Flora and Fauna

Liam catches dinner

Iguana sitting on a branch

rana verde, source of curare poison darts

caminadora, walking plant

best sport in the world

El Castillo sits on the Río San Juan, and is a perfect place for starting trips to southeastern Nicaragua and northeastern Costa Rica. We met a British couple who were beginning a week long kayak float trip down the river to the Caribbean coast, others heading down the river to catch a boat to the Corn islands, which have Nicaragua's best snorkeling. With less time, we had fewer plans, but enjoyed our time quite a bit.

We had arrived in El Castillo after a 11 hour overnight boat down the length of Cocibolca, then a 3 hour river boat trip to EL Castillo. Needless to say, when we arrived, we mostly didn't do much, except wash some very dirty clothes (by hand), watch some soccer using the hotel Wi-fi, and walk around a bit. 

That night we went out with a guide on a Cayman trip. There were 3 Americanos, 2 Brits, and 2 French people. He could see the Caymans on the shore looking for the reflection from their eyes from his headlamp. He caught 3 without too much difficulty and we all got a chance to hold them before letting them go. He also managed to spot a baselisco (?gecko); fortunately we did not die when it looked at us.

On Saturday we traveled with a guide to Reserva Indio Maíz, which is a huge nature preserve along the Río San Juan downriver from El Castillo. We were quite lucky to have an excellent, friendly, and passionate guide. He spotted a perezoso (sloth) in a riverside tree from 100 meters, as well as a family of spider monkeys, and some caymans. We passed an iguana sitting on a tree branch, then watched as it jumped into the water and swam. The number of herons, cormorants, and kingfishers was more than I could count.

Once we went into the reserve, we took a 3 hour walk along a trail that took us by many smaller animals and plants. We saw some green frogs (source of curare for poison darts), a rubber tree, a wild cacao tree, a snake, a hanging vine called a monkey ladder, a rubber tree, and an odd tree called a caminero (walker) which actually moves along the ground as a sapling toward the light. We took a swim in the Rio Bartolas, which runs along the western edge of the reserve, then headed back to El Castillo.

In El Castillo, we were lucky to see a Saturday beisbol game between El Castillo and Los Raudes, a neighboring village. There is nothing like Nicaraguan beisbol, where the fans go wild equally for a hit, or when the game is paused so the horse can trot off the field. In the end, El Castillo won the game, and everyone walked home to celebrate.