Well, Adam's trip down to Nica has jogged my memory banks and stirred up a lot of memories from my trip there last year...and, I have posted a number of pictures on the Floatingman tribe.
I posted some from the Island itself:
After reading a posting related to the type of soil we should expect there (and how it'll get mucky in the rain) I wanted to show in a little more detail the lanscape of almost the entire island. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. The soil is black and full of a mulchy, stocky kind of bush. When I was there it was freshly hacked down.
I also noticed that I took a few pictures to show why I descriped the island as an "upside down bowl" . Those banks are steep.
Then theres all that bird shit I still havent figured out. Not sure if the island is on a migration route or something. There is a handfull of chickens - mostly hanging around the original house area - but it would take them years of wondering and random shitting to do the damage that is there.
I posted some from "the barrios" just outside of Granada:
The travel section in my newspaper had a big article on Granada recently. Move over Coasta Rice, step back Guatemaula, said the article ... Granada, Nicaragua is poised to be the next backpackers paradise. And true enough there is a huge ex-pat community in Granada and because Coasta Rica has become an expensive place to live/buy property, neighbouring countries (Panama, Guatemaula, and Nica) are all opening their doors with investment/development incentives. Just (and I mean JUST) outside of booming (and very hot and crowded) Granada are the barrios - which means neihborhoods - but is also kinda slang ... meaning, the hoods, very poor neighbourhoods ... "where the streets have no names" as Bono would say. This is "the real" Nicaragua in many ways. It's a very poor country, but rich with culture, humilty, and humanity in the people. People are warm, open and giving. But I'm sure in 5-10 years the streets with no names will be full of time-share condos and maybe even a lake-side golf course. And the people will just either move farther into nowhere, or be "lucky" to have a service job at one of the hotels.
I guess I'm saying I would really not like to see Floatingman be just another land owner in a country with cheap real estate and a great and interesting place for the the booming Granada backpacking party crowd to go for a wild weekend of dabachary on full moons ... with ticket sales going to help the people of Nicaragua of course. Not sure exactly WHAT I'm getting at except that I think the project should be concious that we are coming into "a people's" backyard and resist benefiting from the exploitative nature of the developments which will be all around us. I know thats the plan from the get-go back maybe bears repeating.
I posted a couple of pictures taken of / or from hostels on Ometepe Island. Adam, I do hope you are planning to visit Ometepe while you are down there. To me this was a magical place. There are people living and working the land on Ometepe that have NEVER been to the mainland of their own country. Why ever leave paradise they say. Ometepe is the island with two volcanoes on it and where I saw a 150acre (or so) farm for sale but I was on my way home and did not have a chance to got see it. I know that discussion is old news ... but it might resurface after you visit. And that other art community you're talking about is not far off Ometempe.
When are you scheduled to go see Floatingman Island by the way??
I'm going to spend the next little while going thru the major postings and hope to re-integrate myself into this conversation. I've been recovering from Trae's camp bar for the past 5 months...
:D
I posted some from the Island itself:
After reading a posting related to the type of soil we should expect there (and how it'll get mucky in the rain) I wanted to show in a little more detail the lanscape of almost the entire island. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. The soil is black and full of a mulchy, stocky kind of bush. When I was there it was freshly hacked down.
I also noticed that I took a few pictures to show why I descriped the island as an "upside down bowl" . Those banks are steep.
Then theres all that bird shit I still havent figured out. Not sure if the island is on a migration route or something. There is a handfull of chickens - mostly hanging around the original house area - but it would take them years of wondering and random shitting to do the damage that is there.
I posted some from "the barrios" just outside of Granada:
The travel section in my newspaper had a big article on Granada recently. Move over Coasta Rice, step back Guatemaula, said the article ... Granada, Nicaragua is poised to be the next backpackers paradise. And true enough there is a huge ex-pat community in Granada and because Coasta Rica has become an expensive place to live/buy property, neighbouring countries (Panama, Guatemaula, and Nica) are all opening their doors with investment/development incentives. Just (and I mean JUST) outside of booming (and very hot and crowded) Granada are the barrios - which means neihborhoods - but is also kinda slang ... meaning, the hoods, very poor neighbourhoods ... "where the streets have no names" as Bono would say. This is "the real" Nicaragua in many ways. It's a very poor country, but rich with culture, humilty, and humanity in the people. People are warm, open and giving. But I'm sure in 5-10 years the streets with no names will be full of time-share condos and maybe even a lake-side golf course. And the people will just either move farther into nowhere, or be "lucky" to have a service job at one of the hotels.
I guess I'm saying I would really not like to see Floatingman be just another land owner in a country with cheap real estate and a great and interesting place for the the booming Granada backpacking party crowd to go for a wild weekend of dabachary on full moons ... with ticket sales going to help the people of Nicaragua of course. Not sure exactly WHAT I'm getting at except that I think the project should be concious that we are coming into "a people's" backyard and resist benefiting from the exploitative nature of the developments which will be all around us. I know thats the plan from the get-go back maybe bears repeating.
I posted a couple of pictures taken of / or from hostels on Ometepe Island. Adam, I do hope you are planning to visit Ometepe while you are down there. To me this was a magical place. There are people living and working the land on Ometepe that have NEVER been to the mainland of their own country. Why ever leave paradise they say. Ometepe is the island with two volcanoes on it and where I saw a 150acre (or so) farm for sale but I was on my way home and did not have a chance to got see it. I know that discussion is old news ... but it might resurface after you visit. And that other art community you're talking about is not far off Ometempe.
When are you scheduled to go see Floatingman Island by the way??
I'm going to spend the next little while going thru the major postings and hope to re-integrate myself into this conversation. I've been recovering from Trae's camp bar for the past 5 months...
:D
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Montreal
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Re: I have posted more photos of the Island
Sun, January 20, 2008 - 11:56 PMgood to see ya again indigo... i think a lot of people are still recovering from that bar :)
great pictures.
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Re: I have posted more photos of the Island
Mon, January 21, 2008 - 8:11 AMGreat to have you back man.
> Not sure exactly WHAT I'm getting at except that I think the project should be concious that we are coming into "a people's" backyard and resist benefiting from the exploitative nature of the developments which will be all around us.
I had big concerns about this before coming down here. Now, those concerns are largely quelled. I'm thrilled that there is already a large art scene of Nicaraguans down here. I'm thrilled that there is already an art commune on the lake. We will be different than the Nicaraguan, but the cultural gaps are smaller than I expected, and I feel that we will indeed be welcomed.
I'm not sure who we would really be exploiting in buying an unused, and unoccupied (other than the caretaker) piece of property. And I think that we would start doing a lot of good in the region, starting with a trickle down effect from buying food locally. But then beyond that sponsoring sustainable energy initiatives, etc.
So, with the large artist community in Nicaraguan I'm less concerned about us not integrating. And overall, I think that the good we do will far outweigh any harm.
> I wanted to show in a little more detail the lanscape of almost the entire island. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks.
Hmmm.... that's indeed worse than I thought. But I still don't see anything that we can't overcome.
The island is just a fixer-upper.
The entire region of West Chontales is apparently pretty dry. The pictures of the island shows that. But we have a billion gallons of fresh water at our disposal. We can start irregating and create a real paradise.
The rocks look like a real pain, but I'm sure we'll find ways to live with them.
And finally, with the steep hills, I imagine that we're going to get very, very good at making houses on stilts.
So, things are very far from perfect. But I hope that we're ready for a challenge.
I'll give a 2nd opinion on all of that after I visit the island myself.
> When are you scheduled to go see Floatingman Island by the way??
I'm here for another month, and I'm on a very slow loop around the lake. I've already spent time in Granada. I'm in San Juan del Sur now. My next stop will be Omotepe. Then by boat over to San Carlos to check out the Rio San Juan, and over to Solentiname to check out the Nicarguan artist commune down there. Then I'm bussing up some bad roads to Juigalpa. I should be able to check the property title there. Then I'm taking the short boat trip from Puero Diaz over to the island. That's just about my last stop before heading home.
I'll keep reporting in here along the way.
