Sunflower's Place

In february/march 2001 I took part at an scientific excursion of the University of Vienna to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It was an unique experience, I fell in love with latin america immediately. I would recommend latin america to everybody who likes travelling, especially Nicaragua is wonderful, if you like travelling far away from mass tourism. In Costa Rica you'll find more tourists, especially US Americams. Nicaragua was spared from mass tourism so far, that's why you won't find a lot of tourism infrastructure there (Hotels, Youth Hostels, Public transport etc.).

But now, there's a short report of our trip:

11. 02.: Arrival at Managua (Flight via Wien - Madrid - Miami - Managua), the capital of Nicaragua. We didn't see a lot of Managua, since we were picked up and proceeded to Granada, a beautiful little town south of Managua.

12.02.: Volcán Masaya (close to Granada). This volcano is still active (last eruption in the 17th century), there are sulfur clouds to be seen permanently above the crater. The indigenous people prayed to the volcano and sacrificed virgins, some centuries later the Spanish thought the red lava to be gold and let people go down there at a rope to fetch the gold. You can imagine what happened to these poor people...In the Parque Nationál Volcán Masaya there is - besides of interesting dry vegetation and a huge view over Lago Nicaragua and some more vulcans closeby - a cave, where you can also find traces of the indigenous people besides of some nice cave inhabitants (bats, spiders etc.). At the roots of the volcano, in the village of Masaya, there is a market with great food, crafts and some strange souvenirs (live and preparated animals).

Fog forest at the Volcano Mombacho

13.02.: Volcán Mombacho: This volcano is - in contrary to Masaya - extinguished for quite a time so forestation is completed already. The fog forest just at the top is undescribable ! From the visitor's center, it's possible to ascend the volcano by an old russian military truck with seats on the loading space, which is an adventure, but you shouldn't be timid then ! In the afternoon, we went to the "Isletas" - a small archipel of islands in the Lago Nicaragua, the tenth biggest freshwater lake of the world - by boat. Richer Nicas use the Isletas for their holiday homes and for birdwatchers, this area is a paradise (herons, weaving birds etc.)

14.02.: Las Salinas, a small costal town at the Pacific coast does not only have a salt-works, but besides of a small desert-like area it also has a great beach and some mangroves. We needed to walk a while to reach the beach but it was worth it !

Cactus"island" at Las Salinas

Muddy Maderas :-)

15.02.: A ferry brought us the the island of Ometepe, situated in Lago Nicaragua. On that island, especially the dry forests are worth a visit, and we stayed at a nice hotel led by an austrian woman who founded it together with the Austrian development Services. At Ometepe, there are two volcanos - Concepción and Maderas. We walked up Maderas - we passed beautiful rainforests, but all in all, it was a mud bath. I would only recommand the climb to sporty people (although in our case, the first group reaching the top constisted almost completely of heavy smokers - may have been the yearning for the first cigarette at the top :-). At least 3 hours are needed for the climb. On the way, you'll find Pteroglyphes, stony reminders to the indigenous culture.

17.02.: The little town of Altagracia ist worth a visit. Besides of a nice curch with the nicest cross I've ever seen (Jesus with dreadlocks and glittering loinclothes :-) there is a museum with excavations done by an austrian scientist - so the descriptions are in German and Spanish.

18.02.: With a plane (well, more a flying object :-) - but: we survived !) we crossed Lago Nicaragua and arrived at San Carlos, a little gold rush town, which has already seen it's best times. We didn't have a lot of time, since we immediately left for the island of Mancarron. This island became famous because of the artist's colony founde by the later culture minister of Nicaragua, Ernesto Cardinal. If you like balsa wood carvings, you'll find lots of them at Mancarron. On that islands, there's no electricity, but everybody is - besides of farmwork - an artist.

The "airport" of San Carlos :-)

Rainforest at Rio Papaduro

19.02.: With a boat we headed up to the Refugio de Los Guatuzos on Rio Papaduro. We left very early in the morning, so we met some fishermen and bought two fishes for lunch. The waterways of Rio Papaduro were just marvellous and a short roundwalk at the Refugio gave us the opportunity to see much of the indigenous flora and fauna (included the numerous mosquitos :-).

20.02.: Again with the boat we started the long trip on the Rio San Juan to El Castillo, passing by San Carlos. El Castillo is an old defence castle built to prevend attacks from pirates coming up the Rio San Juan to attack the rich town of Granada. Initially, the canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean was thought to be built here at the Rio San Juan, since there is only a small land bridge of some kilometers (a lot smaller than in Panama), but the USA preferred the more loyal country of Panama. Looking back, there would have been huge benefits for Nicaragua's economy, but this unique nature landscape would have been destroyed. In El Castillo, there is one hotel, which is - for my taste - a little too "touristic", but if electricity breaks down, it's very romantic !

Mosquitos !

Rainforest...

21.02.: Via Rio Bartola we entered a unique Low Land Rainforest area. The green dense shores of the river are indescribeable. From the Biosphere - Reservation Indio Maiz it's possible to start great roundwalks into the rainforest.

"Siesta":
2 Flo's and I !

22.02.: Refugio Bartola, another scientific station at Rio Bartola, disposes of a great net of walking paths (which a real nature lover will use in order to prevent damage to the rainforest by walking over everything). Here, we did some nice tours during day and nighttime. Walking through the rainforest at nighttime gives you a totally new perspective but you should't be afraid of spiders of the size of a hand :-)

23.02.: On the Rio San Juan we went back to San Carlos and finally crossed the border to Costa Rica. At San Carlos, we had to do the "official" paperwork (you really need patience for that :-) and finally we crossed the border on the waterways. We immediately proceeded to La Fortuna, a small village at the roots of the volcano Arenal. There is a fountain at La Fortuna where we wanted to have a bath. At the first moment, arriving in Costa Rica was a "cultural shock" for us since it's obvious that La Fortuna is a village visited by american tourists. We wanted to visit the swimming pool but it was already closed so we drove up the mountain and found a nice place at the fountain out in the nature. It was romantic and a lot of fun !

Travelling on Rio Frio to Costa Rica

Flo & and me at the Vulcano Arenal

24.02.: First, we went up volcano Arenal, a volcano, which is still active (last outbreak 1968). The climb up to the crater is prohibited since some years ago an american tourist didn't return from this trip. Bizzare landscapes of limestone and the noises of the volcano made me feel uneasy there, but the succeeding vegetation was interesting. During our trip to Manuel Antoino, we paused at a river where we could watch crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) taking a sunbath.

25.02.: The small National Parc Manuel Antonio is situated on a peninsula and it's the perfect place for people who want to see lots of animals from a small distance (Spider monkeys, agutis, sloths and lots of Black Iguanas) but don't mind tourists. Actually, Manuel Antonio is one of the most famous places at Costa Rica for american tourists, especially the gay scene is famous. In spite of the numerous tourists, the two beaches of Manuel Antonio are almost unused but mostly inhabited by Black Iguanas (Ctenosaurus similis). They are very thame there, so you have to be careful with your food and luggage. I couldn't help, but I had to think of the pigeons of Venice :-)

Black Iguana at Manuel Antonio

26.02.: We approached our last station: the Rainforest of the Austrians at La Gamba at the Golfo Dulce. There, besides of a well-equipped rainforest lodge, lots of walking trails invite to explore the rainforest. That area alone is worth a journey ! Here's not enough space to write lots about La Gamba and the Rainforest of the Austrians, but at the bottom you'll find a link to the La Gamba Homepage.

Crossing Rio Esquinas

27.02.: After a roundwalk through the Esquinas Rainforest we visited a cave with bats in the afternoon watching the bats leaving the cave in the evening. Meanwhile it had started to rain and we got wet to the bones while walking back to our bus - almost as every evening at the Esquinas Forest (it's a RAIN Forest :-).

28.02.: We were walking literaly day and night through the Esquinas forest. Nightwalks are especially interesting since the frogs build a funny chorous of different voices.

01.03: With a boat we did a tour through the mangroves of the Golfo Dulce. A wonderful forest, we enjoyed it in spite of some technical problems (we hit the ground of the shores repeatedly, one motor was burning, a tree was closing the waterway and even with brutal force we couldn't remove it - so we had to lift the boats over the tree)...

"Saving" our boat at the mangrove :-)

02.03.: Almost the end of our trip - we visited Wilson Botanical Garden at Las Cruces close to San Vito, interesting not only for friends of flowers. On the way back, we paused at Manu, where they have a sleeping tree for herons. Quite comfortable from the terrace of a taverna its possile to watch the herons coming in in small groups to sleep on one tree alltogether - thousands of herons on just one tree !

03.03.: We had to say goodbye to La Gamba ! On our way back to San José we paused at the Cordilleras Central at 3400m to visit the Paramó, the dominating vegetation at that altitude. A little later, we stopped at a fairy tale -like swamp and then finally, we had to return to San José. We still had one night for a farewell which we spent at the lively city of San José.

04.03.: Via San José - Miami - Madrid we went back to Vienna.

That's a photo of our excursion group !
20 crazy biologists from Vienna coming over Nicaragua and Costa Rica :-)

If you want to read more about Costa Rica and the "Rainforest of the Austrians" follow the link:

Nicaragua & Costa Rica