The island giveth and the island taketh away...

Isle De Ometepe
The name Ometepe means ‘two hills’ in the native ‘náhuatl’ language. The island is located in the 5th largest lake in the world, Lake Nicaragua. At one time the lake was connected to the pacific ocean, but a series of Volcanos poped up isolating the lake from the ocean. As a result a rare fresh water bull shark became a legendary feature of the lake. In the 60's the Nicaragua government allowed the Japanese to hunt the sharks, at the rate of 20,000 a year for 10 years. Now spotting the sharks is extremly rare except near a river that leads to the Carribean side. The climate here is based around the rainy and dry seasons. The rainy season is from May to December and usually involves a couple of major showers a day followed by sunshine. The result is a kind of eternal summer, but the locals call the dry season (now) summer. The temp is typically between 75 and 85 degees but occasionally gets down to 68 and up to 95... it is a rough life! The lake also rises a few feet with the rainy and dry seasons. The rainy season was a large
My hostel in very near Santa Cruz which is at the intersection of the Maderas loop.
The island is easily split in half between the Volcanos. Maderas is smaller and inactive. It is a muddy and challenging 8 hour climb to the top and back. At the top there is a small lagoon. The road around the volcano is almost impassable at parts. The rain washes the dirt away and is left with large rocks everywhere. The villages are very small and friendly, and you get the feeling that you are in a very remote part of the world.
Conception is a the larger volcano and is VERY active. The last major eruption was in the 1950's, but it blows off some steam about every year. The two major cities on the island our on this side, Moyogalpa and Altagracia, and a paved road connects the two. To climb Conception take 12 hours and is a very step and difficult trek. It is almost impossible to get to the top and look in the crater. The upper half is void or trees and lots of wind, sun, and gravel await. It does make for beauftiful pictures!
The people of the island are extremly friendly and helpful. About half speak some English and only a few speak it well enough to converse. All across the island are ancient pre columbian artifacts, carvings, and painting... called petroglyphs. VERY little is known about people the inhabited the island at this time. A few people have come up with theorys, but with little facts to base them on because no real research has been done. My theory is the Anasasi tribes from the 4 corners walked down here of serveral generations. The stone carvings are incredible similar.
OK, I must serve dinner. I have made BBQ brisket tonight in a little tribute to Kansas City.

keep your mouth closed while riding a bike

I just purchased my plane ticket back to the states. I am not sure if there is a betting pool on if I was going to come back, but whoever had April 21st wins. I am scheduled to arrive in KC around 2pm on that Tuesday. Any volunteers to pick me up? I am still not sure what I will do once I return, but I will keep you updated when I figure it out.
Story time:
On Monday I decided to go to the nearest place with internet, a 1 hour bike ride to a hotel in Santa Domingo. We were without internet for 3 days and I needed to check e-mails about the possible gig in Alaska. On the bike ride there I was going down a hill and a sizeable bug flew into my throat. At first I tried to cough it up with no avail. Then I just tried to swallow it, and again no good. I am now realizing that I have caught a wasp in my throat because I can feel it sting me. After a moment of panic, I realize the only thing I can do is to keep going and find help. A bit down the road I find a small tienda and buy some aqua. At this point my throat is swolen and in pain, but I realize that if I havent stopped breathing by now, I will probably be ok. I get the internet place and get some ice. In my head I think this is bad, but should only hurt for a bit and then get better and hopefully the ice will help. After about 5 minutes on the internet I realize that my throat is getting much worse and I am not going to be able to sit it out. I find a school close by, and thanks be to God, they had a small clinic room with a nurse. He had a look in my throat and told me (in Spanish) that the stinger was still in there and he would have to get it out. He tried with some cotton swaps, but with no luck. He then told me that we would have to go to Altagracia (slightly bigger town on the island) to the clinic. Luckily he was going and said he would take me, but he also had to visit a patient and it ended up being a 2.5 hour truck ride. At some point I could no longer swallow, but I held it together and was able to breath ok. Once in the clinic he took me to the dentist who held my head down and pulled out half a wasp that had been lodged in my throat for 4 hours. After that I went to get ice cream and starting feeling much better. I also had to get some medication for the swelling and to make sure it was all cleaned out. By the next day I was feeling right a rain and I havent had any ill effects.
Looking back on the situation, altough it took a long time, I was well taken care of and it only cost about $2 for the medication I needed. I actually think I prefer the third world health care to the privitized version we have in the states.
Otherwise, not much has changed around here. Hope everyone has a lucky Friday the 13th!

same 'ol thing

Not much new to report. Things don't change much on an island. We did have a pool party on Monday that was a lot of fun. There is a small pool/holding tank on the property that we cleaned out and filled up with fresh water. We made rum punch with fresh fruit and I BBQed on a make shift grill. It was a great day until some left over embers from the grill blew onto the wood pile and almost burnt down the bodega (tool shed). Bri, the girl that has been helping me, is leaving this weekend. A guy named Ty is going to take over. He is from Canada and will be a fun edition to the cast of characters here. He is only 20, and a bit of a party animal, but hopefully we can keep things under control.
Many people have commented about me being in Costa Rica. Just to be clear, I am in Nicaragua. I know from a US perspective it may be hard tell the two apart, but to people here it would be like confusing the US and Canada. Costa Rica is very beautiful, but it has become very Americanized and expensive. The people there are also very good a dealing with tourist, but also good at taking your money. Nicaragua is still very remote and the people here are very nice. They are not use to tourist and in general are extremly nice and interested to meet and talk with you. It is also a beautiful country with many amazing places. To some up, Nicaragua is cheaper and the people are nicer than in Costa Rica.
The national dish here is Gallo Pinto (black beans and rice). Normally serverd with Nica chesse (similar to feta) and eggs. It is somewhat bland, but can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Nicaragua was plagued by civil war until 1989. This means the population is young and mostly women. The island I am on, Ometepe, was insulated from the conflict and the population here is actually 2 men to every women. The civil war was provoked by the States in an attempt to overthrow the government. The US's involvement here is much like it's involvement in the Middle East now, trying to mess with a place for its resources under the guise of "political" issues. The goverment was overtrown and a democracy was set up. Since then the socalist party was won the elections and regained power. Some watch out baby boomer population, I live in a semi-communist state!
OK, there is a little history for you. I will write about the Island itself later.

Mardi Gras!

I am enjoying my day off. I have gone to town in order to run a few errands and hopefully find some beads to celebrate the holiday! Liz, if you are reading this I finally go the package you sent today... what was that 4 weeks? To everyone else, it contained my replacement credit cards so I will have money to come back to the states at some point. Speaking of which, while thinking about how to transition back into the ¨real world¨I am considering going to Alaska for the summer and prolonging my adventure. I have a friend who lives on Wrangell island in Southern Alaska. She works for an organization that helps troubled youth by taking them on wilderness trips. http://www.alaskacrossings.org/
I may have an oppurtunity to work in the shop helping to stock supplies, clean and maintain equipment, and prepare for the expeditions. I am not sure if I am going to pursue this, but I do think it would be an interested experience going from an island in the tropics to an island in the artic! I am curious to hear everyones opinions on this idea.
All is well at Little Morgans, I have begun sketching up some ideas for future expansion.

working away

Not much to report. I am alive and well. Bri (my counterpart) and I have fallen into a nice routine which allows me to have a couple hours free in the afternoon. I need to buy a plane ticket in the next couple days. I will probably be back in the states the end of April. Start planning the parties now!

pictures!

This is a compilation of the pictures that Anna and I took while traveling together:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=anna.e.oconnor&target=ALBUM&id=5299752930997095537&authkey=Z0Q5r1giqTk&feat=email

life on the island

My apologies for not posting anything in such a long time. You would think that sitting around on an island would allow a lot of time to blog, but unfortunately we often lose power and when we have the Internet is slow. We also have the only connection in 3k, so it is very popular. Today is my day off and I have gone to the biggest town on the island (probably 300 people) where the have a decent internet cafe.
The last week has been good, but rather exhausting. The job is simple enough. I get up around 8am to check out any guest that are leaving and help with the breakfast. There is a local girl that cooks and cleans, but she doesn´t speak English and of course my Spanish is almost non-existent. After the breakfast rush I am left to tend to the restaurant while she cleans. During the day there is very little to do. Stock the beer fridge, keep the books, take a nap in a hammock, and maybe play some pool. Also, I am learning to juggle... very slowly. The weather is nice, normally in the 80´s or 90´s with a slight breeze and a few clouds. Although, a few days ago we sustained hurricane force winds for several hours. It knocked out the power for a few days and damaged some of our roofs as well as took out a few banana trees. We have a generated to keep the kitchen going, as well as the TV and beer fridge (very important to Morgan!). The hardest part of the day is in the evening. That is when new guests arrive as well as those that are already staying the return from their daily activities. There is also dinner to contend with. It can be pretty overwhelming for a few hours and I could really use another person to help out. Anyone interested!?!?!
After dinner things chill out for a bit and then a party will break out, typically led by Morgan. At that point I am somewhere between being part of the party and a bartender. It is always a lot of fun and I get to met a ton of cool people. I hang out until everyone passes out, and lock the place up, typically around midnight. Of course, I have to get up the next day at 8 and do it all over again! One big part of the job is looking after Morgan. He is an amazing person that can talk his way thru anything, and gets a long with everyone, but has a tendency to forget things. All in all it is a pretty great gig, especially if I can find a counterpart to share the work load.
So that is a day in the life of Adam. I was able to sale my car, thanks Liz, Dad, Carol, and Joe. I hope to climb one of the volcanos in the next few weeks, and that will make a great story!
Feel free to write e-mails and let me know what is going on in your part of the world.

Welcome Home

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I have made it to Morgans last night and have begun work. All is well and I will write more later.

Canopy Effect

It is Anna's last day in central America :( She leaves tomorrow around 4pm to fly back to the states. Sounds pretty cold if you ask me. I heard there is a bad ice-snow storm in the MO, AR, OK area... I hope everyone is making it ok. If you haven't heard, I have decided to return to Ometepe and work at Little Morgan's for a few months. I am planning on coming back to the states around April 15th.
Today, as a last adventure for Anna before she leaves, we went on a zip line tour thru the canopy of a rain forest about 1.5 hours north of San Jose. It was pretty incredible! We were strapped into what seemed like a massive amount of equipment, but really it was just standard repelling gear. At first is was a little scary flying across a jungle by the seat of your pants, but once you got use to the feeling it was really amazing. We were in a group of 6, myself, Anna, a guy from Belgium, and 3 people from South Carolina. We went across 12 zip lines the longest being 550 meters long and 100 meters high over a river. We also zipped past waterfalls and thru some crazy trees. The highlight was what they called a Tarzan swing. Basically just a giant swing that flings you out over all the trees. I have a video of me doing this which I will attempt to upload at some point.
So this is the end of the chapter, Adam and Anna's excellent adventures, but up next will be an entire new experience with me living on Ometepe. I should have more time and the ability to upload photos!
Everyone come visit for springbreak!!!

wildlife and landscape

I am currently in Tortuguero, a village on a sliver of land between the Caribbean Sea and a series of Canals in the NE corner of Costa Rica. It is adjacent to the major National Park in Costa Rica that preserves a rain forest called the "mini-amazon" and is a major eco-tourism destination for people coming to view the sea turtle nesting (not happening at the moment). The village itself is only about 800 people and survives based on tourism. It is a very remote place and is only reachable by boat or plane. We took a boat from Puerto Limon which took about 4.5 hours. It was just a very large canoe with a motor on it and we navigated thru a series of small and large canals.
I thought this was as good a time as any to talk about some nature. As you may have guessed, where we are at now is VERY tropical. I feel like I walked onto the set of LOST. Speaking of which, I haven´t seen the premier so no one ruin it for me! On the boat ride here we got to see sloths, monkeys, crabs, lots of birds, turtles, an alligator, and a few big crocodiles... pretty crazy! Today Anna and I decided to do a little hiking. We followed a public trail thru the national park. Before we left they made us rent rubber boots which was really good because we ended up walking thru up to 6" of mud and standing water. We hiked for about 6 miles. Got to see some monkeys swinging over our heads as well as a bunch of Lizards, ants, and even a baby Deer. (I didn´t know they existing in the rain forest). Of course I got pictures so you will get to see all of this later.
The Caribbean coast has been tropical with lots of rain (it has rained at least once every day here). The Pacific coast is more tame and reminds me a bit of Southwest Missouri landscape, but with palm trees! In the middle there are lots of Mountains, many of them volcano's. Nicaragua was full of volcano's.
So that is a quick summary of what it looks like down here. Obviously the pictures will do a much better job of telling he story. I forgot to mention there are a TON of mosquito's, and they LOVE me! Anyone know how to treat Malaria?
If you are wondering about the job on Ometepe... no decision yet, still waiting to hear back from the future boss.

pictures.

1 - Ometepe, Nicaragua. The double volcano (one is active) island that I am planning on going to live on for 3 months.
2 - "chicken bus" the typical mode of transport in Nicaragua when traveling between close by towns
3 - A view from the top of a hill over San Juan Del Sur. IT was a bit of a hike up there!
4 - Anna, my travel buddy, in Fort Lauderdale
5 - Our island tour group out of Granda, Nicaragua. This island was an old fortress used to protect the city from pirates

Sunday on the Beach

Today is the day I must decide if I will stay or go. As I mentioned before I have the opportunity to go back to Ometepe, Nicaragua and work at a small hostel for 2 or 3 months. The job would involve checking guest in and out, tending the bar, keeping track of finaces, and occasionally helping in the kitchen. It is a small place 15/20 guests maximum. The pay is zero, but I will get a free place to stay and free food and drink. The owner is Irish/American and love american football so I am going to try and get back there for the superbowl. What dish should I bring to the party?
Since I got a new passport we have traveled to Puerto Viejo, a beach town on the Carribean side of Costa Rica. Here was my day yesterday, we started out lazy and played some pingpong at the hostel, I won 2 games to 1, and then packed up our stuff and moved to a different hostel. We decided to go for a bike ride and rented bike for $4 and headed down the beach rode to the village of Manzanillo man.zan.e.yo, it was about a 12kilometer journey or 1.5 hours at a leisurly pace. It followed the beach, but also went into the jungle a bit. We shall monkey and parrots up in the trees, but you could look for long due to giant pot holes in the road! We reached Manzanillo and locked our bikes against a palm tree and jumpede into the ocean to cool off. We ate at a little rasta restuarant where we had a huge meal for $6. Then headed back. Last night we met up with 2 German girls we had met on Ometepe and listened to a cover band ruin great american songs.
Not bad for a Saturday!

I am not very good at this blog thing

My apologies for the long delay. I will just go backwards from this point to catch you up:
Things have been going extremely well... until yesterday! We left Granda, Nicaragua and were on our way to San Jose, Costa Rica. It ended up being a 4 bus and 14 hour ordeal. The worst part was that I was pick pocketed while getting off a bus in Liberia and my passport, 2 credit cards, and $100 was lost. I just got back from the embassy in San Jose and was able to get an "emergency" passport. Which is only good for 1 year, but will allow me to get back to the states. I am not sure how this will effect my potential plans to go back to Nicaragua and work for a few months, but I will have to decide by Monday. I was able to cancel my credit cards, but not before they charged something for $635! Luckily Bank of America says that I won't be liable.
Before all this craziness we were hanging out in Granda which is a beautiful colonial town on Lake Nicaragua. We took a boat tour of a bunch of different tiny islands that were formed with the largest valcano in the land, Mambacho erupted 100,000 years ago and sent massive amounts of rock into the lake. I found a really sweet private island for sale, only $450k and it comes with A/C, 5 bedrooms, boat docks, bball court, garden, electricity and septic. Anyone want to invest? We also went to Laguna De Apollo, which is a lake that has formed on the inside of Volcano crater. The water is suppose to have healing powers, and I have to say that is made the 200 mosquito's bites that I have stop itching!
If you are super jealous, life is not all fun and games down here. We do have to deal with cold showers and rickety bunk beds normally in a dorm room with 8-12 people. The cool thing is that we have some met a lot of amazing people that are also traveling.
Today we are going to try and make it to Puerto Viejo which will be our one stop on the Caribbean side. I will do my best to be more diligent in posting!

Ometepe Part 2 (I got a job!)

Back to the story...
After a 1 hour taxi ride thru the island on very, very poor roads we arrived at our hostel which was called Little Morgans (http://www.littlemorgans.com/) The place is owned by an Irish/American who loves american football. There was a really cool Australian couple helping to run the place. We were only there two nights and have an incredible time. Anna and others that were staying there decided to hike up the volcano (9 hour hike!), but I wasn't feeling it and instead when on my own (4 hour) hike to search out some petroglyphs (ancient ruins). We then got to watch the 2 NFL games which was a treat. The owner, Morgan, also has a son who was turning 2 and we got to watch a somewhat traditional Nicaraguan birthday party, complete with a pinata.
Leaving was sad, but the silver lining is that Morgan offered me a job to come back and help him run the place for a few month. Right now I am seriously considering it!

Ometepe Part 1

First thing, I know everyone wants pictures and I promise I am taking them, but it is extremly difficult to upload them down here. Most places won´t let you, and if they do it takes a very long time. I will do my best to get some up soon.
Our last night in San Juan (friday) seems ages ago! That night we went out to the local hot spot called Iquana Bar which was a 2nd story club overlooking the beach front. We did a little dancing (no Salsa for me) and made a pinky swear pack with our new friend Mike from Canada to meet in Granada on Monday to depart for the Corn Islands.
The late night meant a late depature, but we got a Taxi to San Jorge and then onto a Ferry to Ometepe. On the ferry we met to German girls and one Brazilian man and quickly became friends. The is a bus that roams the island, but it would have taken 3 hours to get to our destination so we all split a taxi which was a minivan since the roads are so bad. Cristiano (the brazilian) spoke very good Spanish and so we relied on him most of our trip.
¡¡¡¡ I am being kicked off the computer so this must be finished tomorrow.

Surf´s Up

Our plan was to leave on the 5:30am bus out of Liberia to get to Nicaragua early, when the alarm went off however, we decided to catch the 8:30am bus :) We made our way to the bus station and there was no 8:30 bus, but one at 9am and they wouldn´t let us buy tickets (and no one spoke english). We weren´t sure if we had to buy tickets on the bus, or if it was sold out. Luckily we were suppose to buy on the bus which saved us paying a "taxi" $20 to drive us to the border... the bus was on $1.50.
THE BORDER:
The first real ordeal came at the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border. We were dropped off and had to get an "exit" stamp. Then we had to walk with our pack 1KM to the border show our passports to men with large guns and the walk another 1KM to immigration in Nicaragua. It was a complete zoo! We walked around for 30 minutes trying to figure out what to do. Many people wanted to "help" us... but for a fee. Finally we figured out where to go and then decided to negotiate a taxi because we were ready to get to the beach!
We arrived in San Juan Del Sor yesterday at noon and found a bare bones hostel for $8 a night (www.casaeloro.com). We proceeded to the beach for lunch with a view. I found a place with Octopus which I had been craving and had an amazing fresh seafood lunch. Then we did some sun bathing and went to a beach front cantina to watch the sunset over the bay. We didn´t inteed to stay long, but ended up meeting 3 guys from Taos and stayed there until 11:30 sampling the local rums... they were very smooth! At one point the power went out and a local told us that it happens ofter. Apparently the government will black out certain regions to send power elsewhere. The also turn off the water sometimes too! But our hostel has its own well.
Today was a big day... our first adventure, surfing! We paid $20 for a 2 hour long surf lesson and day long surf board rental. We were in a group of 6 with one instructor. It went pretty well, the instructor was really good and the morning waves were perfect for learning. I was able to stand up a few times, but I don´t think it will become one of my hobbys. The afternoon was super crowded and really big waves so I mostly watched. I managed some pretty good wipe outs and got hit in the head with a board, but I didn´t hurt myself. I did break the fin under the surf board and had to pay another $20 to fix it... so I guess was a $40 surf lesson.
Now I am worn out and ready to chill out. We are going to stay here another day and then head to the Isle of Ompetempe. A double Volcano island in Lake Nicaragua!

getting there...

I made it to Costa Rica in one piece. The trip here was ridiculously smooth and hassle free! It was like they were trying to get us out of the country! We had to buy two separate tickets (one from KC to DFW to Fort Lauderdale and the other from Fort Lauderdale to San Jose) We had a small layover in Fort Lauderdale and I was worried we would have to get our bags and go to another terminal with international security etc... Turns out they were able to combine the tickets and check the bags all the way. The only glitch was that Anna´s shampoo exploded inflight in her bag.

Our first stop was San Jose, the capitol of Costa Rica. It has about a million or so people. We were staying at the Costa Rica Backpackers hostel (costaricabackpackers.com) in ¨nice¨part of town. It was a very chill place with a pool, hammocks, small restaurant and cool people. We shared a room of 4 bunk beds with an English Couple, Australian couple, and a girl from Germany. All was good except a noise and the next door baño woke us up often. Our plan was to stay another night and figure out the first part of our trip. We abandoned that plan after speaking with a KU grad this morning. He had just spent months in Central America and was leaving for the States today. He gave us some suggestions on where on how to go to Nicaragua (which is the country we are most excited about visiting) and we decided to get on with it! Some we took a noon bus to Liberia, Costa Riace which took 4 hours and are staying at the Hotel Liberia (nothing to speak about). In the morning we are going to try and catch a 5:30am bus to the border. Our first stop will be San Juan Del Sur a beach town in Nicaragua near Rivas. I hope to write more from there... and post pictures.

farwell note

Most of you already know that I am leaving for Central America tomorrow. For those that do not, I am going to be backpacking in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama for the next 3 1/2 weeks with a friend of mine (Anna O'connor). This will primarily be a adventure/relaxation trip with a very rough itinerary that involves beaches, surfing, snorkeling, climbing volcanoes, zip lining, etc... The best way to get a hold of me will be via e-mail. I will try to write from time to time with updates and a few pictures. I will also try to set up a place to post pictures and longer stories for those that are interested. I will be back before you know it with a tan!