Corn Islands
At 7:00am we boarded the chicken bus for Managua which took 3 hours from SJDS, grabbed a cab to Managua airport, flew 1.5 hr in the tiny plane to Big Corn, taxi to the dock, took the 1 hour ass-numbing panga ride to Little Corn and finally we arrived on Little Corn, our main reason for coming to Nicaragua. [Read more...]
After departing for Granada on a 2hr bus to Rivas, we were herded by the drivers along with another backpacking couple into a van for a 30 cent ride to San Jorge, the dock of our ferry. The ferry crosses the giant Lake Nicaragua to get to our destination of Isla Ometepe. Thankfully the boat was a comfortable ride, although Lianna faced round one of sea-sickness. Luckily she knows to bring Gravol everywhere with her.
Our time in Nicaragua flew by and all of sudden we are sitting on a plane on our way home wondering how our time went by so quickly. Nicaragua was a fascinating place to visit and since neither of us had ever been to Central America before this was kindof like jumping right into the deep end. Despite a serious lack of Spanish we were able to navigate ourselves through Granada, Isla Ometepe, San Juan Del Sur, Managua before jumping on a plane and spending a week in the tropical paradise of Little Corn Islands.
After arriving in Managua, Nicaragua’s Capital, we hopped into a taxi for an hour trip to Granada – a colonial city that most tourists use as a base for exploring surrounding areas. [Read more...]
Finally, after a long couple of days spent watching water levels rise around the community I have been able to return home as the threat of flooding has ceased. Sunday evening we received the phone call from our Flood Coordinator saying that the risk of water rising over the dyke behind the town is over. As the ice breaks free and it makes its way down the river towards the Arctic Ocean, large chunks become lodged on the shoreline making for an impressive display revealing a huge field of ice. Heres some of the photos I took in areas surrounding the town. [Read more...]
Today, Fort Albany had most of its ice break up and after the water began to rise up over the road, to everyones relief, it began to fall. With our large scale evacuation by the military last year, worst case scenarios were on everyones mind. This winter we received significantly less snow and the ice was less thick which has made the break up process alot smoother this time around. I am living on the hospital side with two brand new medics from moosonee flown up to lend a hand should things turn for the worse. Attitudes in town seem to be positive and the general census is that the majority of the main river has broken up and its only the smaller tributaries which need to release their grip on the ice. Hopefully with warmer temperatures this weekend, the rest of the ice can make its way to James Bay and life on the coast can return to normal.
You are truly one of the best dogs we’ve ever met.
You kept me company for two months when I would have otherwise gotten cabin fever, and you always kept our feet warm – especially when we stood at the counter. [Read more...]
Finally, I got my first weekend off work in over 5 months and I took full advantage of it. Spring time in Fort Albany is full of excitement as the majority of the community hops on their Ski-Doos to spend their holidays at spring camps to hunt geese. Many families own tiny camps in the middle of the bush which can only be reached in the winter and early spring because the rest of the year, when there is no ice, the land becomes Muskeg which is a nasty kind of swamp and is impassable by any kind of vehicle. I was lucky enough to tag along with a family and spend the weekend at their camp about an hour west of the town. Even the Ski-Doo ride out was more excitement than I usually get as break up is just starting so now and then the ice beneath the sled would let go and I’d feel my heart rate quicken.
Once we arrived at the camp Bernie and I went out to make our hunting blind which is basically a snow fort with evergreen trees on the top to camouflage you while you call the geese in towards the decoys. We tried for several hours and when we got bored we hopped out of the blind to snap some photos and of course thats when the geese came flying in. Unfortunately neither of us had a shotgun so the geese were only shot with cameras. Who knew these would be the only geese we saw in the whole trip!
Today was Lianna’s last day in Fort Albany and the North did not let her go without a fight! For the past 24 hours it has been snowing non stop and doesn’t appear to be letting up until Thursday according to the forecast. Lianna was extremely lucky as normally, planes will not fly when the clouds are so low to the ground. Here in the north the planes do not have all the fancy intstruments and normally rely on sight to land on the runway which makes cancellations due to weather very common. Nevertheless, she has made it home safe. Here are a few pics i took in the snow this evening. Sorry for the black and white but the street lights have a nasty orange glow which would ruin the photograph if in colour.
