Early Morning images from the bus in Nicaragua:
-well fed high school girls in pressed white button down shirts and knee length navy skirts
-tops of walls imbedded with security system of broken glass bottles
-bright colored homes and businesses in teal, pink, yellow, and red with crisp clean lines demarking property boundaries
-mangy dogs with their ribs grossly protruding
-A white haired man hovers over a small girl on a bicycle as he peddles alongside a major highway
-Two doe-eyed oxen pull men on a wooden cart over the paved black four lane expressway
-A woman in a denim skirt balances a two foot tall bag of bread loaves on her head
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So after me sharing Poás, Arenal, and Masaya, I’m sure you want to hear about another volcano. lol. Mombacho Volcano was known by the indigenous people as the “mountain of steep walls.” In 1570 it erupted and destroyed small indigenous settlements and killed around 400 people. For scale, Mombacho (1,345 meters above sea level) is taller than Masaya but not as big as Poás ( 2,700 m) or Arenal ( m). We took a tour on the Puma trail around Volcán Mombacho National Park which is home to 50 species of mammals, 174 birds, 30 reptiles, and 750 vascular plants. We didn’t see any pumas but one was just killed in Irazu, Costa Rica when it wandered down from the mountains into an urban area over the Easter weekend. Authorities tried to tranquilize and then catch it but it didn’t receive enough tranquilizers so it ended up strangling itself trying to get free.

Yours truly, monkeying around on Mombacho Volcano on two rocks that according to my guide split apart during an earthquake.

The tour guide in Nicaragua wasn’t as good as the guides in Costa Rica. He just kinda walked and then would stop and read signs. It made me realize why Costa Rica is the leader in ecotourism because their guides are charming, carry scopes and guidebooks, and share lots of anecdotes about the plants, animals, and geology. If you are a novice ecologist and want an entertaining, educational tour go to Costa Rica. It you want something more rugged without as much explanation where you have to do a bit more of your own exploring go to Nicaragua. If time is your limiting factor I would hit Costa Rica and if money is your limiting factor I would go to Nicaragua. Both are spectacularly beautiful.

My roommate, Megan on the steep Puma trail.

One of the Mombacho volcano’s fumerals, which are holes in the ground that release hot gases.

A wet, shivering Starbuck decides to dive into a warm fumeral.

This is what happens when Starbucks mess with fumerals. (Her idea)

A view of Lake Nicaragua from the top of Mombacho Volcano. Lake Nicaragua is the Spanish name, the native people call it Lake Cocibolca which means “the sweet sea.” From up here I could see my morning running trail.

My classmates standing among the clouds look down into the valley at historical Granada.

Check out the sheer density of life on a single tree! Our guide said there were more species of plants on one tree in the cloud forest than in a entire forest in England.

If you keep your eyes open you can find beautiful wild orchids like this.

Our next adventure was to visit one of Mare’s PeaceCorp contacts at UnversitÁrea Protegida, Nicaragau (UÁP) in Leon. The program was founded in 2003 to provide resources for Nicaraguans to pursue graduate degrees and then share the findings of their research with affected communities. I think this program is stellar because so often there is a such a gap between scientific studies and the people who could benefit from their findings.

Students experiment with worms, traditional, compost and bocashi (sp?) in an attempt to determine the best mixture for various crops. An undergrad leans against the worm bins which are irrigated, then the runoff collects in a bucket so it can then be used a spray fertilizer.

She shares her agricultural research. I think these were larva of parasitic wasps that attack pesky caterpillars similar to the tomato hornworm.

The University produces an insect specific fungus to attach pests. Theis fungus is then cheaply distributed to farmers so that they don’t have to use costly, hazardous pesticides.

While sucking tamarind juice out of the corner of a plastic bag, I watch a bird feed on the fruit of the cashew apple. Because of its quick decomposition after being picked, these are not sold in the States. But there is a part of it that is dried and roasted and very popular in the US. Can you guess what? I like the fresh fruit with a little salt. It reminds me of a persimmon.

 

After visiting the university we had a tour through Leon. Leon and Granada are historically twin competing cities. Granada was home to conservative merchants and Leon was the city of liberal universities. Because competition over being Nicaragua’s capital was so dramatic, Managua was founded as the capital.

Thank you for reading!

~Tammy