BajaNomad

RAAN Nicaragua

monoloco - 9-24-2012 at 06:53 PM

I,ve been working down here and thought I'd post some photos:


[Edited on 9-25-2012 by monoloco]

monoloco - 9-24-2012 at 06:56 PM

monoloco - 9-24-2012 at 07:14 PM


]http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx288/monolocogb99/P1030624.jpg[/IMG]
Sorry I didn't have time to give a complete narrative, but basically all the shots were taken in the northern atlantic autonomous region or RAAN on the Rio Wawa, Rosita and Bilwi. The people of this region are Miskito indian and speak their own dialect but will speak Spanish as a courtesy. The river people are mostly subsistence farmers (yuca, plantains, sugarcane) and they use dugout cayucos, hewn from a single log, as their primary transport. I put in a photo of a vintage Soviet era jeep that I thought was interesting and a sawmill. The town in the picture is Rosita near the Honduran border and is pretty much like the wild west. Definitely not a place you want to wander around at night. Enjoy!

Ken Cooke - 9-24-2012 at 08:09 PM

Great photos!

jbcoug - 9-24-2012 at 08:25 PM

Thanks, I enjoyed the pictures.

John

David K - 9-24-2012 at 11:30 PM

Cool... thank you!

Here is the last photo, that was missing the tag in front ([IMG]).


monoloco - 9-25-2012 at 04:44 AM

Thank you DavidK, I kind of posted these in a hurry. That photo is of the guys repairing the bridge that washed out the night before, believe it or not, this is the only highway from Pueto Cabeza to Managua and is used by everything from donkey carts to semis. They also collected a toll of 10 Cordobas to pass, I guess that's how they maintain such a fine infrastructure. the drive to Rosita was maybe a hundred miles and took about 8 or 9 hours. You would be interested to know we were traveling in a brand new Hilux 4x4 diesel pick-up. What a nice rig, I wish I could get one in the states.

Mula - 9-25-2012 at 06:33 AM

Thanks so very much. Just great photos and info.

David K - 9-25-2012 at 08:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by monoloco
Thank you DavidK, I kind of posted these in a hurry. That photo is of the guys repairing the bridge that washed out the night before, believe it or not, this is the only highway from Pueto Cabeza to Managua and is used by everything from donkey carts to semis. They also collected a toll of 10 Cordobas to pass, I guess that's how they maintain such a fine infrastructure. the drive to Rosita was maybe a hundred miles and took about 8 or 9 hours. You would be interested to know we were traveling in a brand new Hilux 4x4 diesel pick-up. What a nice rig, I wish I could get one in the states.


Oh true that... I am also on TacomaWorld.com forums and a lot of guys there would love to have a Hilux diesel.

dtutko1 - 9-25-2012 at 08:26 AM

Greg
What are you working on? Hope things are going good. We will be down soon after thanksgiving.

oladulce - 9-25-2012 at 08:38 AM

Very interesting and cool pictures. Looks like an adventure. The air looks thick even in the pics so if you were doing physical labor- WOW!!

When we had a place on the Pacific side we'd read and participate in this forum which is frequented by ex-pats and Nicas from around the country. http://www.therealnicaragua.com/ TRN is a "warts and all" type of forum and in addition to Nica politics and news, daily life in Nica was discussed. There were a few participants who lived in the RAAN district and some of their stories of break-ins, robberies, and other sketchy occurrences were enough to make us cross the region off our to-do list. We had some interesting experiences in Managua but those were tame compared to some of the stories about RAAN. yikes.

I'd love to have a 4 door Hilux too.

monoloco - 9-25-2012 at 02:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by dtutko1
Greg
What are you working on? Hope things are going good. We will be down soon after thanksgiving.
i am doing some logistics for a timber company, I hope I'll get to spend some time at home in November but it's looking like I'll be pretty busy with this for a while. Saludos a Trish.

monoloco - 9-25-2012 at 02:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by oladulce
Very interesting and cool pictures. Looks like an adventure. The air looks thick even in the pics so if you were doing physical labor- WOW!!

When we had a place on the Pacific side we'd read and participate in this forum which is frequented by ex-pats and Nicas from around the country. http://www.therealnicaragua.com/ TRN is a "warts and all" type of forum and in addition to Nica politics and news, daily life in Nica was discussed. There were a few participants who lived in the RAAN district and some of their stories of break-ins, robberies, and other sketchy occurrences were enough to make us cross the region off our to-do list. We had some interesting experiences in Managua but those were tame compared to some of the stories about RAAN. yikes.

I'd love to have a 4 door Hilux too.
This is a seriously dangerous place, the number one industry here is drug smuggling, and there are a lot of pandileros so it's not really safe to wander around. Even the locals I have been working with say they don't go out much and most houses have razor wire around the yard. As a vacation spot, it would probably rank somewhere between Lagos Nigeria and Port Au Prince. The west coast is much safer.