Leon to Granada

A different guide took us on for our time in Granada, on the edge of Lake Niguragua.
The countryside of Nicuragua is very interesting, very rich volcanuc soils which dry out during the dry season. So now, it is very green as it is the rainy season and looks a lot like Uganda. Sticks used to create fences grow into bushes and trees. The vegetation close to Granada consists of acacias, mostly calbash trees. This land is mostly used for grazing cattle.
A stop was made to look at the ancient and original Leon. A very uninspiring and uninterested local guide took us around the UNESCO World Heritage site. Her main intention was to send as many text messages as possible on her phone. This was very unfortunate, because the site was really interesting, but we were rushed from one exhibit to the next. It would have been interesting to have been able to read the Spanish account of what happened. In the end our own guide became more of a help than the local museum gude allocated to us.

This is the view of Lake Niguragua from the old fortress.
We arrived in Granada after finding a natural medicine pharmacy. This was a very interesting experience. Alex, our guide acted a translator. We had struggled to get what we needed in Leon with our poor Spanish skills.
The driver, Manuel, found the pharmacy in a small town between Managua and Granada. This pharmacy had the most extensive range of herbal and natural medications you could find. Peter wanted fish oil. I wanted to get a local product to dry up the many scratches I had received from falling into the pandanas, especially the one on my neck; Betadine had not worked. After much discussion, I was given the local solution against infection, a bright blue product that leaves a long term stain on your skin. So now with deep blue marks on various parts of my body, everything is healing quickly and well.

Leon

We arrived in Leon one day later than expected. Leon is an old city, very safe to walk about, but not properly maintained. The pavements are all broken with gaping holes able to break an ankle or leg and very dirty with rubbish lying everywhere.
A guided walking tour of the city in the afternoon allowed us to visit the famous Metropolitan Cathedral in Leon. The whole cathedral is made without any steel or cement. The structure is made from lime, egg shells and egg yolks and sand. The cathedral has withstood every earthquake since it was built in the 1600's.

The most amazing this was that we climbed up inside the church and were allowed to stand on the roof!

We were able to see the whole of Leon from the roof as well as the surrounding volcanoes. This is the Momotombo Volcano, and as you can see very active.

We also visited the local undercover market. Here we saw the largest papayas we have ever seen.

Danny took me to get my hand x-rayed (after my experience with the howler monkeys) at the local hospital. This was a very interesting experience. We lined up with all the locals at the hospital emergency. Not clean and some very unwell people seeking help. However, everyone was dealt with quickly and seen very soon. My camera was confiscated from me before I could register. Anyway, I was lead upstairs to the x-ray department, had my hand x-rayed. The image was sent to the orthopedic surgeon and a few minutes later, he confirmed that I had not factured my hand but had probable damaged the tendon in my thumb. It is still very painful! All medical treatment in Nicuragua is free. Amazing!
Early next morning we were taken to a small seaside town Las Penitas beach. Mostly the beachfront properties are owned by Italians. Here we caught a open boat to visit one of the very important nature reserves of Nicaragua. This small buffer acts as a defence against hurricanes for the small local indigenoue villagers that live behind this reserve. They are the custodians of the reserve and maintain the cleanliness if the area. It is really beautiful mangrove area to visit.

Here is a pelican that we sighted on our journey.

Isla Juan Venado Reserve is on an island within the mangrove. It is here, that for the past 35 a local indigenous women has saved turtle eggs in an attempt to prevent the extinction of turtles.

These are Olive Ridley Turtle hatchlings, due to be released at night to avoid decimation by birds of prey during the day.
The only problem is that within the village the rubbish is aweful so the turtles are likely to eat the plastic and die from hunger! There is little thought here about either over fishing or just dropping your rubbish wherever you are, much if which is plastic.

This El Convento, where we stayed a beautiful hotel in an old convent. The air conditioners were a problem. In the first room we were given, the air conditioner was producing freezing cold air along with a constant stream of water, flooding thevfloor of the room. The second room we were given, after we reported the problem, had an air conditioner whose fan worked, but not the cooling part, so the room was steamier than outside in the corridor.

San Salvador

Peter and I felt very sad to be leaving Belize. It is a beautiful country with remarkable people, all friendly and cheerful.
Our plane in Belize City was on time and we arrived in San Salvador for our transit to Niguragua. We board the plane and waited and waited. Then we were told there was a problem because the pilot hadn't been able to get there in time. So we waited some more. Eventually we were told that the plane wouldn't be going at all! Avian was going to put us up for the night in San Salvador in the Sheraton. This caused a great deal of consternation amingst the passengers, many of whom had travelled from overseas countries or had business appointments the next morning.
For us it meant that the driver and hotel that we had already booked would not know that we weren't going to be there. Of course my phone was not working, so eventually after much insistence, Avian phoned the hotel, to let them know that we wouldn't be there until the next day. Once we arrived at the Sheraton, I let Audleys in London know so that they could make contact with the ground staff in Nicuragua, namely the guide/driver.

Lamanai Outpost

Another 4:45am wake up to do an Early bird walk in the jungle. Aside from many many birds we saw a deer, a grey fox, an agooti and something else that was grey, larger than a squirrel with a long tail running up the trunck of a nearby tree.

This part of Belize is where the English buccaneers used to come a chase Spanish merchant ships as well as chop logwood for dye for the textile industry. The Hornblower series has some references to this area especially about cutting the logwood. It would be very unpleasant work as the need to be up to your waist in water to cut the trees.
This ruined sugar mill was begun in the 1800's but it only was in operation for 15 years. The area around it had all been sugar cane, even though some of the sugar was grown over the top of the Lamanai Mayan ruins.

Later in the day I went with Abdul to his village, Spanish Church Village, to make tortillas and tomales, Belise style.

Mine is the lumpy and not very professional looking one! I had to grind the maize on a traditional Mayan basalt grinding stone and the form the round tortilla by hand. It takes many grinds to get it fine enough for cooking. First the dried maize is boiled for about three hours. Then lime is added to the mixture and sits for somebtime to remove the hard outer membrane from the maize. It is rinsed several times with fresh water to remove the lime and then it is ground with fresh water to make a maize dough. This is what is used to create tortillas.

The cooking lessons were at a local restaurant in the village. It is run by a group of fourteen women as a cooperative and is very popular with the villagers. They make 250 tamales every day for sale. These ones contained a delicious red salsa sauc.e and chicken folded into a large tortilla and the folded in the banana leaf for cooking on to of a hot plate.
The food at Lamanai Outpost was outstanding, but far too mch for us. My tamales came back to the hotel for dinner on top of the already giant portions of delicious food prepared by Janet at the lodge.

View from the dining room. Incidently we were the only visitors at this time, so had the whole place to ourselves. We were thoroughly spoilt!

In the afternoon we given a ride on the airboat through the water reeds. It was fast and very thrilling. Unfortunately I did not take my camera, so there are no pictures. We went because the boat was going out anyway for a maintenance check.
Then Mark, the owner of Lamanai Outpost asked if we wanted to try a new activity that they were thinking of offering the guests.
So we became the very first visitors to ridebout into the reed bed by argo. An argo is an amphibious craft that will drive on land as well as water. It worke best in shallow water, where its wheels can grio the bittom of the reed bed. We were so lucky.

Abdul driving the argo. At only 21, this young man is incredibly accomplished. He is an outstanding bird and animal guide, competent in everything water related. The lovely thing about Lamanai, was that the same guide did all of the activities with you as well as driving the boat, car, argo etc.
Swimming in the lagoon was a delight. Not cold but sufficiently rewarding to get cool and comfortable after a sweaty walk in the jungle.
One afternoon after a swim, I noticed the howler monkeys in the trees near our cabana were a little lower than they had been. So I stopped to look at them. They in turn came down a little closer to look at me. How lovely I thought. But they has other ideas. The male leader, was by now just above my head and with that aimed his urine right at my face. I was so taken aback that I took a step backwards and promptly fell backwards over the parapet. Now he was throwing his poop at me! Expletives flew! Getting back out of the herbage below was interesting, and several cuts and bruises later, proves that the monkeys won the day!
Sadly we had to leave this magnificent place. Abdul drove us to the Belize City airport by road through the settlements run and farmed by the Manonites. It amused us to see that the rubber tractor tyres had all be removed and replaced with steel, but the buggy pulled by horses all had rubber tyres. Their relgion is very strict, much like the Amish, but they seem to be able to get aroind many if the rules!

Lamanai Outpost

A 4:45am start this morning, to take a canoe trip up one of the small creeks dotted throughout the wetlands.
We observed many birds.

Abdul, our guide is just 21 and a Mayan descendant.

The creek was still and beautiful with water lillies and logwood trees.

This is the lodge from the lagoon.
As you can see, the lodge is in a beautiful pristine location. Belize us an amazing country. There are only 300,000 people living here and 40% of the available land must, by law be kept aside for parks, natures reserves and conservation purposes. The lodge is built by local villagers from local renewable resources and the lodge hires most of its staff from the same nearby village.

After breakfast, we were very priviledged to go to Lamanai, the Mayan ruins renowned as a past Mayan trading town.
Here we saw one of the few intact stellas with Mayan heiroglyphics on it depicting the life and events attributed to Snake, a one time ruler of the town. It tells the years if his life and the things he accomplished. This ruins is very special, the architecture is different to most other Mayan ruins and is much older.

We were allowed to walk to the top of the temples and view the surrounding area. We also were looking for birds and animals on our walk.

This is the Mayan ball court. Only high level people were allowed to play the game. No one really knows how it was played or what was the purpose of the game.

The Belize Tourist Police came to inspect the hotel this afternoon, and like all small beaucratic departments wanted to introduce some ridiculous rules relating to huge signage depicting water safety that should be erected on the jetty as you arrive. This would really compromise the natural beauty of this place. The lodge is made from timber and locally sourced palm thatch. It is really beautiful with lovely balcony and restaurant created out of wood and exposed to the elements. It utilises ordinary objects to create the ambience. Old kerosene tilly lamps are used for lighting, natural timbers for seating, bathrooms etc. The cabanas are designed around a Mayan hut, with palm thatched roofs. Inside they are airy, weather and insect proof.

Lamanai Outpost

As the crow flies, Birds Eye View is just 7 kilometers away. However we had to take a 20 kilometer drive and then we were met at a boat landing by Abdul, who drove us by boat many kilometers up the New River until we arrived at Lamanai Oupost. This is a superb lodge nestled beside a lagoon, surrounded by wetlands and jungle. Just down the lagoon are the Mayan Lamanai ruins.

This wild beautiful grey fox was near the front steps to the reception when we arrived.

As we walked to our cabana, a troup of howler monkeys were eating the folliage in the trees just nearby.

Our first activity here was a sunset cocktail cruise before dinner.

After dinner we went out on a spotlight boat trip to find anything that moved, slithered or shone. This was a thrilling experience as we sped with Abdul through the darkness on a very fast boat. Abdul was driving as well as spotting. He has been brought up on the river and knows every crook and turn!

Tthe most exciting find was to sight 3 Currasow males and one female. These birds are on the endangered list!

Birds Eye View Lodge

Birds Eye View Lodge is all about the birds. And they abound here. The lodge is situated right alongside an enormous lagoon, that has an astounding number of different birds.
As it is the rainy season at the moments, the lagoon spreads across this enormous area, attracting local and migratory birds.

We organised an early morning boat trip up the lagoon and into the creek system. Apart from heaps of different birds, we saw fresh water crocodiles, howler monkeys, iguanas and a water snake.

And of course more birds.