they got embarassed and asked us if we wanted to get off, and so we did. We then got the next local bus for 20 cordobas...

San Juan del Sur is a nice little village on the Pacific sea, very touristy. It seems that it is changing pretty quickly and getting really commercial. For us, it is retains a certain flaire - it looks fairly Caribbean/colonial. People sit on their rocking chairs outside and the houses are nice and colourful. The beach itself is not really for bathing, it is large and built up and hosts lots of boats of various types. As we got here, we thought we would stay just one night, but then today we got up at 4:30 to go and see the turtles and got back quite tired. The hotel we are staying at El Puerto is very comfortable and so...there was no question really about hanging around a bit longer.

Our turtle expedition was great. We are in the middle of a arribada, which is the Spanish for mass egg-laying. Literally thousands of olive ridley turtles (smaller type than the leatherback, they only reach 75 cm) come to shore about 6 or 8 times per season, between July and December, to lay the eggs. They come in thousands and then inbetween the arribadas you only see one or two per night. And we got here in the middle of one!! Last night there were over 1,000, we were told, there was hardly any space to walk!!! We however decided to book the morning tour because that meant that we could take pictures and also we would stop at another beach for swimming. We went with Hotel Casa Oro and that is the way to do it, if anybody currently in Nicaragua is thinking of taking a tour. There are other places offering transport to the beach, but at Casa Oro they are actively involved in turtle conservation and so this is the best place where to take your money. Plus they are a really nice caring family.
Anyways! When we got to the beach at 6 am there were about 30-50 turtles coming and going. Far from the thousand in the night but still quite a lot more than we have ever seen!!! We spent a couple of hours there and then we drove to Coco beach for a swim, which was quite good fun with the big waves. Gregory managed to lose his second pair of swimming goggles and so now he is in trouble, because they don´t sell them around here. So far he has managed to lose 2 pairs of goggles and two swimming costumes, not bad hey?!

Here are the precious pics:

This baby turtle was being kept at the rangers house and it is not a olive ridley. The next olive ridley hatchlings are due this month but not quite ready yet

Coco Beach

Las Baulas is the Spanish for leatherback turtles.

For our last spot in Costa Rica, we decided to go and see the beaches, just so to have a more complete picture of the country. The aim was to go to Playa Grande to stay overnight and see the turtles, and then move up to Playa Conchal the next day - this having the reputation of being the most beautiful beach in Costa Rica.

Playa Grande has been part of the Parque Nacional Marino Las Baulas since 1991, when the government finally decided to protect the leatherback turtles that come to nest here. Having a national park here prevents FRONT beach development and ensures that one of the most important leatherback nesting areas in the world is preserved for future generations. Set back from the beach there is actually quite a lot of development for a national park - and more to come, seen the number of lots for sale that we saw everywhere - however not right on the beach, which ensures that lights are kept to a minimum. Lights disorientate the turtles and put them off coming back to lay their eggs - turtles tend to return to lay at the beach where they were born, so if they don´t, this impacts on them a great deal. This is why no lights are allowed on the beach, apart from the infra-red that the park rangers.

The leatherback is critically endangered from over-hunting, a lack of protected nesting sites and plastic bags, which look too similar to their main food, jelly fish. In an effort to protect the decreasing population of turtles, park rangers on Playa Grande collect the eggs daily and incubate them to increase the chances of survival. Normally, only 1 out 1,000 turtles make it to adulthood!!!! The problem is, even when they are incubated, sea turtles must hatch on the beach and enter the water by themselves, otherwise memory imprinting does not occur and they will never return to their birthplace to nest.

At Playa Grande you can book turtle-egg-laying sessions for $16, which all goes to support the conservation effort. Tourists go to the office to register for a place and are told at what time the nesting is going to occur for that night, depending on the tide. The turtles nest at high tide because they are very heavy and it is hard to hike up to the beach.... For us the time was set between 6 and 10 pm - during this period you go back to the office and sit there waiting around till a turtles shows up. At this point the rangers come to get you and they lead you to the turtle, which can be looked at only from behind and cannot be touched. We were lucky - like we have been for a while - and at 7 pm a 1.3 m leatherback turtle weighing 320 kg showed up. It is not like there are millions of this turtles coming to nest there, it is only between 50 and 400 each year between October and March, so I think we were really lucky. Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtle of all, they are huge. We were able to see her deposit the eggs in the meter-deep hole and then cover them all up (futile work since the rangers were going to dig them all up again...). The whole process takes 1-2 hours - to dig out the hole, drop the eggs and cover it up. So we had two groups of 15 tourists all standing there taking turns to look at this giant turtles depositing her eggs. They cannot see very well but I am sure they must notice all these people moving behind them... not sure how conservational this is, but I guess they must have figured out that it does not bother the animals to the point of not coming back. Quite a surreal experience for a human though!

Ah yes! The curious thing is that you only pay the National Park if you actually manage to see a turtle, otherwise you just book again for the next night. This means that you sit around waiting and, as soon as a turtle comes to shore, all tourists queue up to pay the fee and then run to watch the egg laying!! Crazy but very just.

The next day - after seeing the type of beach Playa Grande is now in the rainy season - we decided not to go to visit Playa Conchal, which on top of things could only be reached by an expensive taxi ride. We decided to walk back to Tamarindo instead along the length of Playa Grande, which took the whole of an hour as we were looking for sand dollars, which unfortunately were all broken. At the river estuary which separates Playa Grande from Tamarindo (big built up seaside resort) we boarded a small motor boat to cross the river and then negotiated a river tour with the boat owner to go and see the mangrove swamps, behind the lure of crocodiles, monkeys etc. The river trip was excellent until we desembarked to go ´looking for monkeys´. We were wearing shorts and T´shirts and I had flip flops on... Ever tried to walk in the mangrove swamps?? Well. You should NOT go there with short sleeves or flip flops. The ground is very soft and muddy, I was slipping all over the place and it is not like there is a path there, you have to walk through vegetation some of which has got big thorns. And of course it is full of mosquitos, some carrying dengue!!!!! We ventured in for about 20 mins and our guide actually led us very quickly to some howling monkeys, which we looked at for about 3 minutes till we decided to quickly retire back to the boat, myself covered in mud from the flipping of the flip flops which kept getting stuck into the mud, whenever I did not lose them along the way. Arghh!! I was really furious with the guide for not saying we were going to walk through this place and lie about the mosquitos - he said there were none when I asked!! Ok, that was probably a stupid question to ask - are there mosquitos in the swamps... - but saying no was not too brilliant either. Later it was a good laugh but at the time I guarantee it wasn´t. Plus we could be incubating dengue as we speak!!!

So fingers crossed...

Playa Grande - this is the beach where the turtles make their nests

Pics from the river trip

Mangroves

Today we have crossed into Nicaragua and currently we are staying at the El Puerto hotel in San Juan del Sur. Tomorrow morning at 5 am we are going to see more egg-laying turtles, but a different breed.