Day 5: Monkeying about at Las Isletas

Dammit.  Just been thrashed by Lisa again at Spite and Malice.  Surely, its bad form to keep beating the person who taught you the game just three days ago, right?  Surely there should be more of a, well, breaking-in period where my dominance should be assured and I should cruise to easy, complacent victories??  

Anyway, I digress.  Card annihilation aside, today has been a very relaxing, chilled out kind of a day.  Tomorrow is a big long hike, so we figured we'd take an easy tour today to save our strength, so the only item on the agenda today was a boat trip on Lake Nicaragua, touring the vicinity of Las Isletas.

Alas, no zoom lens - but thats a heron.  Honest.

We were picked up from the hotel around 9am - again, Lisa and I pretty much had the place to ourselves.  There were only 4 place settings laid out for breakfast, so traveling in the off season is definitely having its advantages!  The way this hotel is laid out, its easy to visualize it as it was when it was a private home - so its equally as easy to feel at home here.  I went for the Nica breakfast again today - rice and beans, egg, squeaky cheese and a bowl of fresh fruit.  I have to confess I am indulging in the very tasty local coffee - my first caffeine since my first round of the 10 Day Detox diet - and it is delicious!   (it was my last hold-out from the 10 day detox - ah well, back on it after vacation!). 

Las Isletas bonita

Unlike yesterday's tour, where there were only 3 of us, today there were already 4 other people in the van when it came to collect us - good, because it drops the price for everyone, bad because they turned out to be majorly irritating and vacuous imbeciles who Would Not Shut The Eff Up.  It was one 20-something guy (who I immediately pegged as a Douche, because of the trendy beard and glasses) and 3 harpy-like young women, including this one Australian woman who was particularly annoying.  The guy was apparently their tour guide, not that you would know it by listening to him (or them) as they talked non-stop about ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF ANY INTEREST WHATSOEVER!!  You'd think the tour guide would talk about the country he was leading his group through with at least a modicum of respect or have some interesting factoids to share, wouldn't you?  Not this A-Hole.  I actually can't remember what they talked NON-STOP about because it was so banal but I think most of the conversation circulated around Oddly Shaped Australian's adventures with the local rum and how amazingly wasted they all were last night but how everyone Still Had A Great Time.  I can only imagine how fabulous it must have been to have been in the same bar sharing their company last night.  What a treat for all within earshot (did I mention they talked NON-STOP?).   I was tempted to tell them all to go to hell and shut up, but instead opted for the somewhat less confrontational approach and instead counted my blessings that we were only sharing a 2hr tour with them, not a 6hr hike or all day trip round Ometepe.  It could have been much worse.

Anyway, back to the trip.  Las Isletas are a collection of 365 islands of various sizes that were formed during the last major eruption of Mombacho, thousands of years ago.  Now, they are all in private hands and house all types of dwelling, from the poorest fisherman's shack to luxurious, multi-million dollar retreats for Nicaragua's wealthy coffee barons.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islets_of_Granada  Chugging past them in our little motor launch, probably the same thoughts filtered through everyone's minds in this approximate order (although there was likely more echo in our dear Aussie friend's mind):

• How much does an island cost?
• I want my own island
• I wonder if I sold my house whether I could afford an island?
• I wonder what it would be like to live on that island?
• Who choses to live on islands?
• Hmm…who on earth would chose to live on an island in a lake within gobbets-of-lava spitting distance from an active volcano?
• You know what, I think I'm good where I am…

As you can see from the pics below, the islands were full of the same lush green foliage and were teeming with wildlife, particularly herons, egrets, and other beautiful fishing birds.  However, the main attraction of the day wasn't the birds but, rather, the monkeys!  Unlike yesterday in Ometepe, today we were guaranteed a sighting - the five monkeys (4 adults plus a baby) lived on a single island and were not in the least inclined to roam about, given the steady supply of fruits and berries the tourist boats brought them!  There are three types of monkeys in Nicaragua - howler, Capuchin and spider monkeys.   (the Cappuchino monkeys are the ones with the white faces that I will always associate with the film "Outbreak" - eek).  The ones on the island were the Capuchin and spider monkeys - and I can now say that I've hand-fed a wild monkey!!  Yep - the guide gave me one of the fruits he'd just plucked from a tree on another island and I laid it out flat on the palm of my hand - and one of the spider monkey's darted down to the water's edge and grabbed it right out of my hand.  Very cool.  Of course, if it was Mr Ebola Capuchin monkey who'd approached, I'd probably be somewhat less sanguine, but I don't think this was the monkey's first rodeo, so I think I was simply the equivalent of a human-powered vending machine for them.  In one of my pics, I could swear the monkey is looking at the fruit is if to say "this damn fruit, again?  I bloody well ordered green papayas and instead this?"

So that was fun - the monkeys even drowned out the incessant chatter of the human version for a while.  After Monkey Island, we made another stop at an island which used to house a fort built by the Spanish in the 1750's to protect against invaders.  There were a couple of mango trees in full fruit, so the guide picked us all up some beautifully ripened fruit, which was sweet and delicious and warm from the sun.  After that, it was time to hop back in the boat for the trip back to the shore, bid a fond farewell to our guide and fellow travelers and reward ourselves with a delicious, pre-birthday lunch for Lisa.  Our guide had given us a recommendation for a good restaurant, so we took his advice and ended up in a place that specialized in steak and grilled meats.  I had the steak Churrasco (which was yummy) and we shared a typical Nica dish for an appetizer - basically pork scratchings with mashed up cassava.  Sounds yukky, actually pretty tasty.  

As we were finishing dinner, the heavens absolutely opened up and it POURED down.  Its rained every day since we got here, but we've been very fortunate in the times that it has rained in that it hasn't caught us out anywhere (like on the top of a volcano, for example).  Today, our luck held so it wasn't all that terrible to weather this latest storm (which was LOUD!) in a great restaurant with a pitcher of red sangria and wi-fi.  That did not suck.  

After about an hour, the rain abated enough such that we could make a dash for it back to the hotel (well, more of a waddle, really) and indulge in some serious post-prandial relaxing.   Lots of lounging, reading, blogging and C&F - a very civilized way to end a very pleasant day.  Here are the photos from the boat trip - enjoy!!

Those brown dangly things (upper right corner) are
birds nests - can't remember what they are called but the
US equivalent is the Baltimore oriole (I think)

Fancy-pants mansion

Collecting monkey catnip

My little friend comes in for his snack

Monkey!  And Baby Monkey!!
(alas no sock monkeys)

Ebola monkey

Ever seen a monkey view a piece of fruit with utter disdain?
You're welcome.

Monkey in deep thought, wondering if he'd left the oven on.

Peek-a-boo!

Interestingly authentic appetizer of pork rinds

The main event

Wet, wet, wet.