GrahamC does Central America - Report! Part 1

Hi Everyone,

Apologies, this is a very big report so I have split it into two parts.

I've tried not to bore you too much with it so I have added a few 'cultural' bits in and have kept it light in my own inimitable manner. I do hope you enjoy it and the few photos I managed to salvage.

Central America - 4th-20th November 2011
with Explore.co.uk

Weather: Very hot and humid, mercifully cool in the highlands.

Wildlife seen:
Over 100 bird species, plus reptiles, mammals, insects, flowers etc.
Full list on demand.

Places visited:
Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala.

Highlights:
Costa Rica rainforest and lakes. All the birds. Suchitoto and Leon.

'Look closely at Central America, and try to imagine what would happen if this vital region were to fall into Communist hands. What would happen is a lot of Communists would be stung repeatedly by vicious tropical insects the size of mature hamsters.' - Dave Barry

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. It consists of the seven states of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, the North Pacific Ocean to the west, and Colombia to the south-east. It has an area of approx 524,000 square kilometers (202,000 sq mi), or almost 0.1% of the Earth's surface. As of 2009, its population was estimated at 41,739,000. It has a density of approx 77 people per square kilometer or 206 people per square mile.

It had just turned midnight. And I was sat on a coach heading for Stansted Airport. I and about 6 others were waiting for the driver to continue the journey. But for some reason we were waiting for over 10 minutes outside a polytechnic in Hatfield. It was dark, it was cold and no one was getting on or getting off. 12.01 and my patience was now wearing a bit thin. I had just entered my 31st hour of continuous travel and all I wanted to do was get home to my own bed.

Two weeks earlier I was travelling in the other direction, to Central America, for a whistle-stop tour through 5 countries.

I was persuaded to do this tour rather than the 2 week trip just to Costa Rica by friends, Ian & Tim, who I had met on earlier trips. We became known in CA as 'The Three Amigos'.

So, at 3.15am on the 4th I was waiting outside the train station, in the pouring rain, for the taxi to take me to Stansted Airport. The taxi was late, a portent of things to come. But I got to the coach station in good time. I even got a possible wedding booking from the driver!

A 4 o'clock coach got me to Terminal 3 at Heathrow around 5.30 to find that the guys had already checked in and were waiting for me in the Departures area.

On the way in I stopped off at the currency exchange desk and was stupidly talked into getting a Mastercard instead of US Dollars cash. Big mistake as it turned out as I only found 2 ATMs in the whole of CA that allowed me to withdraw money. I ended up having to borrow some from Tim. Even my Visa card failed me. Another portent of things to come regarding all things electronic.

We didn't have to wait too long for our departure to Madrid. Before that I made my best decision of the holiday and bought a second 16GB CF card for my camera. I now had 40GB of cards with me. Only just enough as things turned out.

It was just over 2 hours later when we landed at Madrid. It took over 30 minutes to get from one end of the airport to the other to pick up our connecting flight. Ian was already finding it tough going. He's a big lad, and, as the barmen of CA found out, he's also very thirsty. We boarded almost immediately. But then we sat on the plane, on the tarmac for over an hour because of some technical problem.

There followed an 11 hour journey across the Atlantic. I was asked to change seats by someone who wanted to sit with a friend and actually ended up sitting adjacent to Tim. There were also two toddlers in the row in front but thankfully they were pretty quiet during the flight. Which seemed to go on and on. My cheap iPod failed on me. The film 'Planet of the Apes' passed a couple of hours and I read a magazine and even tried to sleep. The food was ok though.

We finally arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica and were met by our Tour Leader, Lou. There was a six hour time difference and it was after 7pm when we finally checked into our first hotel.

For some reason Ian & Tim talked me into getting drunk on the first night and I woke up in the morning with a hangover! Good start?

At breakfast we met our fellow travellers. All turned out to be very nice. There were 18 of us in total, quite a big group. I was also delighted to find out that Lou was a fellow Birder. But none of the others were all that keen. I fear I had work to do!

Costa Rica, which means 'Rich Coast', our first country, is home to a rich variety of plants and animals. While the country has only about 0.25% of the world's landmass, it contains 5% of the world's biodiversity. Around 25% of the country's land area is in protected national parks and protected areas, the largest percentage of protected areas in the world. Costa Rica has successfully managed to diminish deforestation from some of the worst rates in the world from 1973 to 1989, to almost zero by 2005.

We checked out of the hotel and drove to our first venue - La Virgen de Sarapiqui, home to the endangered Green Macaw. Also home to a number of national parks and reserves. Some of us took a guided walk just before dusk. Dusk here being very quick as there was no such thing as twilight. It was either light or dark. Darkness coming down in less than 30 minutes.

The hotel was quite nice; I had a room to myself for the duration of the holiday. It was in the rainforest itself and whereas one part of it was solid building, the bedroom was under canvas. We also had mosquito netting covering the canvas side. I had to apply sun-tan lotion and deet almost every day of the trip. In the quiet, pitch black darkness you could hear all the sounds associated with the rainforest. I drifted off to sleep listening to a symphony of sound.

The Deet worked quite well. In fact, I only got bitten about half-a-dozen times during the whole holiday which wasn't too bad considering some of the others were bitten to buggery. I also managed to avoid sunburn. But I still managed to come home with another bright red face!

The next morning saw us drive to Cano Negro National Wildlife Refuge. But I managed to take a quick walk around the rainforest before breakfastand discovered some great wildlife, including a huge line of leaf-cutter ants.

On the drive north we stopped off for lunch and came across a group of Iguanas on the side of a very busy road, with huge trucks driving past. They didn't seem to mind too much and were close enough for some good photos. On the way to the hotel it actually rained, the only time I can remember it doing so. And rains can cause a lot of problems here, not least by washing away the roads. Parts of our journey were held up by roads half-gone and also by single track roads blocked off by Tankers jack-knifing. All part of the CA experience!

At Cano Negro we checked in to the hotel and almost immediately took a nature walk with the local guide. We again saw some interesting stuff, mainly spiders and frogs. I also had to saturate myself with Deet as the place was infested with Mozzies. I think I got my first bites here.

Today was the day I found that my external hard drive packed up because I had forgotten to bring the charger. So I only managed to backup the first day's photos. Catastrophic error on my part!

Dinners in the evening and even breakfasts proved to be an added cost to the holiday. Although not expensive, I thought it was a little mean of Explore to only include 4 breakfasts! And even they weren't up to much. The excursions also cost extra too, but most were excellent value.

The next day, before we left, we had an excellent boat trip along the Rio Frio, the highlights being Caiman. And even before that I took an hour's walk around the grounds where feeders attracted lots of birds. I was getting some great shots. In vain as it turned out.

We again checked out of the hotel and headed north, this time crossing our first border - into Nicaragua. We were told that border crossings were time-consuming and frustrating. But it was part and parcel of Latin American life. Corruption and bribery were rampant. And some Police Forces in CA were either ok or not ok. Crime was rife but you were safe enough if you kept out of the problem areas. Fortunately, Lou had lived here for years and knew who to talk to.

But poverty was the most heart-breaking thing, seeing small children begging for a dollar or trying to sell you their home-made souvenirs. I gave a dollar to one little girl for a knitted puppet. She tried to give me change but I told her to keep it, and the puppet. Her face was a mixture of delight and confusion. No doubt thinking that Europeans were a very strange race indeed. Instead I got a little kiss on the cheek. A tourist said that we shouldn't give them anything as it wouldn't make any difference. It probably made a difference to that little girl. We found out later that around 75% of people in CA lived on just $2 a day.

Aside from the poverty and the general struggle just to make ends meet, the people were wonderful and were genuinely delighted to see us. We were made to feel very welcome and the warmth and generosity made all of us feel very humble, considering how the reverse might look like, should they visit the UK.

It was Election week everywhere in CA and we saw lots and lots of electioneering posters everywhere. All the candidates were running on a corruption clean-up campaign. It was amusing to see that some people had also bought some advertising space to say something along the lines of 'You're useless, why bother wasting money on advertising'......or something like that. Ahem.

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east; Nicaragua's Caribbean coast is part of the Western Caribbean Zone.

The country's physical geography divides it into three major zones: Pacific lowlands, wet, cooler central highlands, and the Caribbean Lowlands. On the Pacific side of the country are the two largest fresh water lakes in Central America - Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. Surrounding these lakes and extending to their northwest along the rift valley of the Gulf of Fonseca are fertile lowland plains, whose soil is highly enriched with ash from nearby volcanoes that form the Central American Volcanic Arc, which demarcates the country's spine. Nicaragua's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contributes to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot.

Anyway, in Nicaragua, home to our Tour Leader, Lou, we drove to San Juan del Sur. This is located on the Pacific coast, along the beach which hosts bars, restaurants etc. It was a lovely place, eating our dinner, watching the sun go down over the water. And, as we weren't due to leave the next day until after 12, we decided to have a few beers until late in the evening.

I had a lazy morning the next day, managing to purchase the only postage stamps I could find. I also bought more bottled water, which was the story of the holiday. We could only drink bottled water, even having to brush our teeth with it. Other important things to consider were the very poor plumbing systems here in CA. No paper down the toilets please. Enough said.

Also, most ATMs did not give out money for some reason - failing with both Mastercard and Visa. On enquiry, our TL just shrugged her shoulders - 'It's Latin America, what can I say?'.

Things worked or they didn't. It wasn't too much of a problem; I just borrowed some USD from the guys. One thing that did keep confusing me was the amount of different currencies, up to 8 in my wallet at one stage! And I couldn't work out how much I needed or what was worth what.

Still, I learnt the only Spanish I needed: 'Tres más cervezas, por favor'.

We then drove to one of the highlights of the tour, Granada. Described as an atmospheric colonial gem. Situated at the foot of Mombacho volcano on the north-west shore of Lake Nicaragua. Founded in 1524 by conquistador Hernandez de Cordoba. A magnificent central plaza with many fine churches and museums, dedicated to various wars of independence. And where we were accosted by, ahem, ladies of the night. They were most insistent. And consistent, trying to tempt us with their charms during our 2-night stay here. 'Tres más cervezas, por favor', I said. I could see the same look in their eyes as in the little girl earlier.

We were allowed a free day, on the second day, to explore the City on our own. We took a tour around the local market, I checked out the local ATM (no luck), stopped off for lunch at 'Kathy's Waffle House' and ended up back at the hotel for a quick swim in the pool. In the afternoon we took another boat trip, this time around Las Isletas. Another lovely trip, with lots of birds to see.

In the evening our TL organised a group dinner, where I had the fajitas. I guess it must have been the water! In fact the food, in general, was pretty good here and I enjoyed practically everything I ate. But, to be honest, it doesn't take much to satisfy my stomach. I stuck to my travel principals; don't eat fish, chicken or even ice-cream or ice-cubes. I am always mindful of Montezuma's Revenge, and with that in mind I always bring half of Boots the Chemist with me.

Today was the day where I found that my first 16GB CF card might be faulty as it wouldn't let me review the photos. As it turned out my worst fears were realised. I am currently hoping that a repair company can help me but I don't hold out too much hope. Over half of my photos are lost, including what I thought were my best, those in Costa Rica. Gutted.

End of part 1.

Best wishes, Graham