Spring is here and everything is blossoming. Some weeks ago I have observed two birds collecting twigs and fling into a bush in my backyard. They were obviously building a nest. Soon they seemed finished and only one of the was flying in and out. After some time, I approached the nest carefully and picked a look. There were small baby birds with the mom in the nest. Some days later, I observed the dad bird flying around but not anymore to the nest. I had a bad feeling. And then he didn't come back again. So, I went to the nest and my fear turned out true. The baby birds were dead. The two birds are now buried in my backyard. I wished this post had a happy ending but it does not. Consider this an arbutiorier. Little Branda and Flamingo Joe, you had a short stay here.
Nicaragua in Central
America was the destination of my last travel. I left in a typical
winter day Hamburg and 36 hours later I reached Managua. The warm
weather felt very good. I didn’t have to put on a big jacket,
gloves, and hat to protect against the cold weather but instead put
on mosquito repellant and sun milk. There were not countless
mosquitoes there but according to several sources there were some
which carried serious viruses so you better take some measures to
protect yourself. And the sun exposure was also not to neglect. I
didn’t put enough sunscreen on and so I ended up with sunburn –
my shoulders, my chest, my face, my ears – o the red ears.
The weather is all year warm. In fact, I only saw cold water faucets, well it was more cool than cold. Who needs hot warm water if the temperatures is never below 20 degree C.
Nicaragua offers a
lot of fresh fruits that grow locally- Melons, Coconuts, Bananas,
Mangos, Avocados and a lot more. You can also see animals that you don't see in the European wildernis. I saw different Monkeys. There are a lot of different birds:
I mean a lot of them:
A morning in Nicaragua can sound like that
Nicaragua has a lot of volcanoes. Some of them active, some of them sleeping. We went to two different volcanoes. The first was Mombacho, where we were driven in trucks up. On the way up you can see the change in the vegetation. The top is a tropical cloud forest. The second volcano is Maderas which we hiked up - and it was a tough hike. Maderas is on the island Ometepe in Nicaragua sea.
We started our hike early in the morning a steep climb. After a while, mud was added to the adventure. At first, I tried to avoid the mud. But after steeping two times into all the way up to my ankles, I didn't care anymore. And yes, it made exactly the sound that you imagine it to do. After four hours hike up and five hours down, I was tired and exhausted, dirty and full of pain. On our way back to the accomodation we passed a point where I had scenic view on Maderas, the volcano that destroyed me. I didn't have the drive to take a selfie so without any further ado, no photo:
The next morning I went back to that spot to take a picture but fog covered Maderas, and there was no way I could take a picture. So here again no photo:
But on the ferry back to the mainland I took a picture
That's Maderas,... on the right... behind the clouds. On the left is Concepcion. So there was only one opportunity for me to take a picture. Who have thought Maderas could be such a diva.
What can I tell you beside that. Well there are a lot of beautiful spots, like the Apoyo laguna
or the Pacific coast
Yes, I could finally swim in the Pacific. Last time I was at the Pacific coast, I only dipped my toes in. Bottom line Nicaragua has a lot of beautiful places and too many crazy bus drivers. But that's something I can't blog about.
I'm several months behind and have to catch up with new posts. 2017 was a Scandinavian year from the point of travels. There was my journey to Norway last summer, but what I haven't wrote about till now is my travel to Sweden and Denmark at the end of the year. So, let me tell you what my brother Soheil and I have been up to.
To be more specific, we went to the city of Malmo in south Sweden and Copenhagen in Denmark.
Malmo
Copenhagen
We took the train. The train ride included also a ferry that the train boards. Denmark and Sweden are connected through the Øresund Bridge.
Øresund Bridge in the back
We went to a museum in Malmo. The exhibition was interesting. It was interesting because it had a room with video games that you could play. Yay, best museum ever.
Video games in a museum
Malmo has a knotted Gun sculpture that we went to see. I was a little bit disappointed when I saw that it's pretty small. It appears bigger in pictures but it's about half a meter high.
Don't get fooled by the picture. It's not big.
In Copenhagen, we went to the usual sites. The famous mermaid was flooded by tourists who were shipped in by buses. They came in to see the little sculpture that is covered by bird poop and didn't care for the other sculptures nearby that were lonely.
Sculpture that is left all to itself
Tourists are the worst. Only want to snap a selfie with the most popular and don't care for everything else. Well that's it for 2017. As I said 2017 was a Scandinavian year. The focus in 2018 will be somewhere else, but that's a story for another time.
I mean a lot of them:
