TravelStream™ news feed for member robertpallas on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/robertpallas en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:12:39 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1224522300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1224522300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1224522300/tpod.html Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:12:39 -0400 3 months in Nicaragua - Diary of "El Chele" (Milky)

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san juan del sur, Nicaragua

Spending a few days surfing before coming home
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corn island, Nicaragua

Am now on Little Corn Island, taking a course to become a PADI certified Open Water Diver, so that I may dive anywhere in the world without professional help in future. Took a very small 12-seater plane here, that you couldnt even stand up straight in. Very bumpy landing. Could have actually slapped the pilot whilst still seated. The island is a little piece of paradise, only 1.5km long, 300m wide, mainly sourrounded by long white beaches stretching into the warm turqoise caribbean sea. i have a wooden hut that is 10m from the sea. Loving SCUBA diving, am going to extend my stay here by 1-2 days longer than planned, maybe become a certified advanced diver, doing stuff like night dives. have seen lots of colouful fishes, lobsters, star fish and some sharks (harmless nurse sharks). weather isn't great (cloudy and raining / sunny 50-50%), but ive been lucky that it's sunny whenever im at the beach and raining when im underwater or sleepingback to the mainland on friday or saturday, back in the UK in about 10 dayshope all is going well for all of yourobby
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Leon, Nicaragua

still alive!
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san carlos, Nicaragua

So, after a week or more in the middle of nowhere, we´re back in somehwere you could call a town. We´ve been into the rainforest, on boats in crocodile and shark infested waters and conquered a castle. The last place that had a cash machine is a 14 hour boat trip away. From here weve been 2 hours away down the river, and one day was 2 hours 4x4 drive up a track, then an hour long trek to the rainfirest information centre. Back to proper civilisation tomorrow morning, 5am, when the ship docks!
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Leon, Nicaragua

just photos for now
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1220987160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1220987160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1220987160/tpod.html Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:33:12 -0400 3 months in Nicaragua - Diary of "El Chele" (Milky)

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Leon, Nicaragua

Have you ever thought "Wow! Those radio jingles where they sing the name of the radio station are great, why don´t TV channels have them?" No? Well the people at Nicaraguan channel Canal 10 have. But you then come along with the problem that those are just sounds, a bit of a waste on TV. That´s when you get hot dancers to do a dance at the same time (they have now replaced it woith cute little girl dancers). The end result is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuObpMhsEaA - lol!So what´s happened? Well, since the flood day there has been half an hour of rain in over a week. The temperature has been in the 30s ever since. I took the opportunity to go to the beach twice. One of the times I rented a kayak and paddled in a mangrove created by a sandbank island forming a narrow river of calm sea water. The area is apparently inhabited by crocodiles, though I didn´t see any. I did see loads of types of birds (those ones with the long necks and beaks, you know) and crabs! There was one beach of about 3m length with about 50 crabs on it.On Sunday I went to Leon Viejo & Laguna de Asososca. Leon Viejo is the original site of Leon, the first city and capital of Nicaragua. Unfortunately, they didn´t build it in a very good place, suffering earthquakes and volcanic ash rain many times in only 86 years of existence. Eventually, during a particularly bad ash pourdown, they decided to move the city to where the indigenous people had built their capital, and it´s stayed there ever since. It´ now just a bunch of walls that theyve dug up since the 60s when they realised this was a real place and not a legend. Funnily enough, the two first rulers of Nicaragua (the invader and the Spanish appointed Governor) one having ordered thebeheading of the other, lay side by side in the tomb under the cathedral (except for the head, which was never found). A short hike led up to the laguna, which is the most beautiful place ive seen in Nicaragua so far. A round lake reflects the steep green hills sorrounding it. 2 green volcanoes are on the opposite side to where we get in. The only signs of humanity are a broken fishing boat and a small wooden structure.Been doing placement as normal. Getting pretty competent at suturing now, so many people come in needing it. I now don÷t have much trouble even with the super thick scalp skin.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1220640240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1220640240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1220640240/tpod.html Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:04:46 -0400 3 months in Nicaragua - Diary of "El Chele" (Milky)

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Leon, Nicaragua

Since my last update, not too much exciting has gone on. I´m back to full health, and been working in the hospital, seeing quite a few operations, helpig out in them, and suturing in emergency dept. Last Friday was the birthday of the chief surgical consultant, the guy who authorised my placement here. It was supposed to be a meal starting at 5pm. We arrived punctually at 6, and only about 4 other people were there. They are all residents (mid level doctors) and thought that a restaurant where you pay 4 pounds for a steak was too much, so we drank some rum instead. The way you do it here is to order whole bottles of rum, along with ice & a mixer, and share. A lot of these were down by the time the consultant arrived at 9.30! It was then only me & the consultant who ordered a steak! Ended up going to another town with 2 of the doctors and staying at one of their houses for the weekend.On the Saturday, before the beach, the doctor had to go on an errand for his mother-in-law. Because his 4 week old baby was ill with a cold, he had to go to a small farm down a long gravel track to find a chompipe (a turkey like animal), this bird has some funny, rastafarian-type hairs growing out of its chest, these will ward off the evil spirits that bring colds. We had to pay a lot for these ahirs (almost as much as for the steak!) because, apparently, it´s a bit like the birds mojo, and once removed it will not mate anymore!The beach was disappointing as it was quite cold. I think it was the beginning of this week of bad weather, brought in by hurricane Gustav & tropical storm Hanna. Yesterday I couldnt leave the house as the city was in flood after 24h of the heaviest rain ive ever experienced. The roads were literally like rivers, would have had more luck in a kayak. Will upload a video soon. By thw way, new photos on the Flickr website. I tried to leave once to the bus stop, but would have had to wade through at least 10cm deep water to get to it. I got back to the house after a 4 minute excursion and was completely soaked throuhg, even with a raincoat on! The city & region declared a state of emergency, everythingh was cancelled, buses, schools, non-emergency hospital procedures. 2 people died upstate. I did not leave this morning for Esteli as I had planned.The rain has now completely stopped and the roads are dry.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1219962780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1219962780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1219962780/tpod.html Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:43:41 -0400 3 months in Nicaragua - Diary of "El Chele" (Milky)

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Jinotega, Nicaragua

Spent the next 4 days after the last blog entry running to the toilet, obviously eating at market stalls is a no-no. Have mostly recovered now, though not helped by a busy weekend.Travelled up to a city called Jinotega, in the Northern mountainous regions of Nicaragua. I left home at 4.20am to get the direct bus to Matagalpa, as the tourist information lady and the family i´m staying with had told me. I was then to meet with one of their friends, who incidentally is a bus owner/diver who drives the route from Matagalpa to Jinotega that combines perfectly with the bus from Leon. Unfortunatelt I had been misinformed. I realised this when, at a point I knew was still not even near Matagalpa, the bus emptied of all people and the conductor asked me where I was going. He told me I needed to get a bus to Matagalpa, so, very tired and confused I asked around and found the bus stop to Matagalpa. This connection meant I arrvied 1 hour late. Well, I never really arrived in Matagalpa. At the junction entrance to the town (which they always call the Empalme) someone came on the bus and asked if anyone wanted to go to Jinotega. I was asleep but jumped up and said me-me! I then told him I should have been getting on David Mendoza´s bus, so he told me it would be best to find him in Jinotega. The whole bus ride was very bumpy, with large potholes in the ground forcing the bus to slow down or drive on the wrong side of the road. Eventually (9am) I reached the small city of Jinotega. Somone pointed me round a corner and told me to find David there. His bus with his name on it was, but no sign of him, so I started asking nearby houses and quickly located his sister, who had his phone number, so I called, explained the situation, and 30 minutes later I was at his house being offered multiple Cokes and tacos.Had a really good weekend. David & his family were really friendly, he took me out to a nearby town in the hills, out with his nephews (my age) for beers that night, lunch the next day, and then to a nearby forest reserve. Jinotega is much colder than Leon, about 25ºC in the middle of the day. It is the coffee capital of Nicaragua, the economy almost totally dependant on it. The nature reserve is half organic coffee farm half cloud forest. It is very peaceful and beautiful. It is also very humid, being in the clouds all the time. I left Jinotega on Monday morning with an open invitation to return, a new friend and bags of coffee for me and the family.(Sorry no photos yet)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1219104120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1219104120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1219104120/tpod.html Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:14:35 -0400 3 months in Nicaragua - Diary of "El Chele" (Milky)

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Leon, Nicaragua

Jam'packed last few days. Went out for some drinks on Saturday night, there was a live band on. After, I went to a disco in town. Both were places popular with locals and foreigners. So I wasn´t the only "chele". Chele, which is a bastardization of the Spanish word leche (milk) is Nica slang for a person with white skin. Gringo means a North American, whereas chele can even be used to describe a particularly white Nicaraguan. That doesn´t mean i´m never called gringo. Chele is not a rude word at all, no offence is ever taken to it. Gringo might be different depending on who says it.On Saturady I went on a full moon hike up volcan Telica. It started off at about midnight, near the base of another volcano, Santa Clara. Took nearly 5 hours to reach the summit. The weather was cloudy and had been raining just before we left, so very humid. We then waited for the sun to rise to get a view of the crater and our surroundings. It was amazing to know you were standing at the edge of an active volcano crater. It was also amazing that there were forests and fields only 200m away. Later we trekked back down, got the amazing views we hadnt seen on the way up, although also felt the heat we hadnt felt so much on the way up.Today I did a very different type of volcano climb. Cerro Negro is a new and very active volcano, so much so that nothing grows on the slopes or for kilometres around. it is made up of lots of little stones and is an almost perfect 41 degree slope. This makes it great for volcano boarding! (I think I uploaded the photos to my last entry) This involves a wooden board with a metal base which you sit on and hold onto for dear live as you approach crazy speeds (someone was clocked at 60km-h once, but nobody got near that speed today)Super tired now, work tomorrow
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1218839160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1218839160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/robertpallas/1/1218839160/tpod.html Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:53:00 -0400 3 months in Nicaragua - Diary of "El Chele" (Milky)

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Leon, Nicaragua

So, the fiesta was interesting. There were lots of people gathered in the square by 6pm, already dusk, and suddenly a really loud air-raid siren siren sounds, the church bells start ringing and fireworks start. They arent the normal colourful fireworks, theyre basically all about noise, a loud explosion and a flash of light. This and people running for cover under trees, awnings, anything else made it feel like the middle of a battle in a war. In fact, the people doing the fireworks looked like they were dropping mortar shells into mortars and then running away - just like in a war. So that finished, and then some people strapped a wooden frame to their backs, which contained flares and small fireworks on them and started chasing people in the square. Then every 10 seconds or so, it let off a big firework which spiralled out of control in any direction - including towards people! This continued for about 10 minutes or so, I didn´t see anyone get hurt, they all got out of the way in time, maybe the fireworks wouldnt be so powerful anyway, but everyone, even the locals, seemed pretty scared. So that finished, and we were expecting a parade or something involving the well made Maria and other statues, but it didnt happen, everyone dispersed, so I went for a meal with some of the European friends i´ve made here. More people were out when we´d finished by 10pm, and there was more of a party atmosphere. There were then more fireworks at midnight, 6am, midday, and soon again at 6pm im promisedGot to go, gonna look for a new backpack!PS. Some more photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/27487224@N00/ its easier to upload to
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