Lakes, bats, prisons, volcanoes
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2007
1
19
33
Trip End
Ongoing
Granada,
Nicaragua
Friday, November 9, 2007
Unlike Leon, Granada is set up for tourists. It has a pretty setting on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, houses painted an ochre yellow, or otherwise red, and a yellow cathedral. Horses wander loose in the streets here too, but the place has a far less desperate feel to it than does Leon. I was surprised to find a statue to one of the conquistadores, Cordoba, by the waterfront. I was also surprised to find a little kid fishing with a throwing net in the shallows of the lake in the filthy looking water (perhaps it is only mud), and even more surprised to see that he had caught some fish. He was towing a little tote line behind him with perhaps ten fish on it.
On our full day, which was a Monday, went on a long tour of a pottery work shop (via a building that still has the bullet holes in the wall from a fight in 1979, a new sight for me but which one of our Germans dismissed by noting that 'we have a lot of this in Berlin'), various markets, a volcano and caves with bats.The latter items were obviously most interesting
The fortress above ground
. Pottery and a lake
Actually, it was very interesting to see the pottery being made and to watch others try to do it. And the pottery they made there was very pretty and incredibly cheap. Quite large vases with very delicate decorations were selling for cordobas, equivalent to around NZ$4. The workmanship was very impressive and I am sure that if it wasn't so totally impractical to acquire pottery at this stage of the trip we would have ended up with a couple of pieces. Everyone else in the group acquired at least one piece.
From there we went to a lookout over Lake Apoyo, a flooded crater very close to Lake Nicaragua which was also clearly visible from the lookout. Lake Apoyo is purportedly 240m deep, and after wasting some more time at a market we went down to have a swim in it. Its water is incredibly soft, a perfect temperature and very clear. They take diving trips here and I would like to have gone on one. I certainly regret not having packed my mask.
From there we went to another market. There was nothing of interest to me, apart from grotesque items made out of frogs, such as purses
Cell for 80 people at Coyotepe
. I hope nobody ever buys these items but I expect that people must.Coyotepe
Finally we got to the interesting part of the day - volcanoes and bat caves. Actually, I will get to those in a moment. Before those attractions we made a very interesting and chilling visit to Coyotepe, a nineteenth century fort that was converted to a political prison and torture chamber. It's name means place of the coyote, but unfortunately there aren't any around now.
Above ground level the fort is very quaint and cheerily located on a hill with beautiful views across the green land and lakes below. Unfortunately some of those lakes are too polluted for drinking, although we were told that the Japanese were 'pretending' to clean the water in one, Laguna de Masaya. (I think this was an innocent confusion not a slur on the Japanese efforts, because the Spanish verb 'to try' is pretender.) Another of the lakes was apparently unsafe because after the terrible earthquake in 1972 which necessitated the mass dumping of animal and human corpses in the lake. Thirty five years later and the water is still not safe. I don't know how accurate that information was but it is a sobering statement. (I am not sure if this is the same earthquake that galvanised the revolution through the massive misappropriation of international aid donations, but it seems likely)
Bats on the wing
. Even more sobering were the underground chambers built under the first Somoza in order to take care of political enemies. By the 1970s this practically lightless dungeon housed up to 800 prisoners who were crowded into cells that I measured at five ordinary steps (not paces) long by two deep. Into this space they would put 20 people. Some cells had a little light from a small grill at ground level, but apparently these were sometimes covered over. We entered one room where apparently 80 prisoners were kept and which has windows through a little sloping passage way that allows a little light, but these were sealed over and other prisoners where stuck in the sloping passage. The story, which I believe, is that when the Sandinistas captured the fort and released the prisoners, a number were left permanently blind by their time in the cells. We saw the hook from which prisoners were executed by hanging and one of the torture chambers were blood stains remain on the walls. Many Sandinistas spent time in this prison, including members of Daniel Ortega's family (I'm not sure if Ortega himself did - he was president in the early 1980s and is again now). Naturally when they obtained control of the country, the Sandinistas returned the favour. Eventually it was turned over to the Scouts and now, with what must be unconscious irony, the side of the fort bears a mural of Baden Powell
Same cell
.Our guide for the day,though not for this part, had been a Sandinista. Apparently he was not a very enthusiastic member but everyone was on one side or the other. He was shot in the leg, arrested and incarcerated at a similar kind of institution, but liberated because his mother worked for one of the Somozas. He told me the next day when I bumped into him on the street that the Sandinistas then stole his house, at which point he fled to the United States.
Volcan Masaya
The volcano is very young one called Volcan Masaya, or black hill, and is a gigantic sulfur encrusted hole in the ground where parrots come home to roost in order to shelter in the poisonous gases away from vultures and snakes that would hunt them. Unfortunately we arrived a little late to see the parrots coming home, although we did see some pass overhead when we were in the car park below. We were in time to see a spectacular sunset looking over the old crater and the lake beyond towards Volcan Momotombo.
The summit above Crater Santiago is marked by a cross. This is very recent, but it replaces one erected by a 16th century priest who believed the crater to be the entry to hell
The crater to hell
. This volcano seems to inspire strange beliefs. The indigenous people worshipped it and sacrificed people to it, and some mad man believed that liquid gold was to be found inside and sent some natives to their death in his attempt to recover the gold. We returned to a different vantage point later on in the evening to watch the eerie glow of the magma, but there was too much steam to get a good view. This is a volcano that emits 800 tons of sulfur dioxide a day, which apparently does affect the health and crops of the downwind villages, so a bit of steam was hardly a surprise.
Bats
Next we wandered down to the entry of a bat cave. We stood outside the entrance and in the very dim light that remained we could see bats emerging from the cave. I think these were all insectivores, although fruit bats live there too. When people stood still you could hear the bats' wings rustling as they swooped around in the clearing outside the entrance.
We were permitted a little way into the cave. On entering, invisible bats flew past, one so close that I felt the wind of its wings on my face
Sunset from Volcan Masaya
. Further into the cave there was a chamber absolutely packed with bats, and here even I could hear their squeaking, which sounded like a very high pitched chatter without pauseThen we went to another cave we there were fewer bats and where we would be permitted much further inside. This was a lava tube, not the usual limestone cave, and it had some very unusual features. For one, the ceiling was full of solid drops of solidified lava, which gave the ceiling an incredible texture. In other places you could see where bubble had burst popping the lava and leaving a crater in the roof. It was pretty interesting.
Highlight for the day? I think that Coyotepe was the most interesting and will have the longest impact, while the bats were the most fun.
Update on the Guatemalan election
The election was held shortly after we left, and the candidate I preferred took 53% percent of the vote, in which about half the electorate voted. I commented earlier about some scepticism in the media about the candidates. I found some more specifics later which adds to the sense of politics as usual
Sunset with Volcan Momotombo in background
.It was a run off election between two candidates who took 28 and 25% percent in the first round. Both were thought to be spending a hundred million quetzals, but no one knows where the money comes from. The election promises were vague without any clear plan to achieve the goals, and there wasn't enough money to implement such goals as were clear. Both candidates accused the other of engaging in human rights abuses. Colom, who lost, refused to debate Molina, because he said that Molina`s personal attacks made the whole thing a farce (pretty feeble for a man whose campaign slogan literally translates as a 'tough hand' but for all I know he might have been right - he says that in an earlier debate Molina refused to reveal his funders saying that he was fearful that Colom`s campaign would have them killed).
