The world from the back of a truck

After a week of mostly rain and cold weather, it was time for a brief reprieve. The project wasn't going quite as planned and equipment failure also added to the decision to head down to Managua for a couple days. And how else to get there but in the back of a truck. Classic.

What is not captured in these pictures is the huge bags of green coffee and 6 other people that were also smushed in the back of the truck with us for the first hour of the ride.

We dropped the coffee and the people off outside of Jinotega, at the beneficiado where the coffee is dried.

Then we were on our merry way...ready for another 2 or so hours of wind blown adventure.

Needless to say there are a lot of pictures of blurry roadsides.

Oh, and the disco bar...not because we wanted to, but we had to. We spent a good 45 minutes hanging out in the parking lot waiting for the radiator to cool down. Nothing like an overheated radiator to add to the adventure.

The 3 hour trip turned into 5 or more. Not entirely sure, but a few more roadside stops were needed to give the radiator a break. Eventually we made it Managua and dropped John off at his hotel. No more translator...hence began immersion spanish. We were dropped at Hotel Casa Real (that's right, we're keeping it real) where we've been bumbling through trying to communicate in spanish. Mostly, people break down and speak english to us or hunt down someone who can understand what we are trying to say. A-mazing.

Hotel garden art...

The roof tops of Managua.

So far we've managed to go to the mall and buy groceries without incident. Big Day! The next test will be taking the bus back to El Jaguar...talk about experience...

North to El Jaguar

On the trip North we stopped at a few lakes to do some birding and also happen upon this fella selling parrots on the side of the road. He hoped we wanted to buy a parrot, but really we just wanted to figure out what kind of parrot it was. He was bummed when we busted out the bird books. I bet the parrots were too...

Lakes (playitas) with lots of fun birds, jacanas and other interesting water fowl, but I'll spare you the details.

As we continued to climb in elevation and neared El Jaguar, there was an obvious drop in temperture. More and more clouds appeared and just as we reached the road to El Jaguar it started to rain. I suppose that shouldn't be surprising since it is a cloud forest after all...

Still, I just wasn't quite prepared for the extent of rain and fog. The temperature was also a bit of a shocker. The first few days the high was no more than 65. Way to go choose the coldest place in the tropics. Ha!

All that moisture does make for a lot of greenery though. And very muddy trails. Good thing we are also in the mountains so there are a lot of steep hills to traverse. Muy Bueno.

It's pretty much an ideal situation.

Ah rubber boots, pretty sure I'll be living in these bad boys for the next couple of months.

The good news is the coffee likes the weather.

Lots of fog and mist and rain equals lots of moss, epiphytes and bromeliads. The forest is somewhat similar to the Pacific Northwest. Everything is covered in moss, and it's cold and wet. See where I'm going with this?

The real test will be whether the laundry ever dries or just turns green like everything else.

John and Mer playing in the gargantuan vegetation. Those leaves are no joke and next time it rains I fully intend to use one as an umbrella.

A rare moment in the cloud forest...semi-clear skies!

When this occurs Buena Vista is true to it's name. The rest of the time there is about 50 feet of visibility because of the fog.

The initial residence was a little room next to the office and kitchen used for large groups. Pros: close to food; Cons: no where to put all of our equipment and outdoor cold showers. Normally not a bad thing except when it is only 65 or less outside. Then it is just frigid.

The new digs. We upgraded to the cabins, which give us a little more living space, and indoor bathroom (with hot water, aww snap) and more importantly a small stove to make coffee whenever we need it. It's the little things.

Our little hummingbird friend found the feeder after only one day.
Everyone needs a hammock.

Nicaragua 3.0

And so another adventure begins...Nicaragua for 3 months with the hopes (misguided as they may be) of finding and ''studying'' some birds. If I'm lucky I may even get some sort of degree out of it but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. It's what we like to call a ''good experience''.

Despite the ridiculous amount of stuff we had to bring with us, we made it through security and customs with few problems. Security only questioned us once about the strange electronics we were carrying. Nothing like radio receivers to throw them off their game. Miami was not horrible, but of course they save to good stuff for the trip back. Still, they could seriously work on the coffee availability in that airport. How's an addict to survive??

Surprisingly, our luggage showed up in Managua at the same time we did. What are the chances of that, really?4 checked bags, pretty good odds. And so it seemed we were off to a fairly good start...

We spent the first night in Managua after taking the minibus to the hotel across the street. Yes, that was silly.

Dang, that's a lot of stuff...

The hotel...yup, seemed like a picture worthy thing at the time.

Christmas in Nicaragua needed a hug?

A Christmas reindeer, complete with sweet googly eyes at the hotel

Lili and Georges Duriaux-Chavarria came to pick us up the next day to head up to El Jaguar. However, first there was the small matter of cramming all that luggage into the car. It was quite the puzzle.

Not quite....

Eventually, everything was shoved in or tied on top and we were on our way.

Bienvenidos a Nicaragua!