NICARAGUA

From Santa Marta flight  over Bogota, Panama City to Managua.

Oriental Market in the centre of Managua is very lively and noisy place with an interesting colorful crowd.

Not really friendly - I was attacked as "Americano" by a man, who could be held back by our company

19th July is  a national holiday because of the revolution, and was celebrated by Daniel Ortega party using 3 miliom dollars, in the second poorest country in the world, right after Haiti

Trip to Masaya by a public minibus for equivalent of 50 cents. Colorful buses ful up to the roof were passing direction Managua to join the national party. The city Masaya has some nice "colonial" architecture

Motocho volcano

For 15 US$ brings you an open Mercedes truck 1000m up on quite steep gravel roads to a rangers station where the volcano tracks start.

Though on the top of a volcano, the flora and fauna resembles a jungle, which got very very noisy just before a heavy rain came out of nowhere.

Wednesday was again a working day and our lab counterparts staged sample taking from a boat on the Managua lake

G r a n a d a  is a beautiful small city South of Managua,  which can be reached by the same cheap public minibus, where one has a feeling to be part of the local life. Busy central square with a lot of stands with colorful touristy stuff.

More colonial architecture, big old cathedral falling apart, busy market. Convoy of cars with kids, celebrating some princess. 

More pictures are of flickr

Photos from Colombia & nicaragua

Watch video:

COLOMBIA - visiting Venice in the Caribbean

S a n t a  M a r t a   is a small coastal city with nice colonial architecture and colorful streets with a lot of small shops and bars.

In the South is a tourist district called Rodadero. The tourists are mainly locals, who come to the beach even when it is overcast. Friday and Saturday night the beach hosts something like national party. Groups of people all over, sitting on beach chairs, drinking and dancing to music from small street bands. Sometimes standing 10 meters from each other, they play as loud as possible, so that their customers don't hear the others. It's fun to sit between four such groups.

I N V E M A R  is a marine laboratory in Santa Marta, participating in a project, mapping the pollution of the Caribbean. In the 50th they founded a museum of sea animals and until now  collected about 37.000 species, which are shelved in glass tubes in a few small rooms here. One section is dealing with research of sea horses.












N u o v a  V e n e c i a     Half a day trip by an INVEMAR boat brought us to a unique settlement in the middle of a huge bay. Founded in 1840, it is built like the Italian Venice on wooden pilots. Houses with gardens, animals, shops, and even a football playground. Electricity comes by underwater cable, which means TV and Internet have entered the houses. Having at least a small boat is essential - for communication and also for living, since most inhabitants are fishermen.

More pictures here:
Colombia & Nicaragua photos on flickr

VISITING MASSAI PEOPLE IN KENYA

Massai land in the South of Kenya has been affected by climate change and the agriculture suffers more and more fro lack of water. Rich can afford to dig wells, but small farmers are fighting for survival.



K w a   A k a   is a natural reservoir of rain water, where families come from far away with all kind of containers for water. Late afternoon the place offers a colorful performance. One can see anything between carts drawn by bulls or boys with self made construction to transport five liter canisters. The water is muddy and dirty, but people are lucky to have it. In other places it has completely dried out and it takes up to 20 km walk to another place.

Meeting IAEA visitors, the farmers put on their best cloth

N g' a t a t a c k   is a village in the very South of Kenya, close to Tanzanian border, where the IAEA is supporting a project,  helping Massai farmers to use the little resources they have. The water is dripping instead of pouring.

N a m a n g a   is a sleepy little town with a border crossing to Tanzania. Afternoon walk to the market place offers a great performance of real Africa. Colorful little stands offering all kinds of goods fill narrow village streets, leading to upper place where tho open market resides. People in traditional Massai cloth, men wearing "fimbo" sticks. Among other goods there are baskets with coal.

In Casablanca bar it's easy to make friends over a Tusker beer

N a i r o b i  N a t i o n a l  P a r k  is right at the city border and it is easy to reach it in an afternoon trip. If you don't mind having high rise buildings on the horizon, it gives a good safari experience.

The result of of the travel is a film which was presented during the IAEA Scientific Forum in Vienna in September 2011.

Some more pictures can be found on Flickr

http://flickr.com/gp/petrp/8GJ6Q3/