Thursday, August 22, 2013

As my time in Nicaragua comes to an end





As I reflect back over the last few weeks of being in the San Juan del Sur area of Nicaragua. With snorkeling, turtle watching, Howler Monkeys, chili pepper crabs, surfing, swimming in the ocean, reading and swinging in a hammock, bird watching, watching the sunsets, hiking and not to forget visiting with people from around the world (Italy, Scotland, Spain Germany, France, Australia, French Canada, Holland, Florida, Belgium, Sweden, just to name a few) these last few weeks have been immensely enjoyable. 



San Juan del Sur, the town is quite the little tourist town with local town feel. It has many of the tourist attractions like canopy tours, snorkeling, scuba diving, horseback riding, turtle tours, surfing and lessons, sailing and  fishing trips just to name a few. 

Many excellent restaurants and street food at night, hotels and hostels with a verity of prices, banks and ATMs (that give both US and local money), Pali store (Nicaragua version of a small Wal-Mart), for your convenience, makes this area a perfect place to visit.  


There are chicken buses for the local transport that run four times a day out to the beaches and surfing areas. 

Here are some websites for you to checkout for information only; I do not endorse any of them per say, but they are intriguing. www.casaeloro.com  www.hmerida.com  www.andayanicaragua.con  www.casamaderas.com www.chillinnhostel.com 







Snorkeling Trip
There were nine secondary students (eight girls and one boy) and two teachers here from Germany for a few days. They were in Nicaragua as part of an exchange project involving a village inland from here. A few days before returning to Germany they had some fun things planned. One of them was to go snorkeling three beaches north of here; the only way to access this beach was via boat. I was invited to go along. The beach we went to is Playa Blanco (White Beach) and the beach owned by the guy that owns the two breweries here in Nicaragua. Water visibility was not clear enough for satisfactory photography, but the day was excellent.
 
Turtles laying their eggs on the beach

I and several others went to the Refugio De Vida Silvestre La Flor, a reserve, 20 km south of San Juan del Sur, to watch the turtles lay eggs. One thing that I learned; is whatever reserve or beach you go to be sure you are there at the beginning of high tide not the end. Turtles prefer to come ashore during high tide and not low tide. We only saw one turtle and the group of people scared her way, so she did not lay her eggs. Next time I will do a better job and get some photos. I am looking forward to the turtles and reserves in Costa Rica. 

 
About 45 days ago a turtle laid her eggs right in front of the door to Camping Matildas the eggs were dug up and moved inside, and now we have a nest of eggs due to hatch any day that I can photograph. 

On the 17th and 19th, turtles came ashore and laid eggs. A person from down the beach came and moved the eggs to their yard for safe keeping.

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