Nicaguara

Yesterday we got a wake up call at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am for a 5:20 am pick up to go to Nicaguara. The first stop was for a traditional breakfast which consisted of rice, beans and eggs, which I've been eating every day since I got here so that was no big treat. We drove for an hour and a half to get to the border. Never have I seen such a primitive border crossing or so much money, and extra treats crossing hands to get across the border quickly. Lots of Nicaguaran men were standing around the border and there were lots of people trying to sell stuff. There was a line up of semi trucks about a mile and a half long. It can take up to three days to get your truck through the border.

Following are some photos of the day with explainations below them.

 A woman making cigars at the cigar factory we visited. They use 4 different types of leaves to make
one cigar. Some leaves for the cigars take up to 3 years to mature. 

 The cigars that they have for sale. They sell for about 10 times more in Canada.

 A view of the street outside the church. The street looks really clean here but there is so much garbage laying on the side of the road. There is garbage and poverty everwhere.

 A church that does not look even close to what you what see in Mexico.

 A house on an Island which is made of vocanic rock from the volcanos in the area that we went by. This place is actually very luxurious compared to a lot of the houses we saw. Most people live in shacks with dirt floors. There are bikes everywhere. I would hate to ride a bike on the roads there because vehicles just whiz by and if you get hit, too bad for you.

 We visited an island by boat that had spider monkeys on it. In Costa Rica it is against the law to feed the animals but not in Nicaguara so the guide was feeding them.

 One of the monkeys jumped on the boat. Here is a photo of him with her hand on Mary's leg. She started to unzip her backpack and Mary zipped it back up again. The monkey grabbed at Mary and showed her teeth and started to unzip the backpack again. The guide told us the monkey would take things from you and run, so Mary tried to stop it again. Well, the monkey got really mad at Mary and was going at her with her teeth about to bite her when she stood up and said NO. The guide jumped in and hit the monkey with the life jacket. Mary was ok, with just a few red marks on her arm.

 A nice house on a very small island.

 These are birds nests.

 Mary's new boyfriend, our Costa Rican guide Santos. He is a real sweetheart...too much for Mary to handle.

This is a paraket with her spouse in the bouganvilla behind her.

 This is a buggy and horse on the street. Many people still use horses and carts here.

 We went to see the Masaya Volcano and basically walked right up to the edge of the crater. Most countries would never let you get so close to an active volcano. It had steam coming up from the middle and you could hear the sizzling below the surface. There was a strong smell of sulfur and other gases. You can see the sulfur where it settles on the edge of the volcano. This was really interesting to see.

 Mary and I standing at the edge of an active volcano.

This used to be an active volcano but eventually filled up with water from the lake.