Solentiname Islands

On Friday I hopped on a boat headed for the Solentiname Islands. The trip took about two hours with a bunch of locals that were laughing, joking, and talking the whole way. The islands are home to about 750 people many of whom are related either by blood or by marriage. There are 36 islands but only four have a significant population of people living on them. Many others are owned by rich Nicaraguans and a stray foreigner here and there and have houses hidden in the jungles that cover pretty much every island. The islands are located out in Lake Nicaragua and are more spectacular than even pictures can capture. As we were passing by some of the islands on our way to San Fernando, the island I was going to stay on, it was like taking a journey to Jurassic Park. It almost seemed as if at any moment that you might see a dinosaur poke its head out of the foliage on the island. The only thing missing was the theme music, although I could practically hear that in my head. The islands have been inhabited for a very long time and the name actually comes from the Nahuatl people and means place of many guests, however, since the 1960s and the arrival of Father Ernesto Cardenal the islands have been known for their art. Father Ernesto Cardenal arrived on the islands in the late 1960s and founded a Christian community. He also handed paint and paint brushes to locals who were carving jicaro fruit (a gourd like fruit that grows on a tree). Over the years the people of the island developed other art forms including balsawood carvings and paintings of the flora and fauna of the islands.

Here's a video of the view from the dock of Isla San Fernando:

My hotel Mire Estrellas

The previous day I had met a couple of travelers who were heading to Solentiname and who were staying at a little hotel called Mire Estrellas (literally Watch Stars). Sally was from Australia and Claire was from Ireland. They had met while traveling through Guatemala and had been traveling together for a month. They were soon to split up in Costa Rica. I decided to stay at Mire Estrellas as well because it was the cheapest option on the island and because I knew the girls was there and I was tired of being the only tourist staying at a hotel. I hung out with the girls that afternoon and evening. We went to the artists gallery and looked at the artists gallery and balsawood carvings on display there. The balsawood carvings are lovely but the paintings took my breath away. They are extremely detailed scenes of island life with the animals, flowers, trees, people, and water that make Solentiname an unforgettable place to visit. I so wished I could by a painting but I was worried about carrying it around for the next months. I could have tried to mail it home but I was a little worried about it getting damaged or lost in customs on the way back to the United States but perhaps I should have tried anyway.

Because there were so few tourists on the island, only a couple staying at another hotel and us, we had to arrange dinner at the hotel beforehand because it was the only place to get a meal in our area. There are no stand-alone restaurants on the island. After dinner we decided to go for a walk to try to find some tarantulas. Walking down the concrete path we had to dodge frogs of all sizes. As soon as it gets dark they emerge from the water and come inland to hunt for the night. There are so many that it’s difficult to walk, especially with only headlamps as there are no street lights, not to mention no roads and no cars. Claire and I were waking ahead of Sally yet somehow Sally was the one who kept spotting all the tarantulas tucked in the leaves of low-growing bushes or poking their heads out of their holes. We probably found about a dozen in about a quarter mile of our hotel. Meanwhile bats swooped around our heads. 

Isla San Fernando with other islands behind it.

My hotel from the water.

There's a house tucked in the woods near the shore that you can barely make out. Supposedly it has a nice beach for swimming.

View of some of the islands from the artists' gallery.

This man was paddling between islands. I saw him paddling for at least half an hour.

Butterfly and flowers outside my hotel.

A gigantic hibiscus.

Pato de gallo (rooster's foot)

The girls were heading out early the next morning but I chatted with the owner of the hotel Julio for a bit and we arranged to go for a hike around the island the next day. Before heading out for the walk I needed to do some laundry so Julio brought up some water from the lake for me and showed me his washboard. I washed almost everything because it seriously needed it. When you’re sweating constantly clothes get dirty pretty fast and when you’re traveling as much as I’ve been there are limited opportunities for doing laundry. After washing everything I tossed all in a bucket of clean lake water to rinse the soap out. I was standing in the shade of some trees to wring out the clothes before I hung them on the line to dry when I heard some strange sounds coming from above my head. I looked up to find I was standing directly below a large cluster of bats that I was apparently disturbing because they were all staring at me. I decided it would only be polite if I moved so I wasn’t bothering them anymore but I took a picture first!

Then it was off for a quick late breakfast of gallo pinto, fried eggs, and tortillas before heading off on my jaunt with Julio. I still have no idea where we went really. We went up this hill and down that hill, through stile after stile, through meadows, alongside fields of corn, orchards of plantains, fields full of cattle, patches of untouched jungle, and by the houses of some of the other islanders, sometimes wandering through their yards as we passed through on our way yelling a greeting to the owners to let them know we were passing by. Most of the houses had a view of Lake Nicaragua. Birds sang and swooped over our heads. We probably walked for about an hour until we arrived at his friends’ house. We were greeted by a puppy and several piglets who squeaked hungrily and followed us around. The sown had given birth to 8 piglets but only had 5 teats that were producing milk so it was a constant battle amongst the piglets for milk. The family was supplementing what they mother could give with what they could, but the problem is that the food needed to feed the pigs and piglets is also food the family could be eating. However, if they can raise the pigs up for 7 or 8 months to a decent size they can get a good price for them which could help the family a lot. But they had already lost one piglet and might yet lose another couple before long. It’s a constant balancing act between survival and suffering but sometimes things teeter farther in one direction than the other.

The farm also had chickens and a parakeet that wandered out to say hello and let me hold him for quite a while. I tried to teach him to say hello but I think it would have required more time than the hour or so that we were there. There was a little rainstorm while we were there as well which had me worried about my clothes on the line, but it turned out Julio had asked his son to take the clothes of the line if it rained. Luckily there were only a couple of bras and no undies (I’ve been washing those daily in the shower) on the line so it wasn’t too embarrassing for either of us. After the rainstorm we headed back to the hotel. My shoes were squishy and water-logged by the time we got back because of the rain. I changed clothes and took a quick break (15 minutes) before I was heading off on a tour I had arranged that morning with Silvio, Julio’s brother-in-law, to go see some of the other islands.

Fields full of corn.

Through the jungle with Julio leading the way.

Julio and the parakeet.

Silvio and a man, whom I’m assuming was a son who barely said a word the whole trip, pulled the boat over to the dock for me to get on and off we went. The breeze as we zipped out to a nearby island was amazing, particularly after being in dense, moist vegetation for three hours. We first headed out to Isla Atravesada, an island owned by some rich man, and also the island where sometimes you can see caimans and crocodiles. What we did see were tons of different kinds of birds. We didn’t see any unfortunately in our turn around the island and so headed off to Isla del Padre, better known now as Isla de los Monos (Monkey Island). Here we did luck out and a large group of howler monkeys were perched in some trees near the water calling back and forth to each other. After listening to them for a bit we headed on to Mancarron, the largest island in the group and the most heavily populated. We checked out the church that Father Cardenal had built. It was locked because there currently wasn’t a priest on the island, but you could peek through the mosquito netting that covered the windows and see the rustic altar that cardinal built himself and the walls that had been painted white and then painted on by the children of the community. There were bugs, birds, animals, people, and plants painted in primary colors that the children had painted that filled much of the wall.

We then proceeded up into the little town that was up on a hill away from the shoreline. Almost every house had an artisan that lived there primarily working with the balsawood statues that come in all sizes. There are lots of birds and fish, but also butterflies and some other animals. As we passed through the town we stopped and talked to a woman who was cutting some balsawood with a machete. When I asked, she said that she would decide what each piece would be depending on how the wood cut so she knew almost immediately by the shape whether it would be a fish or a bird. Then she used a smaller knife to shape the pieces into rough versions of the finished product. Later they would sand them down until they were smooth and then they would get hand-painted by the artist. 

Ibis

They call these big-billed ducks.

Oropendolo nests

Oropendolo males.

Small-billed duck with a fish he caught and then proceeded to swallow whole.

Cuarca.  I happen to think these things are a little creepy looking with their red eyes.

Some kind of eagle.

One of many parrots.

Another kind of parrot.

Can you see the baby?

Ernesto Cardenal's church

Balsa trees.

The woman using a machete to cut out the initial shapes of the balsawood.

The balsawood statues taking shape.

Some examples of bigger pieces all sanded down and smooth ready to be painted.

Lidia working on painting one of the birds in her workshop.

After Mancarron we returned to Isla San Fernando just in time to catch a spectacular sunset.
I headed up to dinner at the restaurant. I was once again the only tourist on the island. Everyone else had left that morning. Back at the hotel I talked to Julio for a couple hours and then headed in to bed. The next morning I caught the 9 am boat back to San Carlos where I ran into Sally and Claire again and we spent a lazy afternoon wandering around the city, getting back to the hotel just in time to miss the afternoon rainstorm that lasted most of the evening.