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Showing posts from April, 2017

10,000 miles away - Leon, Nicaragua

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On our official finally day in Nicaragua, we or rather my friend, since I've clearly been freeriding, booked a tour service for an interesting tour. We woke up really early to be picked up at 6.30 am at home in Nicaragua and made our way to Leon and past to Cerro Negro. Cerro Negro as the name suggests is a short hill of black volcanic sand. It's a new volcano and last erupted in 1999. It's much shorter than it's neighbouring extinct volcanos. As a volcano erupts, it increases in height. Once we reached the base we were given our very own boards that we had to carry them up a hike of 45-60 mins. I nearly made it. We went up the steepest part of it and it was all fine. But when we came near to the top, the wind changed direction and was really strong. I felt that the wind would take my board and if I tried to stop it, I would go too. So I took two steps when the rest of my team went 10. Not proud of it that I just sat down after that. The guide took my board

10,000 miles away - Isla Ometepe

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Isla Ometepe an island created out of two volcanos, Volcan ConcepciĆ³n and Volcan Maderas, and is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Since we were staying in Managua, we had to drive up to 3 hours to the ferry and load up the car for a 90 min ferry ride. The ferry is very small so it barely fits a few cars and advanced reservation is recommended. Given how long it takes for us to get there, it was lunch time when we reached so after a quick lunch, we checked into our beach side cabins at Villa Aller in Santo Domingo which is the area where the two volcanic island meet. We then headed to Ojo dear Agua. It literally translates to a waterhole and that's what it is. It's a natural pool (which now has a cemented embankment). The water is extraordinarily clear and you can see the rocky floor, parts of which are also cemented, and there is a canapy of trees above. There is a trapeze hanging from one of the trees to dive in if you like and we also spotted turtles at the botto

10,000 miles away - Granada, Nicaragua

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We woke up early to make our way to Granada, more specifically, the protected area of Volcan Mombacho. If Volcan Masaya is a simmering dark crater looking to absorb all life around it, Volcan Mombacho is the exact opposite with its very own microclimate that nurtures a cloud forest (a slightly lighter shrunken version of a rain forest). It's an extinct volcano and as the surface grew cooler, the extremely fertile volcanic soil allowed for plants and trees to grow, which in turn grew dense enough to create their own world. In spite of that, there are still some tunnels in the ground through which hot gases escape, amidst all the greenery. It was surreal when we hiked our way up to one such tunnel, so shrouded by greenery that we could see it but we could still see the fumes. It was somewhat chilly and also extremely windy as we go higher up. There are brilliant view points covering the city of Granada, Lake Nicaragua and the islets. The volcano also has a zip lining experienc

10,000 miles away - Masaya, Nicaragua

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On the very first official day of our trip we figured out that Nicaragua is land of volcanoes, lakes and revolution. After a lazy breakfast at home, we headed out to our first stop - a shooting range. K and I have never held a gun before and here we were shooting .22 rifle and 9mm pistol. And managing to hit the targets (more with the rifle and less so with the pistol). Guns are a popular hobby in Nicaragua thanks to its revolutionary past and especially the Sandinista movement in the late 1970s leading to independence from Somozoa's US-supported dictatorship on 19 July 1979. Our second stop was Volcan Masaya. It's active and spewing hot gases that you can smell the stench of sulphur and if the wind subsides a little leading the smoke into a steady stream, you can see the bright orange coloured, agitated lava. The walls of the crater are blackened but one of the outer sides still holds greenery in a dramatic difference. Also because it is a young volcano, it's prett

East Sussex for Easter

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This is our first road trip. We have been on road trips before but this our first own road trip. Because I can drive and we have a car. Very late in life to be learning how to drive, but hey, better late than never - even if it is only an automatic driving license. In the beginning of 2016, K and I decided (or K decided for both of us) that we need to learn to swim and learn to drive. I was reluctant about both but it does make sense on paper to be able to do both activities. One step a time though. So K learnt to swim and I learnt to drive. Having written by theory test in March and failing my driving test 3 times, I passed in my 4th attempt in November and then the hunt for a car began, until finally, we got a neat little city car in February. So here we are in April, going on our very first road trip. We wanted to avoid the Easter weekend traffic so instead of driving on Thursday night or Friday morning we decided to leave on Friday afternoon and made our way to this cute littl

Ten Thousand Miles Away - My Nicaragua Family

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Our first foray into Latin America! The furthest I have been from home (in India) was generally about 8 or 9 thousand kilometres (the East or the West coast of the USA).The furthest I have ever been before this was Niagara falls at some 13000 km. Nicaragua is 10,000 miles away or 16,000 km. And yet I have never felt closer to home... What would normally take lots of research and planning for a week-long trip to Nicaragua became a case of simply landing at the airport, thanks to our wonderful friends, Ivo and JR who opened their home and family to us. Nicaragua, as Ivo explained to me when we first met more than 6 years ago, is the centre of Central America. It's a land of volcanoes and lakes, and of revolution. And like most (or all) other Central American countries, it is flanked by the two great oceans. Hence the two blue bands flanking a white band in their flags. The moment we landed I felt at home, trading cold and wet London for hot and airy tropical Managua

Bitter Sweets

After reading The Lives of Others, I felt this was a bit of an overload of Kolkata and Dhaka. But indeed it's a much lighter read with dark humour. It's a story of how people create intricate lies so perfectly for so long that often they successfully deceive themselves. I suppose that's the key to a perfect lie that even the liar has forgotten the truth. It takes us through three generations of the Karim family that engage in double lives. What's the most interesting bit is that at some point they all seem to know the truth and yet ignore it. It's so much easier to create and live another lie instead. And when it becomes a habit, it's hard to shake off. There I've said it, the essence of the book. I need not have written so many lines where one would suffice ! It's a soap opera with overtones of the bold and the beautiful. The first generation of Henna and Rashid is a marriage based on lies, which doesn't surprise me because in the olden days I b