Last week of september near Puerto Cabezas

[tomfromsinai]

Hello experts!

Will You please help...
I'm working on my first trip to Nicaragua.
Main interest is commercial or traditional fishing of local people. Also everything else what locals do for living, but mostly the people make living off the water.
(want to take pics and write about it)
Am i right that Puerto Cabezas is one of least touristy places in Nicaragua?
How do local fishermen react if one day i show up on the dock and ask 'em to take me to the water to see how they fish? Take pics and bug them with my guestions about what they are doing.
How many of them speak english?
How much do they charge me, just a clue please.
When is the Cayos Miskitos lobster season?
How realistic is to get the ride to Cayos Miskitos and back within 4 days?
How much it will cost, just a clue please!

To see and take pics about fishermen life at Cayos Miskitos is my dream. But if it's unrealistic or too costly i would be happy to stay at Puerto for a week and see local fishing over there. Hope that this is realistic.

About myself: i live in the small village of Duna between red sea and sinai desert. i'm originally from europe but i live in the community of sudanese refugees and i work with sinai beduins (little safary business in south sinai desert). have been living and watching the fishermen at their work in scotland, orkney islands, ireland, estonia, mexico (isla holbox), egypt and america. would like to do same thing in Nicaragua.

Thank You!

[Little Corn Tom]

The perfect person to answer your questions is Just Plain John Wayne. He fishes out of Porto Cabezas. However he is recuperating right now from a serious operation and his access to this site is limited.

Do you intend to compete for fish or just document?

[tomfromsinai]

The perfect person to answer your questions is Just Plain John Wayne. He fishes out of Porto Cabezas. However he is recuperating right now from a serious operation and his access to this site is limited.

Do you intend to compete for fish or just document?

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thank you for your reply!
yes, i figured out myself that your guy from puerto cabezas is off the track. hopefully he will be back soon.
i'm sorry, my english is far away from perfect, that's why i didn't get your question: compete for fish or just document?

[cookshow]

I am no expert on that area, let me make that clear, have visited many times.

The 1 member in that area is recovering from surgery and unlikely to respond to your post for the time being.

You might look at the post by Mupitara, he is inland, but familiar with the people and speaks the language.

Many people in Port speak English due to the fact they are from further South down the Coast or from Corn Island, that said there are people who speak little or no Spanish, only Miskito. Do not plan on getting by with English without some help.

There ia a lot of hullabaloo about lobster diving, so people may not be so quick to take you aboard without some introductions.

With only a week or 2 you may have a hard time. Many issues on the Coast occasionally catch the World news headlines and people can be slow to get excited about someone toting a camera and taking notes.

[Little Corn Tom]

Do you want to fish or document fishing?

What is your goal?

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thank you for your reply!
yes, i figured out myself that your guy from puerto cabezas is off the track. hopefully he will be back soon.
i'm sorry, my english is far away from perfect, that's why i didn't get your question: compete for fish or just document?

[tomfromsinai]

Do you want to fish or document fishing?

What is your goal?

my goal is to document fishing. see how the guys work and share it in my native fisherman magazine. i don't mind fish myself. just have to clean my fingers every once in a while and grab my camera.

does your username "little Corn Tom" mean that you are from little corn or familiar with it?
if yes will you please tell if there is any commercial fishing? or is it only charters for tourists?

both corns are my second option. if i fail in puerto i will fly to corns and try again. puerto is on the first place because not much tourists there, i guess?

[Little Corn Tom]

I am familiar with the Corn Islands.

Most of the fishing there is commercial.

PM Marlies ...she used to fish commercially there.

[tomfromsinai]

Dumb as i am i asked about commercial fishing but i was thinking more about traditional, unique to the place fishing. I guess miskitos have something like that? Do they catch turtles this time of the year? What bout Corn islands? Do the islanders have some interesting fishing techniques? off course all kind of fishing is interesting, but i think something that you don't see anywhere else or only rarely. like the beduins in sinai - they close the reef with nets and then start to chase fish into it. swimming, yelling, swearing at each other, throwing rocks - people who don't know what is going on think that bunch of guys fight in the water.

Thanks for everyone who bother to answer!
Thank You, Cookshow! I did read posts from Mupitara. He is great writer, but i didn't find much about Puerto fishing or fishermen. Maybe i'm not very good at finding right stuff...

[cookshow]

I thought he had some pics and stories about the Miskito Keys, may be on another site.

[tomfromsinai]

I thought he had some pics and stories about the Miskito Keys, may be on another site.

i have seen pics about cayos miskitos and houses on the poles near cayos. these pics got me going. i even found website where nicaraguan tour office, i think it was intur, offers tours to cayos miskitos. but their e mail address bounced my mail back to me. their price wasn't affordable anyway - $ 800.- for 3 day trip. i guess i can't afford private tour, maybe only jump on the boat that goes this way anyway and maybe i have luck to get back same way or need to pay full gas and crew for one way only. one way or another it won't be cheap, that's for sure. but if fishermen at cayos don't like strangers poking around with their cameras then i'll probably change my plan. i do't take pics when people don't like it.

[mupitara]

i have seen pics about cayos miskitos and houses on the poles near cayos. these pics got me going. i even found website where nicaraguan tour office, i think it was intur, offers tours to cayos miskitos. but their e mail address bounced my mail back to me. their price wasn't affordable anyway - $ 800.- for 3 day trip. i guess i can't afford private tour, maybe only jump on the boat that goes this way anyway and maybe i have luck to get back same way or need to pay full gas and crew for one way only. one way or another it won't be cheap, that's for sure. but if fishermen at cayos don't like strangers poking around with their cameras then i'll probably change my plan. i do't take pics when people don't like it.

Tom,

Sorry it took so long to find your post. The folks are right to point you to JPJW for Puerto Cabezas and Cayos Miskitos related fishing. John Wayne can set you straight on the economic situation for the lobster fishermen right now. I live about 100 km upriver on the Rio Prinzapolka. I´m an avid sports fisherman. But, I am not involved with commercial or artesanal fishing. You should also plan to visit and interview resident marine biologist Yadder Mendoza at URRACAN Bilwi.

I spent 6 days on Cayos Miskitos in late 2004 on the small lodge built by two brothers from Awas Tara (but live in Bilwi/Puerto Cabezas) named Walter and Miriki. These fellows own their own lobster trapping operation which fishes from there. Walter and Miriki were setting their traps to the east of the Cayos Miskitos. The turtle fishermen generally live and fish to the north of Walter´s lodge. There is also a freedive zone just north of Walter where you can witness lobster and conch freedivers (no tanks allowed) in shallow waters over turtle grass. I will send you a private post with an internet contact if you with to contact them. I doubt that the lodge withstood Hurricane Felix, though. You can surely negotiate the panga trip, accompany a trap run, and find accomodations (such as they are) with these guys. Just be prepared to live with the horrible stench of rotten cowhides at the camphouse and on the trap run!

Miriki and Walter may also be able to arrange for you to spend a day on one of the turtle veleros that sail out of nearby Diamond Spot. At Diamond Spot you can also get pictures of turtle crawls where the turtles are held until the veleros are ready to be taken to market.

You can count on getting plenty of photos of turtle being unloaded from the veleros (sailboats) at the Bilwi pier and hauled to homes where they are kept alive on their backs until butchering. Find someone with a good supply in their yard and ask him/her to allow you to watch and photograph the slaughter/butchering process (probably starting about 3:00 AM) then transported to market. You should specifically ask them to prepare the callipee for you. This part is usually discarded because few people in the region know how to cook it. Callipee and Callipass are european delicasies and were the ONLY part of the midas turtle which were carried abourd the sailing ships to the Old World to be sold because the rest of the turtle would not keep for the six month sea journey! Live turtles were hauled aboard the sailing ships in great numbers. But, these were used to feed the crew during the first month or so of the voyage.

If you are interested in tasting midas turtle at its best, let me know and I´ll point you to someone who does it very well. Properly cooked turtle in coconut milk takes at least four hours to prepare. But, It is worth every minute of it!

Other than the naval military outpost at Cayos Miskitos where I was told that no pictures are allowed, I never had anyone complain about having photos taken of them or their activities.

Along the coastline, you can also observe netting of shrimp and fish during some periods of the year. September is usually the month for the seabob or redtop shrimp. This hardshelled and rather diminuitive shrimp suddenly appears just off the beaches in the windless lulls of September. When this happens, villagers run down to the beaches with pullnets, castnets, and even make-do mosquito bars to scoop up the critters. When this occurs, the villages become inundated with drying shrimp covering yards, walkways, and anything else that will allow the shrimp to dry. Once dried, the shrimp are tossed into the family´s rice mortar and pounded to loosen the head and shell. The heads and shells are separated in the wind from the tails. The tiny seabob tails which only measure about 1 to 1.5 cm in length can be stored for many months without refrigeration.

Later, in December just before the shrimp enter the mangrove-lined lagoons to lay their eggs for the summer hatch as I remember, I´ve watched as beach netters drag in quantities of huge jumbo shrimp. The netters usually use a dugout canoe to pull the net in a giant semi-circle in an attempt to trap the shrimp between the net and the shore. Once the canoers make the final turn, they usually leap from the canoe and attempt to quickly drag the lines to shore where others wait to help pull. Frequently, twenty or more persons work together to pull the net! Sometimes it scares me to see the other marine life dragged up on the beach which was also swimming with these folks. Usually, I get great joy picking through the fresh bycatch that the villagers turn their nose up to and leave for the seagulls (and me) to feast upon!

The inland lagoons and rivers here are reserved for non-commercial fishing. Here, most fish are taken, however, with gillnets (frequently the huge commercial offshore ones) at sensitive inlets, and river confluences. The preferred catch is snook. While most of the catch is other species and undersize snook, the fish packing houses only buy the larger snook leaving the hapless locals to find sales for the rest elsewhere on the weak local markets. And, while snook are considered sportfish and therefore prohibited from market in most countries where they are exported, they are generally shipped filetted, without their telltail black lateral line and generically labelled Ocean Snapper or some such deceptive name.

Another sad part of the gillnetting debacle is the fact that tarpon - both giant and juvenile - are also caught as unwanted bycatch in great numbers here. These fish are simply returned (dead) to the water from which they came! I´ve heard many tales of up to eighty tarpon being killed in one net in a single night. That´s really sad when one considers that it takes forty years or more for an adult to develop!

With the recent collapse of the lobster industry here, fishpackers are resorting more and more on snook supplies. As a result of this and attempts by the government to provide alternate income to drug trafficking along the coast, many more gillnets have recently entered our area. Apparently, someone is convinced that more nets will make up for rapidy declining fish catches here! This most certainly impacts my dream to one day see a viable tarpon/snook sport fishing and tourism industry in what could have been described as one of the best resources in the world!

Another interesting product here is the river prawn. Some of these grow up to weigh as much as half a pound. We have about five different species with different characteristics. The largest ones are often located with headlights and gigged along the edge of the river. Some are taken from bamboo flotsam during flood periods. And, most are caught in homemade bamboo traps which are usually baited with chunks of wild termite nests.

If you think that you want to learn more, check out my NOTES and LINKS from my PAPATARA ERMINGER Facebook page. Oh, and do visit me at HOTEL PAPATARA (Facebook) as well as Hotel Papatara in Alamikamba!

Hope I´ve been of some help to you!


Aisabe,
Papatara

[Little Corn Tom]

Your best post ever!

[mupitara]

Your best post ever!

Thanks Tom,

I´ve already moved this entry to a draft blog and will add appropriate pics and ready it for re-posting. I think that most of the things mentioned in the post will have appropriate photographs to accompany them.

I did neglect to mention weisku, daka, ciruila, trisba and other indigenous hunting and fishing tools that are or once were used here. Those might also be of interest to our poster. I guess that I should explain how the setnet took over the midas turtle fishing industry.

I also didn´t get into the issue of recently introduced tilapia in our area and how they are replacing our native lagoon guapote (masmas).

And, I didn´t mention our sabalete or machaca (shrit in miskitu). While it is a member of the gizzard shad family, it seems more like a miniature bombshell with a never give up spirit! Its also one of the most delicious fish to eat. But, most locals won´t eat them because they are full of tiny forked spines through the length of the backbone. I know a trick that solves this problem!

Aisabe,
Papatara

[tomfromsinai]

Thank You so much, Mupitara! I'm way too busy at the moment to dig deep into your post but brief look at it tells me that it's pure gold! Tomorrow will be stormy (i'm on m. vineyard island, new england at the moment) and then i'll go into it and probably will thank you many more times.
btw - did you ever wrote a book? i went thru some of your older posts and found that they describe Nicaragua best way i found that far. Your writings give lots of information and they are enjoyable to read.

[tomfromsinai]

Tom,

Just be prepared to live with the horrible stench of rotten cowhides at the camphouse and on the trap run!

Oh, and do visit me at HOTEL PAPATARA (Facebook) as well as Hotel Papatara in Alamikamba!

Hope I´ve been of some help to you!


Aisabe,
Papatara

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thank you one more time!

i went thru your post and as i alrerady said it is pure gold!

one thing is sure - i don't survive stench of rottren cowhides. if this is something i can't avoid i will skip cayos miskitos. here on the island of marthas vineyard i cancelled day on the conchboat because i couldn't take the horrible stench of rotten horseshoe crabs the guy used for bait.

anyway, i will book my flights to and from bilwi today. your post helped me to make decicion.

off course i would like to come and visit your hotel. sorry, i'm not a facebook guy, tried to see your hotel there but didn't find much information. i'm unfamiliar with that site.
i think i found you from nicaragua map - alamikamba on the prinzapolka river.
please tell me briefly how to get from bilwi to you. is there any chanche to rent a car? proably no? how are the roads at the end of september? how many hours to go?

thank you!

[Just Plain John Wayne]

UuuuuWeee...

Papatara can really tell it like it is....

And I would suggest you coming this far to not miss a trip to the Keys and its commercial and subsistence living fishermen, and their manner of capture.

With knowing or having a reputable introduction you will have no trouble with its friendly workforce, but as MupiTara points out set yourself apart from the people that would like to put the Indians way of life in a bad light.

The BIG Key "Miskito Key" is from where the trappers mostly work, Morrison Dennis is for divers of all types, Diamond Spot is "Free Diving" areas "Whipplin, and Whitties Reef's" are mostly turtle fishing areas.....

Don't be worried about the cowhide smell just look for a place up wind which there almost always is year round.

BTW the larger mash gill nets are about the only way to do selective harvesting of the finfish in the way of sizes to be taken.

But I am to against the killing of the tarpon though some here really love to eat them.... they are an attraction for the tourist industry.

[tomfromsinai]

[QUOTE=Just Plain John Wayne;103047]UuuuuWeee...

... set yourself apart from the people that would like to put the Indians way of life in a bad light.

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(will you please explain your sentence above? i didn't get it. sorry, my english is far from perfect...)

thank you for your reply, john wayne!


i've been following your tracks in this forum about 2 months. i'm happy you are getting back together. i didn't want to bother you with my questions before you join to my thread yourself. no doubt you know everything about fishing around your area. i've been reading your posts.

if everything goes by the plan i will arrive to pc with the morning plane on septermber 22 and must leave afternoon of 27-th to catch my other plane out of the country.

do you think it's realistic to do cayos miskitos in 5 1/2 days?
what is the estimated cost? just a clue please.

lobsters and turtles are my main interest, but if not possible, any kind of fish will do it.
same with shrimp.
i'm not interested of charter fishing boats for high rollers (people with big bucks). hard working fishermen who make their living off the sea are my target. if i got mupitaras post right, there is plenty of that arount puerto cabezas?

if you don't mind i would like to meet you at pc. maybe i can get a better picture of what's going on in the fishing industry if i speak the language. i spent half of last winter on isla holbox, mexico and went to sharkfishing with locals. because of language barrier i had to guess what's going on. it was lots fun anyway. they landed two bullsharks, both about 240 kilo that day.

in case you are positive about meeting and want me to bring something from states, ask now. please don't ask anything that doesn't fit or is not allowed into carry-on luggage. (i offer this because in sinai where i spend my winters i'm always in a desperate need of something what is impossible to get from egypt but costs near nothing to order from amazon)

hope to hear from you soon!

[mupitara]

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thank you one more time!

i went thru your post and as i alrerady said it is pure gold!

one thing is sure - i don't survive stench of rottren cowhides. if this is something i can't avoid i will skip cayos miskitos. here on the island of marthas vineyard i cancelled day on the conchboat because i couldn't take the horrible stench of rotten horseshoe crabs the guy used for bait.

anyway, i will book my flights to and from bilwi today. your post helped me to make decicion.

off course i would like to come and visit your hotel. sorry, i'm not a facebook guy, tried to see your hotel there but didn't find much information. i'm unfamiliar with that site.
i think i found you from nicaragua map - alamikamba on the prinzapolka river.
please tell me briefly how to get from bilwi to you. is there any chanche to rent a car? proably no? how are the roads at the end of september? how many hours to go?

thank you!

You are quite welcome! I´m glad to see that the information I provided is some use to you. Sorry that the Facebook links to my personal site and to my hotel page didn´t work for you. You do have to sign-up in Facebook in order to visit pages I believe.

I see that John Wayne has responded to your post with an excellent response. I agree with him that a trip to Cayos Miskitos would be the number one choice for anyone looking to get to know the artesenal fishing culture of the miskito. Cayos Miskitos is truly an indigenous fishing zone. So, while some of the fishing activities might not be as low-tech as you might have hoped to see, I think you would have to classify everything as artesenal.

I do suggest that you consult with JW about travel arrangement to the Cayos. He might be able to connect you on one of the supply boats that frequently travel to the Cayos. Also, be aware that sometimes weather conditions to or from the Cayos prohibit travel. That could really affect your flight date out with such a tight schedule!

You might also be able to make short inland fishing excursions from Bilwi to nearby Krukira or Wawa Bar. Most fish caught there are for the local Bilwi market.

For the amount of time you have available, Bilwi (to Cayos Miskitos) plus Alamikamba would be out of the question. Besides, Rosita (Alamikamba) would require flying FROM Managua as would Bilwi since there are no direct flights between Bilwi and the mining area of the RAAN. The roads in our area are in very poor condition right now. And, renting a car in the region is not practical.

Aisabe,
Papatara

[tomfromsinai]

[QUOTE=mupitara;103063]

I agree with him that a trip to Cayos Miskitos would be the number one choice for anyone looking to get to know the artesenal fishing culture of the miskito. Cayos Miskitos is truly an indigenous fishing zone.

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i agree with both of you that cayos miskitos are number one. i knew it myself after i saw some pics about that place. one pic can tell you a lot. but i can't jump higher than my shadow. i know i can't resist smell of rotten cowhide for a days. every time i run into the dead camel on my safary in sinai desert i ask my beduin friend to step on accelerator of his jeep. i'm not very brave man if it goes into the stench of sun-cooked large animal...
i hope i can get to cayos somehow anyway.

i'm still askin directions, please tell me how to get into your hotel. if you were in my shoes in the middle of puerto cabezas, how would you get into your place?
in case weather doesn't allow me to go to the cayos i want to have backup plan. and i'm quite sure i'll be back to nicaragua anyway. my trip is kind of reconaissance. i want to find out if i can resist that heat and humidity. if yes, i will spend few months if not whole winter in nicaragua. safary business in sinai is quite slow due to bad economy in the coutries where my custemers coming from, so i'm looking for exotic place to do some writing and photography. sooner or later i end up at your place anyway.

i heard that your roads are bad. how bad is that bad? if they are bad by american means i guess they are not bad at all. travelbooks say that back roads in mexico are bad too. i've been driving cross mexico few times and haven't found any road strictly for 4x4 this far. i even drove to the bottom of copper canyon, to the town of batopilas with volkswagen jetta in rainy season. it wasn't really smart thing to do but it was possible and jetta remained in one piece. are the roads in nicaragua worse, aren't they accessible by 4x4?

[mupitara]

i agree with both of you that cayos miskitos are number one. i knew it myself after i saw some pics about that place. one pic can tell you a lot. but i can't jump higher than my shadow. i know i can't resist smell of rotten cowhide for a days. every time i run into the dead camel on my safary in sinai desert i ask my beduin friend to step on accelerator of his jeep. i'm not very brave man if it goes into the stench of sun-cooked large animal...
i hope i can get to cayos somehow anyway.

I don´t know how JW would respond, but, my own experience with lobster trappers was that rotten cowhides is an essential part of the process. From the moment the group of fishermen I was with arrived at the camphouse in Cayos Miskitos, they began to wet and float their hides to get them to start giving off that glorious odor! I did not actually go out to run traps with them because I was there looking for sport fishing sites. However, I do recall that the cowhides were always placed prominently in the pangas when they went out to work the traplines! So, don´t say that I didn´t tell you so!

If you can manage to travel with a supply boat or go to one of the lobster divers tank recharge stations, then, you could avoid the stench. Turtle setnet fishermen also don´t use the cowhides.

i'm still askin directions, please tell me how to get into your hotel. if you were in my shoes in the middle of puerto cabezas, how would you get into your place?

My place is located about 85 km from Rosita. You can fly from Managua to Rosita every day via La Costeña Airlines. The flight takes about an hour and usually arrives before noon in Rosita. From there, you can either travel by public bus from Rosita to Alamikamba for C$80/USD$4 (arriving about 5:45 PM), or, hire a taxi C$1000/USD$50 (arriving about 2 PM).

We are two days by local bus from Puerto Cabezas. And, its a VERY uncomfortable ride! I know that because Kuka went there this week! She complains strongly when I call her on the phone!

I must warn you, however, that artesanal fishing on the Rio Prinzapolka takes place downriver from Alamikamba. There is gillnetting primarily for snook on the main river beginning about 20 km downriver and proceeding all the way to the coast. There is also gillnetting in lagoons which form behind the natural river levees which mostly occur in the area 20 to 50 km downriver from us. Those lagoons produce masmas (cyclids) and considerable quantities of wild non-native tilapia. Alamikamba does produce river prawns this time of the year, though.

in case weather doesn't allow me to go to the cayos i want to have backup plan. and i'm quite sure i'll be back to nicaragua anyway. my trip is kind of reconaissance. i want to find out if i can resist that heat and humidity. if yes, i will spend few months if not whole winter in nicaragua. safary business in sinai is quite slow due to bad economy in the coutries where my custemers coming from, so i'm looking for exotic place to do some writing and photography. sooner or later i end up at your place anyway.

If I were you, I´d go to Puerto Cabezas with plans to make the Cayos. You won´t find another place more breathtaking to photograph than the houses and boats there! If weather doesn´t permit, go to nearby Krukira and perhaps Awas Tara just to the north of Puerto. You might also have time to visit Wawa Bar and Karatá Lagoon just to the south. And, definitely don´t miss the markets in Puerto. the pier, the Landing (the beach site), and Lamblaya (the river port).

i heard that your roads are bad. how bad is that bad? if they are bad by american means i guess they are not bad at all. travelbooks say that back roads in mexico are bad too. i've been driving cross mexico few times and haven't found any road strictly for 4x4 this far. i even drove to the bottom of copper canyon, to the town of batopilas with volkswagen jetta in rainy season. it wasn't really smart thing to do but it was possible and jetta remained in one piece. are the roads in nicaragua worse, aren't they accessible by 4x4?

Our roads have sometimes been so bad with deep mudholes that the roads get blocked by stuck vehicles for a day or two. And, occaisionally, a bridge or two gets washed out or rots out and leaves the road blocked when floodwaters rise over low-water passages. In 2003, there were some ruts in the roads here that would hide an 18-wheeler from view! Right now, however, I don´t think that either of those conditions exits except possibly near Waspam. There are some difficult places due to rainy season degradation. But, the roads definitely are not impassible! You probably wouldn´t even get to engage your four-wheel-drive right now!

I´ve even got the entrance to my hotel fixed now. Hardly anybody gets stuck going in and out anymore! That, plus the fact that we got 24-hour electricity and internet this year has really degraded our lifestyle here! At least I still our panoramic view of the Milky Way to look at from our thatched gallery!

Aisabe,
Papatara

[tomfromsinai]

hello everybody!

i hate to say it, but i didn't made to cayos miskitos. my trip to cayos ended at the captains office near muelle of puerto cabezas. he said that tropical storm (mathew) is heading that way and cayos may get direct hit. he said that they will evacuate all fishermen from cayos and there will be nothing to see. instead of cayos i went to krukira. went out fishing with local guys and slept over night in the village. this was very nice experience.

went out fishing from puerto too, but this time i got screwed. catching any fish wasn't in their plans. they just soaked a net for an hour and that was it. collecting some cash from me was their target. in krukira was real fishing - men were working hard and fish was in the net.

another highlight of the trip was dinner with miskito family in bilwi/puerto. we were eating turtle fins. this dinner was pure hospitality. many thanks for forum member Papatara for introducing me to this nice family. and for all other good advice he gave me. i got the book Papatara advised me to buy today: Tangweera: Life and Adventures among Gentle Savages. will read it on my beach between desert and red sea after few weeks.

summary: trip was well worth of doing it. one week in puerto is way too short. i'll be back there sometimes for longer, for 3 months, i guess.

i got to figure out how to post some pics. i hate uploading more than anything else in the world, but sometimes i still do it.

[mupitara]

i hate to say it, but i didn't made to cayos miskitos. my trip to cayos ended at the captains office near muelle of puerto cabezas. he said that tropical storm (mathew) is heading that way and cayos may get direct hit. he said that they will evacuate all fishermen from cayos and there will be nothing to see.

I hate to sound like I told you so for planning to see Los Cayos during such a short stay, but hey, ¨I told you so!¨ Don´t get me wrong, though. I also told you that a trip to Cayos Miskitos is the most impressive option that you have. You just have to be prepared for a low percentage chance that all the stars, constellations, planets, and political parties will align themselves at the same time to let you make that trip. My advice to you is to keep trying, and, better luck next time!

instead of cayos i went to krukira. went out fishing with local guys and slept over night in the village. this was very nice experience.

Great! There is still lots to see in the region. And, the more you see and talk about the more you can appreciate what we have here!

went out fishing from puerto too, but this time i got screwed. catching any fish wasn't in their plans. they just soaked a net for an hour and that was it. collecting some cash from me was their target. in krukira was real fishing - men were working hard and fish was in the net.

Sadly, we´ve got our share of those kinds of people. You might have looked for people pulling nets right on the beach just south of Bilwi Tigni. You can see a lot just standing on the beach and chatting with the folks who pull the net by hand. This usually only happens when winds are calm and the shrimp are working right next to the beach.

another highlight of the trip was dinner with miskito family in bilwi/puerto. we were eating turtle fins. this dinner was pure hospitality. many thanks for forum member Papatara for introducing me to this nice family. and for all other good advice he gave me. i got the book Papatara advised me to buy today: Tangweera: Life and Adventures among Gentle Savages. will read it on my beach between desert and red sea after few weeks..

I´m pleased that your dinner went well! I consider Esperanza and her family part of my own! We´ve known her and her family since 1975! If you liked the region, you will definitely enjoy Charles Napier Bell´s insight and the accounts in his book! If this were my classroom, I´d consider TANGWEERA required reading!

Aisabe,
Papatara

[Jonh]