27 July 2005
a few pictures
Here are a few more pictures for any of you who, for whatever reason, still check in with the blog.
enjoy...
enjoy...
Our delicious pig after being roasted around 6 hours. location: Mandu Taitu Hostel kitchen in Bocas del Toro, Panama.
Basimentos Isl., Polo's Beach, Panama. Old bradley with that crazy guy in the superman boxers, polo. The other guy is a guard "guarding" the land around polo's place. There were four "guards" who hung out with polo during their entire shift.
Isle de Ometepe, Nic. This island is my baby. This is where the farm was and where i spent most of my time. The volcano on the left is concepcion and the one on the right is maderas.
This dude is Nelson. Nelson did not stop smiling the entire time i knew him. He worked on the farm and it was his family that i worked with and who's house i slept through the earth quake in.
Bradley on top of concepcion. The hike up has 7 km. the first three were flat while the last 4 had a change in elevation of 1500 meters. The total height of the volcano is something like 1630 meters. really hard hike, but i made it up and down in 6 hours and 10 min. That was a record for my guide. The background is the outline of the maderas side of the island.
This was a shot i took from directly outside my tent. Concepcion at sunset.
Finally, your loving brad leaving ometepe on the ferry. good times.
If i get some really cool photos from the betsies i'll go ahead and put those on here too.
Till then,
love and smiles
18 July 2005
life love smiles
tomorrow i leave american soil for american soil in the US. i get into the cities at 10:30.
I spent my last few days in Leon, Nic. just chilling in the park chattin it up with the locals. Beautiful people and a beautiful city. Leon was fairly involved with the revolution and was one of only two areas to vote sandinista in the last two elections. Tomorrow is also the anniversary of when the sandinista revolutionaries took managua from the somoza dictatorship. So most people i talked to were more then willing to share their views on the political situation on Nic. and their thoughts about the US involvement with their history. It was really interesting to talk with people with revolutionary history about as old as i am. I was introduced to the Iran-Contra affair and talked with people directly affected. I have a list of books i'm looking forward to reading up on the subject. Nicaragua is an amazing place with some pretty amazing people.
its been fun and i hope to put some pictures up here after i get home and have them developed.
love
I spent my last few days in Leon, Nic. just chilling in the park chattin it up with the locals. Beautiful people and a beautiful city. Leon was fairly involved with the revolution and was one of only two areas to vote sandinista in the last two elections. Tomorrow is also the anniversary of when the sandinista revolutionaries took managua from the somoza dictatorship. So most people i talked to were more then willing to share their views on the political situation on Nic. and their thoughts about the US involvement with their history. It was really interesting to talk with people with revolutionary history about as old as i am. I was introduced to the Iran-Contra affair and talked with people directly affected. I have a list of books i'm looking forward to reading up on the subject. Nicaragua is an amazing place with some pretty amazing people.
its been fun and i hope to put some pictures up here after i get home and have them developed.
love
11 July 2005
Ometepe to the next place
all,
things in NIC are glorious! To finally answer to all the whinning about the lack of pictures. I do not have, nor will i have any time soon, a digital camera. Good old 35mm has been treating me well up until this trip. And i'm assuming the 14 pictures i've taken so far will turn out beautiful too. BUT, you will be able to see a glimpse of one or two of my photos if you visit the website of the farm i'm at... I just found out there was such a thing and the picture of the volcano on the homepage is literally the view i have directly outside my tent (which happens to be in a tree house).
www.silentdust.org/bonafide/
I think it's been about two weeks or so since the last update and i've been at the farm since then... work in the mornings and chillin in the afternoons. I've read a few of their books here and one i really enjoy was "Psychonavigation" by John Perkins. If you're so inclined its only about 130 pages.
I plan to leave the farm on the morrow. Highlights:
- Biking the 20k to the opposite side of the island to catch a ferry to Rivas only to visit an ATM, turn around, and head back. While on the return trip cruising as my front braking system works itself loose, catches the spokes, and sends my over my handle bars onto the crappy rock and dirt roads that are found here.
-The excitment i had after finding that of my bottle of rum and four cartons of wine i was carry back in a backpack, only one carton of wine was openned as a result of the biking mishap. (No worries either, i was able to salvage over 3/4 of the bottle of wine with the plastic shopping bag)
-Hiking 3 hours around our volcano to a trail head, 2 hours up the trail, and 1 hour in front of the most magnificent waterfall i've seen. The return walked sucked!
-and the soon to be party i've organised for tonight. We've made sourdough for pizza's, the brick oven will be heating in two hours. Then, when all our new friends are present, we start dicing up our fresh veggies and creating some of the best italian style brick oven pizza's i've had. We've done this one other night, but tonight i've prepaired three times as much dough and have accumulated a quality selection of beverages for the festivities.
Tentative plans for my last 8 or so days are:
Hike the smaller volcano again tomorrow.
Find a hostel on the other volcano.
Hike it. supposedly 10 hour round trip and more difficult than this volcano.
Leave ometepe.
Smile... as i am in central america.
Live life and follow the road in front.
Hopefully i'll get one or two more posts up before i arrive back in Minneapolis on the 19th.
love.
things in NIC are glorious! To finally answer to all the whinning about the lack of pictures. I do not have, nor will i have any time soon, a digital camera. Good old 35mm has been treating me well up until this trip. And i'm assuming the 14 pictures i've taken so far will turn out beautiful too. BUT, you will be able to see a glimpse of one or two of my photos if you visit the website of the farm i'm at... I just found out there was such a thing and the picture of the volcano on the homepage is literally the view i have directly outside my tent (which happens to be in a tree house).
www.silentdust.org/bonafide/
I think it's been about two weeks or so since the last update and i've been at the farm since then... work in the mornings and chillin in the afternoons. I've read a few of their books here and one i really enjoy was "Psychonavigation" by John Perkins. If you're so inclined its only about 130 pages.
I plan to leave the farm on the morrow. Highlights:
- Biking the 20k to the opposite side of the island to catch a ferry to Rivas only to visit an ATM, turn around, and head back. While on the return trip cruising as my front braking system works itself loose, catches the spokes, and sends my over my handle bars onto the crappy rock and dirt roads that are found here.
-The excitment i had after finding that of my bottle of rum and four cartons of wine i was carry back in a backpack, only one carton of wine was openned as a result of the biking mishap. (No worries either, i was able to salvage over 3/4 of the bottle of wine with the plastic shopping bag)
-Hiking 3 hours around our volcano to a trail head, 2 hours up the trail, and 1 hour in front of the most magnificent waterfall i've seen. The return walked sucked!
-and the soon to be party i've organised for tonight. We've made sourdough for pizza's, the brick oven will be heating in two hours. Then, when all our new friends are present, we start dicing up our fresh veggies and creating some of the best italian style brick oven pizza's i've had. We've done this one other night, but tonight i've prepaired three times as much dough and have accumulated a quality selection of beverages for the festivities.
Tentative plans for my last 8 or so days are:
Hike the smaller volcano again tomorrow.
Find a hostel on the other volcano.
Hike it. supposedly 10 hour round trip and more difficult than this volcano.
Leave ometepe.
Smile... as i am in central america.
Live life and follow the road in front.
Hopefully i'll get one or two more posts up before i arrive back in Minneapolis on the 19th.
love.
04 July 2005
Ometepe - a la finca
everything worked out beautifully with my trip to ometepe. Caught the tica bus from san jose, got to rivas, Nic. in time for the 2:30 ferry, got to Ometepe just in time for the bus to Bolgue, and walked the 5 Km to finca magdalena. I got in just before dark and as luck would have it Chris, one of the owners of the farm i was hoping to work at, was up at magdalena hanging out. Walked back with him to his farm. Both he and his partner had a flightall us for free? YES!
to catch back to the states the next morning so when i woke up it was just myself, another volunteer, and evelio. Things are great. 4 or 5 workers come up and work the morning with us on the farm, and then its just evelio, and us in the afternoons. I met a really nice family who farm near town and i've helped them a little on their farm as well in the afternoons. In fact, the first day i worked with them i was too tired and lazy to walk back so i crashed at their place for the night. I was fast asleep by 8 pm. Which sucked because that night there was apparently an earthquake somewhere in the ocean near here because everyone felt the ground shake, except for me because i sleep through everything.
I slept through my first earthquake... shucks.
Everything is good though. I'm enjoying myself here and i'm learning more spanish here because nobody i'm working with, except the other volunteer, speaks english. weirdest thing of working on the farm so far has been having to deal with scorpions. They've fallen from the roof onto our kitchen table... i've had to get them off my tent before crawling in. I've decided I don't like scorpions.
Oh to help you picture the farm, as i don't do photos: Everything is thatched roofed, no walls, only posts coming down to the floor. There is maybe 4 of these buildings. And everything is a garden. Every plant, tree, thing planted on the farm produces some type of food or useful product. The food is great, no iguana, no meat actually, but good.
Until later,
love
to catch back to the states the next morning so when i woke up it was just myself, another volunteer, and evelio. Things are great. 4 or 5 workers come up and work the morning with us on the farm, and then its just evelio, and us in the afternoons. I met a really nice family who farm near town and i've helped them a little on their farm as well in the afternoons. In fact, the first day i worked with them i was too tired and lazy to walk back so i crashed at their place for the night. I was fast asleep by 8 pm. Which sucked because that night there was apparently an earthquake somewhere in the ocean near here because everyone felt the ground shake, except for me because i sleep through everything.
I slept through my first earthquake... shucks.
Everything is good though. I'm enjoying myself here and i'm learning more spanish here because nobody i'm working with, except the other volunteer, speaks english. weirdest thing of working on the farm so far has been having to deal with scorpions. They've fallen from the roof onto our kitchen table... i've had to get them off my tent before crawling in. I've decided I don't like scorpions.
Oh to help you picture the farm, as i don't do photos: Everything is thatched roofed, no walls, only posts coming down to the floor. There is maybe 4 of these buildings. And everything is a garden. Every plant, tree, thing planted on the farm produces some type of food or useful product. The food is great, no iguana, no meat actually, but good.
Until later,
love
