Monthly Archives: July 2009

Welcome to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

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Continued from two days ago”¦ We took a moment to take in the surroundings. While the outside of the bay looked almost desolate, the inside is quite built up. Just like on the outside, there seem to be a lot of trees that all look dead at the moment, with very little greenery. Directly in front of us was a nice beach lined with thatched roof buildings that we would bet are restaurants. The hills above are mostly built up, as well. It looked to be primarily residential. Most of the homes are unique, but we could see a couple of track housing developments. The tightly packed track homes with their identical roofs almost looked like a scar on the hillside. On the southeast side (our right) there was a commercial looking port building and boat yard. To the northwest side (our left), there were expensive looking houses and several mid-rise concrete buildings under construction. The top of the hill had something weird at the top of it. Eric pulled the binoculars out and saw that it is a half built statue, probably of Jesus.

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In the bay there were Continue reading →

History of the Republic of Nicaragua

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Nicaragua is the largest nation in Central America at 129,494 sq kilometers big, but is also the least densely populated with a population of 5.5 million. It is bordered by Honduras to the north, Costa Rica to the south, the Atlantic to the east and the Pacific to the west. The country’s name is a derivative of “Nicarao”, one of the most powerful indigenous leaders at the time of the Spaniard’s arrival, and Aqua, which means water and represents the large lakes in the region.

Evidence has been found in Nicaragua indicating that humans lived there at least 6000 years ago, and maybe even as far back as 8,000 years ago. When the Continue reading →

Passage to San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

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The moon rose shortly after midnight, but it was a tiny sliver that gave off virtually no light, so it was essentially pitch black all night. In the wee hours of the morning, something odd happened. Two boats passed us at the same time. One of the boats pulled out a spot light and was looking us over with it, but then turned it off and kept going. We are guessing they were trying to see if we had nets out to make sure it was safe to pass us.

By morning, the ocean was still as calm as a lake. Here is the sunrise.

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There were tons and tons of sportfishers out, and the wakes of their boats was about the only movement on the water. It was wonderful. Mike is prone to seasickness, but he was feeling great. Although, he never tried to read, not wanting to push his luck. Instead, he watched the horizon intently.

Not too long after sunrise, Mike saw a school of dolphins in the distance. Then he saw a sailfish. A little while later, he saw another pod of dolphins. This pod swam up to the boat and rode the bow wake for a few minutes. Since the water was so flat and calm, we could see them especially clearly. It was really exciting for all of us, but especially Mike.

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At 1030, the seas picked up some, but it was just small swells and the ride was still nice.
Mike saw dolphins again around lunch time, but they Continue reading →

Back to Golfito to Start the Passage to Nicaragua

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Yesterday we started the day with Gallo Pinto for breakfast followed by a nice walk around downtown Turrialba. The first photo is a typical street scene and the second is the town square, which is probably the most attractive part of town.

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After our walk, we headed out of town. It was time to get back to Kosmos in Golfito. We headed northeast towards San Jose, again guessing at where we needed to go. We drove through mostly farmland. They seem to grow a lot of Continue reading →

White Water Rafting in Turrialba

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Today we were up early and back at the bakery for breakfast. The white water rafting company was supposed to pick us up at 0830 in front of the hotel, so at 0825, we were outside and waiting. Every time a vehicle came around the corner, particularly a truck, we all thought “Oh, that must be them”, but invariably it wasn’t. At 0845, a van rounded the corner that had a big inflatable raft already inflated strapped to the roof. OK, this has to be them.

We all piled into the van and met everyone else already inside. We were surprised to find out there were 5 staff for 5 only passengers. Two were to be in the raft with us, one was the van driver, one a rescue kayaker, and one a photographer who would be kayaking around us and taking photos.

Turrialba is supposed to have some of the best white water rafting in the entire world. So, we expected it to be a short drive over to the river. At first we were on a nicely paved road, and the scenery was much the same as we have seen the last couple of days. Here are a couple shots we took while driving.

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The three of us were surprised at how far away from Turrialba we had driven when we finally turned off into a national park. The driver paid the entrance fee. Ah, we thought, we must be here now. But we weren’t. It was Continue reading →