Where 24 San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua --OR-- Flies by the Billion!

Hi Guys

After the last mail I was told that using phrases like ´too hot´ is not allowed given the present climate in the northern hemisphere, so from now on I will simply refer to the soaring ambient temperature as warm.

Since last time I have managed to escape a nearby outbreak of yellow fever and a hoard of mossies that left me with over 100 bites on one foot alone, and caught a plane to Panama. Then northeast to Coata Rica and now into Nicaragua. Nearly all of the time I have been travelling on old US school buses, some of them still painted yellow with the appropriate notices inside e.g. ´Behave as you would in the classroom.´


Panama

Best bites
- The Panama Canal - an engineering wonder when it was completed in 1914 with 3 huge locks at each end and a big lake it the middle. The whole thing is 80km long with each lock 33m wide and 305m long. Each ship going through it releases 52 million gallons of water in to the sea. I managed to get close to it on a viewing platform and it is impressive with 8 railway engines, with ropes attached to the ship, being used to guide each ship throuh the lock (to stop it hitting the sides).

- Bocas del Toro - Paradise - I knew it was because everyone said it was. These are a group of islands on the Carribean Coast. Incredible beautiful beaches deviod of people and rubbish. Some are too rough to swim off but others are protected by a reef, making them very calm. Needless to say the water is warm and crystal clear. Lazing in a hammock over the water at my accommodationis blissful, and looking through the floorboards of the room and seeing the sea is something else.

Worst bites
- My Camera breaking. It just stopped in Panama City and as it was at the end of a role of film I couldn´t get it out without ruining the film and so lost a whole roll of pictures. So as I was leaving that day I had to rush around and find another one for not too much money ... at least i got one, lets hope it is working.

- Wandering just a couple of blocks from the tourist areas in Panama City to be warned by the local not to carry on as it was dangerous - and this in broad daylight! We turned to walk back the way we came and they warmed us not to go that way either!

- In the little hostel over the water we never did figure out how the sewage worked ... but well we were right on top of the water. But the beaches were on the other side of the island, a 15 min walk away.


Costa Rica
Highlights
- Beautiful Cloud Forest in Monteverde. Many people go to Costa Rica just for the (feathered) birds and especially the Quetzal (bird of Paradise). Unfortunately, as this was a cloud forest it contains trees and clouds and so is wet and virtually impossible to see anything let along a small bird high up on a tree! And the winds in some places are so strong (wind 50mph, gusts up to 90 mph) that the forest is stunted and is called a dwarf forest.

- Humming Birds - Incredible to watch and feel them whizz around you like they are in a speeded up film. Speed, elegance and constant terratorial battles. Talking of film, I wasted tons of shots trying to get a decent picture of them in mid air, and most of them are probably just of thin air!

- Bathing in hot rivers warmed by Volcano Arenal. The river is diverted to form waterfall you can sit under and pools to laze in. Sitting under the waterfalls is like having a massage ...


Low lights
- Loads of tourists. Often on 2 week breaks, all with loads of money and so driving up the prices. The word ´tour´ in the title means US$25 added to the price for starters.

- The roads, some are OK and some are... bad. I took a bus for 26 miles (42km) and it took 2.5 hours to get there, without any abnormal stops. This is the only place I have been where the quality of the roads is measured on the Beaufort scale.

- The only really cheap thing here is bananas (since they grow them across most of the country), you can get about 75 of them for one British Pound. Now just imaginewhat that does to your diet! No best not.


Nicaragua

Choice Cuts
- Laguna de Apoyo. A wonderful old volcanic crater about half ful with a lake 7km across. Beautiful place to chill, I even got up to watch the sun rise over the crater rim - superb.

- In the huge Lake Nicaragua (largest lake in Central America) rise two volcanos close enough that their lavas joined to form an island, Ometepe. The highest of these at 1,620m (the lake is about 50m above sea level) and is a perfect volcanic cone with a very small crater, about 150m wide, at the top. Despite having had enough of trekking, it is a month since my last trek so it seemed like a reasonable idea to climb it. It was some climb - only 1 day but starting at 5.30am, 3 of us plus a guide climbed an increasingly steep slope made of rocks, mud and covered with vegetation - the path was the most tricky I have climbed. Near the top the only vegatation is huge ruhbarb-like plants covered in spikes, many of them slimy cos they were rotting, which looked like they were from an old Dr Who set. As there was no grip on the loose shale we had to grab hold of them to pull ourselves up. At the top after over 5 hours there was complete cloud cover, but we waited and eventually it clearedto reveal we were a very long way up. Inside the crater there were deposits of yellow sulpher accompanied by a nasty smell, and all the rocks surrounding the rim were really hot. Coming down was tougher than going up as it was almost impossible to stop yourself slipping. Round trip 10.5 hours - well worth the effort, but would I do it again? Not a chance!

Dog Ends
- Crossing the border from Costa Rica by a remote crossing I entered Nicaragua at San Carlos at the south east of Lake Nicaragua. It is bloody awful, dont ever go there. Firstly the place is smelly, the wooded shacks that pass as houses and hotels are falling apart, a complete dump. When both the bank and the petrol station are not at least clean then you know you are in the wrong place. Some people just hang around on the streets, but they are the really motivated ones. But worse was to come - once it got dark my room started filling up with bugs, coming in through the gaps in the cardboard walls, so I went outside to get away from them. Mistake! Wall to wall flies, crawling all over me, constantly flying into me, trying to get up my nose (mouth was firmly shut as they dont taste great). There was no one else on the streets despite the fact that it was only 7pm. Managed to make it the 100m to a restaurant which was relatively fly free. Asked the managewr there whether or was always like this and he said ´No. Only during the dry season and occasionally during the wet season!´
A couple of hours later I left the restaurant and was slightly relieved to see that there were a few less flies and other people were wandering about. When I got back to my room I found out why. Thousands of flies had died in my room and everything was covered in them - disgusting! I was so glad I had been carrying my mossie net around (for 3 months without using it). The next morning most of the rest of the flies had died and was stuff was covered once again. Out on the balcony, in the corner by my room, it was 2cm deep in dead flies from one night - sweeping up the dead flies is a daily task. I didn´t stay a second night!

- Also in San Carlos, young children and dogs were scrabbling on the floor for my leftover scraps. The larger beast usually won, but sadly that wasn´t always the children. After I finished the children asked if they could have the chickens neck which I had left - they devoured it in seconds.

And that is about what I have been up to. Next I am trying to do some surfing (on the sea) before heading up to Hondras for some diving.
Luv
Pete