Greetings friends and family,
Thank you everybody
for your sweet loving messages. They filled my heart with strength and
gave me much information and happiness. These last few days have been
crazy, so let me recap.
Upon leaving Diriamba, Nicaragua, my friend and I made our
way over to the port, and took an hour long boat ride through the big
swells of lago nicaragua. We reached Isla Olmetepe and found ourselves
a really comfortable hostel, very reasonable. We got ready for our
hike by buying food, eating dinner, and having a long tavern chat with
our guide to be, Manuel. Dave and I had a fun night and filtered a
bunch of water and then went to sleep.
The next morning, we ate breakfast really early, and took a
bus with Manuel to the food of Volcano Concepcion. This volcano is
amazing, just a huge tree covered mountain capped with a mushroom cloud
that looks like one of those peasant hats from asia. We walked a few
miles through easy incline terrain, and found the sacred tree of the
maya, and meditated and climbed it. We saw a scary snake, and a bunch
of howler monkeis, and many other beautiful things. Then we started
climbing the mountain.
This climb was a doosey. Very steep through cloud forest,
but incredibly fresh air and good conversation, sharing food with
eachother, shooting the breeze. Super gorgeous terrain, lush and full
of life. This forest eventually gave way to alpine grassland, as the
clouds whipped by we jumped into the winds and smiled and felt grand.
Then we began the ascent to the top.
This part looked like the slopes of Mordor from lord of the
rings. Desolate rocky crags, forbidding clefts with volcano sulfur
gasses wafting out of them, climbing with feet and hands, resting on
steep slopes. Finally we saw the way to the top. The top of this
mountain was crazy, bitter moist winds, so we had to shelter and
couldn´t stand up. Very intense, but the "bimbo" bread and jam we ate
there were excellent!
The way down was also really crazy, we got blasted with sun
and it was really steep. Because the mountain is next to flatlands,
you appear to be walking almost straight down, but the view was
gorgeous. Seemed like the swiss alps or new zealand. But we made it
down safely, and proceeded thruogh three miles of real nicaraguan farm
country, passing many horse riders and little farms and ranches. We
finally got back to town, just in time for a snack and the bus to the
other side of isla olmetepe.
On the bus, called a chicken bus but more like an old US
schoolbus, we travelled past a long funeral procession. the whole town
had come out, and many people looked pretty happy to be there despite
the solemn aura. We finally got to the other side in the dark, past an
amazing sunset, and I deployed head lamp for our one kilometer hike to
this farm, finca magdalena. There, it was very very nice, a real
expatriate hangout, with great prices and super good food, a very chill
night but fraught with strange dreams, as have been all my nights
here.
The next morning we proceeded to hike up the volcano madera.
This one, whose name means "wood" was also beautiful, but a stark
contrast. Very muddy and squishy trails with lots of chances to climb
up roots and rocks. At the top, we proceeded down into the crater,
which is an untouched crater lake of pristine water, surrounded by
forests. I did some great chi gung down there and we climbed back
out. I was trying to keep my mind in the moment and on my breathing,
but it was tough. But when I did, the forest gave me tons of love and
showed me beautiful things, the light through the leaves, a little bug,
the feel of moss, the moist good air...
So we had to find our way off the island, and dave managed to
get us a really cheap ride to exactly where we needed to go, the port
of altagracias. Here we got hustled by a small nicaraguan who told us
we looked like the guys from " El señor de anillos " which means lord
of the rings. Lo and behold, we really do. But the crazy thing was
the the hustler was notoriously Gollum-esque. The joke was on him :)
Then on the banana boat for a ten hour nightime cruise down
the lake, amidst the stars, deployed sleeping bag and enjoyed the
ride. Dave and i had lots of fun joking around. At dawn we arrived in
a strange spot in Nicaragua, got breakfast and kicked down to buy some
for this shoe shining kid, and hit the immigration office. then
another boat down this beautiful river (rio san juan) to view tons of
new birds and turtles. Another fun ride. then we hit the border, got
to costa rica, ate some more, went through customs (mercifully
unsprayed by their pesticides) and bought sacks for rice. These we
turned into hammocks, and now have rocking five dollar comfy hammocks.
We got another bus through a strange agricultural land and even another
bus to Fortuna.
In fortuna, which is a tourist trap and centre of the very
posh and exculsive eco resorts in CR, we ate well at the local spot,
booked our next step, and chilled. A nice shower, a nicer nights
sleep, and we were on the way to Santa Elena. Then it was bus to boat
across the lake to another bus to santa elena, meeting and enjoying the
company of some other great travellers. Here i am in santa elena
letting the mid day sun pass over before I head out to find more
excitement.
So thats the story for now, lots of fun and good people that
I´ve met and fun conversations got left out, but the verbatim copies
therein will be present in the heretofore unpublished 3000 page account
entitled, "The central america report". I wish you all the best. Much
love from Sunny Costa Rica.
Alex
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