So...about those updates

Well, it turns out it's a lot harder than I thought to keep up the blog while not in Nicaragua. So, I think I'll go ahead and sign off for the time being. I should have some more posts coming in January to let you know about plans, and I will definitely resume blogging once I'm back in Nicaragua, probably in February. Thanks for reading and don't forget to check back in a few months!

The Last Float

This was the only video I took that turned out well all the way through. Most of the others have shoddy camera work and poor lighting, so I'm leaving those out for now.

La Chica CUUN

A while back, I posted about Mr. and Miss Law School. Well, now all of the departments have elected their Miss (and in some cases Mr.), and now they're electing "La Chica CUUN," which is the basically "Girl of the University." Turns out this is a huge deal and they have a parade through downtown Leon. Each department has a float for its candidate. And there is also two floats for the beer company that sponsors the event, one of which is the first picture. The second picture is the float from social sciences, if I remember correctly. For most of the others, I took video clips so I'll try to post a few of those. If anyone knows of a free, good, easy-to-use video editing program for avi files, let me know. I'd prefer to just string the highlights together and make one decent video rather than half 5-6 half good videos. By the way, I have little idea what exactly "CUUN" stands for, and most university students don't seem to know either, but the word "universidad" is probably in there somewhere.

The Future of the Blog

Well, as some of you may know, this is my last night in Nicaragua for a few months. For those of you who didn't know, it's probably a complete surprise. I'm heading back to the US, hopefully having some medical school interviews, and then hopefully coming back to Nicaragua in February or so to continue research. So what does this mean? Well, after two months of cold showers, it'll be nice to have hot water again. On the flip side, I'll have to deal with cold weather. Secondly, the future of the blog: I have a bunch more material to post that I simply haven't gotten around to, so I'll continue posting for a while, and it'll probably be easier for me since I'll have more time. At some point, there will probably be a break, and I'll let you know when it's coming and an estimate of when the blog will be back in action.

Free Entertainment

On the ferry ride back to mainland Nicaragua, lots of local boys from Ometepe got on board of the boat. The ticket guy doesn't take your tickets until the boat is already in motion, so it's easy to walk on for a while if you want to. In what's apparently pretty common, these boys get on the boat, and then, once it starts to leave the port, they jump off into the lake. The biggest, wildest kids jump off the roof of the three story boat, which you can't see here, but it's pretty high up, trust me. Unfortunately, my camera takes about a minute per photo, so I wasn't able to get any really good pictures, mostly just splashes in the water after the fact. At any rate, here's a couple kids jumping off from the main level.

Monster Truck Rally!

Just kidding. No monster trucks. But on the way back to Leon, we stopped at a car fair in Managua to visit Edgar's sister, who works for Suzuki. Toyata had set up a huge mud course to show off its all-terrain vehicles. Edgar and I did a loop in one of the SUVs, which is blurrily pictured above. Only the professional drivers are allowed to actually drive the car, but as a passenger, you get tossed around a whole lot. Even though you only go about 5 miles per hour, you need a seatbelt so that you don't get thrown all over the inside of the car.

Tweet Tweet

Edgar and I had a few meals at a nice hotel called Villa Paraiso on Ometepe. It's on Lake Nicaragua. You eat outdoors, which is actually not uncommon in Nicaraguan restaurants where the line between indoors and outdoors often blurs. But unlike most restaurants, this one has beautiful tropical birds that come hang out in the trees ten feet away from where you're dining. I took these photos from our dinner table. Unfortunately, I don't know what sort of bird this is, but if you tell me, I'll be happy to credit you.

Update: As John pointed it, it appears to be a White-throated Magpie-Jay. That's a lot of hyphens for one bird. They seem to be quite friendly, or at least don't mind posing for photos.

Tropical Lakes

This is Edgar on the beach Playa Santo Domingo on Lake Nicaragua. It's a nice place with little rancho umbrellas in the water and on the shore. It's a very nice looking beach.

Dagobah

This shot reminds of the planet Dagobah from Star Wars, where Yoda trains Luke in the ways of the Jedi. Yes, I did have to look up the spelling of "Dagobah." This particular photo is on Omotepe at Playa Santo Domingo

Ometepe

The highlight of the trip was visiting Ometepe, a volcanic island in the middle of the gigantic Lake Nicaragua. We took a cheap little boat to the island for about $1.60, a ride of a little over an hour. As we approached the island with its two imposing, volcanoes Concepción and Maderas, with smoky gas pouring out of their tops, I began to wonder in the back of my mind what would happen if there were a serious eruption while I was visiting. As avalanches of lava raced down to the beaches, my only option would be to swim many many miles across the worlds' only shark-infested fresh water lake, Lake Nicaragua. If I survived the sharks, would I survive the exhausting swim? Too bad I didn't go to the gym more often when I had the chance. What about all the ash, the falling rocks, the blowing sand; what if the lake starts boiling? Well, at least then I wouldn't have to worry about the sharks.
Luckily, there haven't been any eruptions from Concepción since 1957 (or 1999 or 2005 depending on which line in Wikipedia you decide to believe), and Maderas has been silent since the 13th century and is considered dormant.
It turns out that the island is huge. It is 276 km squared and has a total population of 35,000 people with schools, health services, hotels, cell phone towers, and bananas. They export a ton of plantains. A truck from El Salvador boarded our ferry on the way back home, loaded to the brim with bananas.
As for those aggressive fresh water bull sharks, I didn't see any. According to the internet, studies from the University of Nebraska show that the sharks swim into the lake via the San Juan River from the Caribbean.
The river is a major waterway and the US originally wanted to use it as the basis for a Nicaraguan Canal, but they eventually built the Panama Canal instead. As of 2006, then-president of Nicaragua, Enrique Bolaños, was still trying to get a Nicaraguan canal built. He said it would be a huge economic boost for the country, but there are some problems, such as the huge construction cost and possible environmental damage.

Pizza Hot

Here are two photos from our brief stop in Rivas. The main cathedral surrounded by a fence, which is a little less inviting, but it still looks pretty. The second picture is of the Pizza Hot delivery bike. Edgar and I ate there, and I think it made us both a little sick afterwards, but at least it tasted good. Anyway, several pizza and chicken restaurants have delivery options. It's almost always a guy on a motorcycle with a little pack on the back with the goods. The Tip Top chicken delivery guys always have these bright yellow jackets and bright yellow helmets. Safety first.

Volcán Masaya

Volcán Masaya is located near Masaya, Nicaragua. The volcano is still active, although there have been only two lava eruptions since 1600. However, it still belches out rocks and constantly perfumes the air with sulfer dioxide gas, so much so that it can be hard to breath near the top of the observation point, which is marked with a cross in the third photo. Climbing up to the observation point, I was coughing and gasping for air. I tried to take a picture across the volcano (photo 2), but there is so much gas that you can't see much. In the first photo, you can look down into the crater a little, and also see the parking lot. Notice that all the cars are parked facing away from the volcano. This is in case of an emergency so that everyone can evacuate quickly. I think that my traveling companion Edgar might have better photos of the volcano; if so, I'll try to post some of his so that you get a better idea of what it looks like.

Hey Hey We're the Monkeys

San Jorge once again. These monkeys were chained to a tree, apparently as pets or something. There were quite frisky until I started to video them, at which point they became mostly still. There are wild monkeys in Nicaragua, but unfortunately I haven't seen any yet.

Bring Your Alibis

Located in the town of San Jorge, which is a port town on Lake Nicaragua. There's plenty of room at the Hotel California...

Update

I was on a little vacation for a few days, but I'm back now and will post some entries from my trip over the next few days.

More Red Soft Drinks

Here are a couple of friends (Marlon on the left and Edgar in the center) and I enjoying some red soft drinks in sandwich bags. That's how drinks are often sold here in Leon. They pour it out of the glass bottle and into a baggie, tying it around a straw. They keep the bottle. It's a decent vessel for drinking a soft drink, but sometimes the straw sucks up the bottom of the bag and you have to free it in order to get the liquid flowing again. They also sell juices and flavored milks (chocolate and corn flavored, among others I believe) in sandwich bags.

The Little Soft Drink That Could...

This red soft drink is called Rojita. It is a popular drink in Nicaragua, and used to be owned by a Nicaraguan company. And then Pepsi bought it. This particular soda, Rojita, seems to be totally invisible on the internet. I spent a long time trying to find out more about it, but was almost completely unsuccessful, which is pretty remarkable in itself. If someone finds something, let me know. As far as taste, it is basically the equivalent of the Coca Cola drink Fanta Roja.
Last year, I discovered a similar soda situation. Inca Kola was the native soft drink of Peru (my Peruvian friend Hernan jokes "The kola of the Incas"), and then Coca Cola bought most of the company in the late 1990s since they couldn't quite rival its popularity in Peru. I linked to the Wikipedia entry on Inca Kola, which details the rise and buying out of the company (at least I find this sort of thing interesting anyway)