solitude in nature (or was it just the exercise?)

At the end of my trip to Nicaragua, I spent a few days in the mountainous north, first in the small city of Matagalpa and then in a "mountain resort" called La Selva Negra.  Matagalpa has a small museum commemorating Carlos Fonseca (founder of the Sandinista Front but killed before he could enjoy the revolutionary triumph) and some nice coffee shops (a latte with a large slice of passion-fruit cheesecake for $3...) but little else.

Around Matagalpa, however, are the mountains, with their cloud forests in the upper reaches and the coffee farms just below.  La Selva Negra is located within a coffee farm, one producing shade-grown, organic coffee, all exported to the USA.  I took the $20 morning tour to see how they processed the coffee berries, but far more appealing to me were the 20km of trails through the cloud forests, with the prospect of birds, mammals (maybe) and the beauty of the forest.

On my first morning there I started walking at 6am, eager to get onto the high, more distant, parts of the trails before other people went out walking.  The trail I chose turned out to be one of the toughest, where I had to pull myself up some of the steeper parts using the tree roots, but I made it to the top ridge and didn't see another person for the first three hours of my walk.  At that point I encountered an American birder with his guide - whom I'd already said hello to the previous afternoon - and they invited me to join them for the day.  Of course I accepted - a free bird guide!! But it was interesting afterwards to compare the time I spent alone with the time I spent with the guide and his client and find that I much preferred the former.

The client had given the guide a list of the Central American birds he had not yet seen, so the guide was targeting these birds, constantly either playing their calls or making owl calls (other birds sometimes come to mob the owl), which not only didn't seem to be attracting any birds but was also quite annoying as it detracted from the real sounds in this forest.  I was able to add a couple of new woodcreepers to my life list, and an eye-ringed flatbill that I wouldn't otherwise have seen, but the best bird of the day - the resplendent quetzal - was just spotted sitting quietly on a high branch.  & out on my own again the following two days I was able to find a slate-coloured solitaire, an emerald toucanet, a pair of brown-hooded parrots and a white-faced quail dove just from looking and listening to the forest around me.  Much more satisfying!  In fact I was so happy to finally see the solitaire that I whooped for joy and spent the rest of that morning with a big grin on my face.

I was wondering what it was that made me feel quite so good.  At first I thought it might be the solitude combined with the beauty of the cloud forest, but then I wondered if it were just the effect (the endorphins) of several days in a row of hard physical exercise?  I should vow to keep up the exercise on my return home, a slightly late New Year's Resolution, but I know there is no point, that a machine in a gym will have nowhere near the attraction of a deserted hiking trail through a beautiful cloud forest.

wildlife-watching in Laguna de Apoyo

Whilst the Laguna de Apoyo has been designated a nature reserve, that hasn't stopped people building houses there, cutting down trees, burning rubbish, etc, so I didn't really expect to see much wildlife there.  & it's true that I didn't see any of the more exciting stuff like armadillos, ocelots, skunks, etc that are supposed to still exist there.  However the howler monkeys were everywhere, seemingly unconcerned by the presence of humans, so I was able to take quite a few photos of them (and moan to myself when they woke me around 5am every day with their roars).

There were some sizeable tarantulas around the area.  They would come out of their holes from around 6pm onwards.  We saw a few scorpions too.  & plenty of birds, including some very attractive species (the photograph below shows a white-throated magpie jay, which is very common there although difficult to photograph as they will not sit still for more than a couple of seconds).

& whilst not specifically looking for them, we came across six snakes, of four different species.  Here I am holding a scorpion-hunting snake.

cross-cultural sharing

I made very clear to the Spanish teacher that I did NOT want three weeks of grammar lessons.  If I need to know how to conjugate a verb using the imperfect subjunctive I can get the necessary information from a book or website; what I needed was practice in using the language.  Three weeks of conversation, basically, with explanations for areas where I consistently struggle (eg in ser v. estar and imperfect v. preterite when trying to translate that simple English word "was").

I hadn't really thought about what our conversations would cover, but in hindsight I'm thinking that she did really well to keep the conversation flowing for some 60 hours over the three weeks. Having found out about my work and interests on the first day I suppose she used that as a base, but I'm sure she also took advantage of my presence to find out what a foreigner thinks of some issues that are perhaps not openly discussed between Nicaraguans.

There were two main subject areas: Nicaraguan political history, and Nicaraguan social issues. Mostly she would give me a topic and my homework was to research it and return ready to discuss it with her the next day, so I actually got a double benefit as I not only improved my Spanish but also got to learn more about this country that I like so much.

So I learned more about the Somoza period, about Violeta Chamorro, about Alemán and his corruption ... about the Sandinistas too, and current views of Daniel Ortega and his wife ... but in some ways the social issues were far more interesting.  We discussed machismo, the shocking extent of single parenthood and of teenage pregnancies, of physical and sexual abuse within families, and of local views on homosexuality.  She surprised me by raising the subject of anal sex at one point (apparently encouraged for young people as a means of avoiding pregnancy - but also something her boyfriend was trying to persuade her to try), and during our conversations about child abuse she confessed that she was sexually abused by her uncle at the age of eight - and that I'm one of only two people she has ever shared that information with.  There were tears when she told me.  I also know at what age she lost her virginity, and that her father used to drink too much...  They were astonishingly open conversations.  Fascinating for me but also a way for her to hear a different viewpoint on things.  She told me on the final day that her boyfriend and family were teasing her about me, apparently she was talking about me and my life/views a lot at home - and she told me that our conversations had made her consider whether she really wants children, or whether it is just the social pressure that makes a Nicaraguan woman assume that she wants them.  Wow!  It was strange to get to know someone so well, to connect on such a level, and then just say "goodbye and thanks for the lessons".  But perhaps in some ways my transience facilitated her openness with me.

Back at the living quarters, all students are treated to one 'activity' each school day.  Occasionally a trip out of Laguna de Apoyo - a visit related to the local political history, such as the prison outside Masaya where Somoza's National Guard held and tortured political prisoners (the photo to the right shows blood stains on the walls of one of the torture areas in the prison), or a quick meeting with the woman known during the revolution as "La negra" (the number 2 to Camilo Ortega, who was never captured as her nickname was deliberately coined so as to mislead - he skin being quite light in tone).  She's still a feisty lady, who entertained us by recounting how her exasperated husband issued her with an ultimatum: "La revolución o yo!" (the revolution or me).  She chose the revolution, of course.

We were also shown some videos on the history of the Sandinista revolution and on more recent socio-economic issues in the country.  All tying in neatly with my language lessons.  All in all a very interesting three weeks.

the revenge of the dogs

I'm using some of this year's annual leave to give my Spanish a bit of a push forward, with three weeks at a Spanish school in Nicaragua.  I picked it on the basis of a website which seemed to suggest (to me and the other people currently staying here) that the premises were surrounded by nature - by birds and other creatures.  The reality is not quite as I imagined, however.  Whilst it is located in a reserve, so are all the buildings around us, including the lakeside bars with their loud music pumping out...

But still I am happy to be here.  It has its own kind of tranquillity, indeed I found myself sleeping better from the very first night.  A very important factor in this is the other students; whilst my Spanish teacher told me that it would really help me to improve my Spanish if I didn't speak English with the other students, their level is not enough to enable us to hold conversations in Spanish, and their travel stories are so interesting that we have spent many long hours conversing (in English).

Strange stories though.  One American guy - seemingly an alcoholic (he started on the beers by 8am and continued throughout the day despite the protestations of his teacher) and a sex addict (an average of two different women a day during his travels??), with a penchant for any available drugs - told us of his experience a couple of years ago with magic practitioners in Mexico City.  Apparently a woman there asked if he wanted to be a part of their magic circle, and although he felt scared as he knew it was dangerous he was also fascinated so said yes.  The woman (during sex, of course...) made some movement that somehow (he claims) passed a very powerful magical force into his body, which he told us he sometimes feels moving around his body, but which sucks his energy and passes it to her.  He is unable to remove this force.

Then a Dutch guy told us of his experience with a transgender lesbian who he had some kind of a relationship with - about the costumes they wore (or didn't wear) as they went out on the streets for Hallowe'en as (sex) slave and slave master...  He also recounted some of the beliefs she had, including those about universal forces controlling the planet, and how nothing is coincidental but all is controlled by these forces.

So, when the American suddenly departed on Friday, having decided that he wanted to find somewhere to eat dog meat (no, it's not legal nor culturally acceptable in Nicaragua), and later the same day the nice Canadian lady who had joined us Thursday (effectively taking his place in our cosy little set up) got badly bitten by a dog, I remembered the 'lack of coincidences' tale and could only assume that her bite was revenge for the dog meat eater - deflected from him to her by that mysterious magical force in his body!

Christmas (or not) in Panama

Forgive me if I have said all this before, but one of the things I really like about life as an expat is much-reduced pressure to conform to social norms.  It happens in the day-to-day sphere, where I don't bother to wear make-up (would not have been seen dead without it in London!) on the basis that most Panamanians would see me as just "a white lady" no matter what I was wearing and how made up my face was.  So what's the point in making an effort?

It is of even greater benefit when it comes to big days on the calendar, however - especially Christmas.  I've never been a fan of Christmas, and relish the freedom here to totally avoid tinsel, cards, turkey and brussels sprouts, etc.  Of course the locals do celebrate Christmas, with it being a Catholic country, but they are less insistent on knowing what I, as a foreigner, am doing, so it's much easier to do nothing at all than it was in the UK where that was seen as making some kind of statement.

However, this year the Panama City authorities have gone all out with the Christmas decorations, with the trees in every park lined and dripping with silver lights, and light sculptures of reindeer and Christmas trees and other random stuff placed between them.  It's impossible to avoid but I have to admit they have done a good job and the decorations are very pretty.

Not quite so good were the so-called "Carols by Candlelight" held on Saturday evening.  I've managed to avoid them all the other years I've lived here, but this Saturday I was just walking home and there they were, people gathered round an outdoor auditorium, ready to start.  So I sat down for the first song - which turned out to be the last, for me.  A bunch of seven-year-old schoolkids singing "Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly" (in Spanish), slowly, tunelessly, and accompanied by two electric guitars... it was one of the most dire renditions I have ever heard, and I was grateful to be able to escape back to my totally un-Christmassy apartment.

a long weekend in the highlands of Panama

Another long weekend away, taking advantage of more Independence Day holidays, walking in some of the higher areas of Panama and hoping to see a few nice birds.

Well some of the scenery was beautiful, especially the cloud forest above, but sadly this area - Los Altos del Maria - is all privately owned (I entered with a tour group), marked out in lots, and those who buy the lots are slowly chopping down the forest to build their weekend homes.  A real crime.  & so pointless, as once the homes are built there will be no more cloud forest there, no more toucanets and sloths in the trees, and so not really much reason left to want to live there.

But for now it retains much of its beauty and much of its wildlife, even though the afternoon rain kept away the yellow-eared toucanets I had so wanted to see.  The vegetation is beautiful, the trees dripping with lichens and epiphytes and providing a home and a larder for creatures like these colourful caterpillars, which presumably will one day turn into beautiful butterflies or enormous moths.  A semi-transparent glass frog and a stunning coral snake were not so easy to photograph.

& the birds ... well I suspect too many bird photos would be boring for most of those who read this blog, so I shall content myself with one.  I've been dithering between the spectacled owl and the tody motmot - everyone likes owls, don't they?  But the tody motmot is such a cute little bird, found in all the countries of Central America but only in the high altitude parts and so pretty hard to see.  Here's the one that we eventually found, after a hard search, that then sat there patiently whilst we all took photos:

avoiding the noise

Before writing what belongs under this title, I wanted to add a follow-on to my last post, about feeling unsafe in Brazil.  Purely coincidentally, at the start of the assignment in Colombia that followed Brazil, the security briefing included a sharing of the list of the world's most violent cities (those with the highest murder rates).  I was very surprised to see that Sao Luis, where our country office is located in northern Brazil, is officially the tenth most violent city in the world.  & that Brazil has more cities in the top fifty than any other country.  So my feelings about the place were right.

So, onto today's post - on the left are some pre-Colombian petroglyphs, on a small group of rocks in an unmarked field about an hour's walk along country roads and muddy trails outside of the small village of La Pintada.  My old guidebook had said the petroglyphs were "2km from the cemetery and well-signposted from the plaza" but when I found the plaza there were no signposts and the local policeman had no idea what I was talking about when I asked for directions.  OK, I hadn't done my preparation properly so didn't know the Spanish for "pre-Colombian petroglyphs" but "rocks with drawings on" should have given him a fair idea, surely. But eventually I found someone who thought there was something round the corner and along the turning to the left ... well that got me to the cemetery so I knew I was on the right track, but there the road forked.  Thankfully the guy standing nearby understood immediately, knew which road I should take and said that they were about a twenty minute walk away.

So I walked.  & walked.  In the hot Panamanian sun and 90% humidity.  Clearly not many foreigners walk along that road as one vehicle full of farm workers even stopped to ask if I was okay.  I walked for twenty minutes, and for another ten, and another ten.  People looked at me blankly when I asked about rocks with drawings on, and I was close to giving up and turning back - fifty minutes into the walk - when I saw two people up ahead and decided to ask them as my final shot.  Clearly they knew exactly what I was talking about - there was conversation between them as to which ones to direct me to, and having decided that the ones in the river behind the field were too hard to get to and find, they offered to show me some if only I didn't mind waiting for twenty minutes while they went off and did what they were there for.

Of course I agreed, and sat on a log to read today's Guardian that I had downloaded on my phone whilst in a wifi zone.  When they returned exactly twenty minutes later I felt even more confident. They walked me to their car and we drove back part of the way I had walked then off along a side track, and then a muddy side-track of that.  Then walked through a well-hidden gate and through waist high vegetation in a muddy field - to a pile of nondescript-looking rocks.  With a number of petroglyphs on!  Turns out - would you believe my luck - they were archaeologist/anthropologist consultants!!  I should write to the guidebook company as there is NO WAY anyone without this stroke of luck would have a hope of finding any petroglyphs.

This was the church in the main plaza by the way, which was a pretty little village as you can see.

So why did I get up before 6am this morning and spend a total of seven hours on buses in order to see a few old carvings on some rocks?  Well it was to avoid more of this:

The patriotism holidays - which had started yesterday with fireworks from the government palace at 5am (the sound of the explosions echoing off the buildings around me woke me up and I got up to see what was going on), continued with more fireworks from the same place half an hour after the first lot finished, then with the parades - see above - of endless groups of people sweating in the humid air as they marched through the city banging drums and blowing trumpets.  At an extremely slow pace such that it took the parade five hours to pass my building.  Before the fireworks started again.  I wouldn't have minded at all had this been African-style drumming, that you want to move your hips to, but no this was the American marching band style that Panama now considers its heritage.  I should say that they actually started at 1am, but fortunately not near enough to my building for me to hear them.

These holidays continue on and off through the month - when I got back at 4pm today the parades were still going past, and there were more fireworks this evening.  & from the bus I glimpsed four other parades in the interior of the country.  Yesterday was the celebration of independence from Colombia, today was flag day, tomorrow celebrates the confirmation of independence when the Colombian forces in Colón agreed not to resist (on payment of a $8,000 bribe, apparently!), then on 28 November is the celebration of the first call for independence and then on 10 December the independence from Spain.  Panamanians get very upset if foreigners say anything negative about the celebrations (eg complaining at being woken at 1am by drummers), even though many of them escape to a beach somewhere for the long weekend, so I hope none of my colleagues are reading this.