William Walker’s Fort and the Lighthouse: Nica Nugget #78

Warning! John pulled ten ticks off of himself and I had two. Kathleen Brugger claims she didn’t get any. If you don’t want to be a tick magnet, wait until dry season. Have you hiked to William Walker’s fort (La Fortaleza) or to the Lighthouse (El Faro) on San Juan del Sur’s southern headland? Do you know who William Walker is? There are some crazy stories out in there in the world and the story of William Walker in Nicaragua is one of them. I still shake my head at the thought of him. He was from the United States …

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Rio San Juan Series, #11 of 11: Finale, Ferry Trip Back Upriver to San Carlos (Nica Nugget #77)

The alarm went off early. 3 am Thursday morning. John E Field and I packed the few things we still had in our hotel room, after having stored the bulk of our gear in our ferry the day before. By 3:30 we were out the door, stumbling about in the dark. The hotel owner was already up and began to turn on some outside lights so we could see and then she rushed up to Eve Kohlman and JoAnne Stoltz’s room to make sure they were awake. Since the ferry seems to always leave at 5 am and since essentially …

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Rio San Juan Series #10 of 11: Layover Day in San Juan de Nicaragua (Nica Nugget #76)

Our layover day in San Juan de Nicaragua came about because JoAnne was going to catch a panga from here up the Caribbean coast to Bluefields and then on out to the Corn Islands to visit friends. The panga to Bluefields only goes one day a week, Wednesdays. Or, I should say only WENT one day a week, back when it was even running, as in past tense. But we didn’t know this until the Tuesday we arrived. The panga Eve, John and I needed to take back upriver to San Carlos, where’d we’d started our river trip six days …

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Rio San Juan Series #9 of 11: Delta House to the Sea and San Juan de Nicaragua (Nica Nugget #75)

Although we would spend two additional days on the river, one as a layover day in San Juan de Nicaragua on a tour of the colonial cemeteries, and the other on a ferry panga churning our way back up river to our origination point at San Carlos, this day would be our finale paddling. We woke up at the Delta House and clambered out of our beds and hammocks, gathering our gear up to go. By this day, our sixth on the river, we had our routine down. In no time at all, we had eaten our breakfast, packed our …

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