Our first project of five weeks was to build an Iguana Farm in the town of El Castillo in Nicaragua. El Castillo is a small town of 2000 people on the banks of the Rio San Juan, the only access to which is by boat, a 3hr trip from San Carlos. San Carlos being a border crossing town gets the usual bad rap of high crime rate but we certainly didnt have any problems. Its a rather dingy sort of a place with swarms of mosquitoes and vultures hovering over the houses. First real insight into 3rd world living certainly same as a bit of a culture shock.
El Castillo on the other hand is an absolutly awesome place and the boat ride down to the town is fantastic. The name El Castillo actually means The Castle in Spanish and thats exactly what you first see when approaching the town. A huge fortress (well huge to me as its the first time Ive seen one) sitting atop one of the tallest peaks in town.
Our home in El Castillo was a small 10m x 5m wooden room used as an office by the mariposario (Butterfly farm). As throughout this area, the toilet was one which no paper could be flushed down so a box sat next to it which we used for all the toilet paper (this had to be regularly burnt by the homebodies, poo burning day was always great fun and the stench on your clothes afterwards was bloody fantastic!). Oh, and the toilet liked to get regularly blocked, heaps of fun unclogging a toilet just as your about to go out for new years eve. Running water was fairly consistent (as in we usually had it at least once a week), electricity however was almost a luxury when it was available. Cant forget to mention the 180 steps we had to climb each day to get to our casa whether we were going to work or just into town. Oh, and we had to sleep on a rather hard concrete floor. Whilst it sounds bad, it was actually an excellent adventure and Id repeat it in a second.
We basically had one main project, being the Iguana farm and two secondary projects being working at the Butterfly farm and also teaching English to both the local kids and adults.
The Iguana farm was hard yakka and it was always good to have a day off to go catching butterflies or be housekeeper (two people were always rostered on to cook and clean).
First up we had to clear a large area using machetes (Day 1 and arm muscle building has already begun). Next step was to dig probably about 50 post holes (no post hole diggers in Nicaragua, everything is done by hand= followed by actually hauling these hefty poles in to place (in muddy, hot, humid, hilly conditions, bloody hard work). After carrying one to the furthest possible corner, Sarah and I almost collapsed but damn it felt great afterwards. The barbed wire was then put up – 6 rows around the whole farm. Spent a lot of my fencing time working with a local kid called Yahtherr (or Trojan as we nicknamed him, as he was an incredible workhorse). We tried to teach each other Spanish/English but mainly just ended up having huge mud flights.
Once both the outer and inner fenced were complete we began working on digging trenches inside the inner fence. They were probably 0.5m deep and 10m long. The hardest few days of the entire project however came when we had to carry 130 corrugated iron sheets from town to the Iguana Farm (30min walk through mud and across streams). The only way to carry the iron was on your head and it was pissing down with rain (it didn’t help that I also had a cold along with a number of other challengers). My head was severely sore by the end of the fifth week.
Across this whole period we also had amazing experiences with the local community, particularly across the xmas/new year period. Theirs 11 of us in the group, yet so many families wanted to share their food with us (and it was certainly a welcome change from the rice and beans, meat in particular being a delicousy (yes, I have officially given up being a vegetarian, whilst traveling anyway as I don’t want to miss out on the cultural cuisines)). Over the 3 days of xmas El Castillo puts on a rodeo so obviously we all headed down to that’s. Im not sure the bull riding was anything to rave about but the drunk men trying to stir the bulls up was hilarious (one guy must have been gouged several times but his pseudo bravery kept getting him out there again and again).
New years, however, is party time with a huge dance at Bar Las Vegas, both NYE and NY day. Nicaraguan men certainly know how to dance and I had an absolute blast. Gotta say I really like the beer here too, Buffalo can easily be compared to Tooheys Extra Dry back home. Most of the group though were on the rum (ron), with alcohol here being very cheep if not lacking in variety.
Soccer and volleyball was also played a lot of the 5 weeks. With soccer being a particularly muddy affair but great fun. We were certainly popular with the local kids, it was impossible to walk through town and not have one of them yelling out your name or wanting you to play with them.
On out last weekend in El Castillo the workers from the Mariposario and the Iguanario took us to Indio Maiz Biological Reserve which sits halfway along the river to San Juan Del Norte. We hiked a trail named Freshwater which ran through secondary rainforest (although apparently 80% of the reserve is primary forest). Along the trail they had benches designed to escape the reach of wild pigs stampeding. The pigs are called chanchos de monte and are native to the area. Given that we were never allowed to swim in the Rio San Juan due to high pollution levels (and the fact that it as rather large and fast flowing) we stopped at a river we could swim in on the way back. The current was so strong that we decided to float on lifejackets down to the dock where we were picked up by the boat.
I love this town, I love the people, I love the food (mmm, Empanadas) and damn Spanish hip hop/R&B rocks, I seriously sis not want to leave. However, I have decided that I will return and spend a year traveling through central and south America with a definite stop in El Castillo!
Hope all are well.
Adios amigos.
Party hard
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