Estadía Nicaragüense: Flora, Fauna and Landscapes

Having brought no field guides for Central America and knowing nothing of the biology here (and not much about the biology anywhere!), this post will be quick to write but long to upload. I’ll simply post a collection of pictures and let those of you interested pull out your guide books. If you do happen to know something and feel compelled to see it correctly labeled, please email me and I’ll include it in the caption. For the most part, the plants here are very new and exotic from a Nort American perspective with many unfamiliar flowers, fruits and forms. It seems that are always at least a few trees or other plants in bloom, so there is always something of beauty to see. I should also give credit that a number of these photos were taken by William when he was here 3 years ago—the picture of the bees is one of his that is particularly good.

You’ll notice that “flora” tend to dominate my pictures and there are several reasons. With respect to fauna, almost all the animals I’ve seen have been domesticated (cats, dogs and farm animals). Second, when I do see a plant, it always waits while I get out my camera…and the animals, especially small, elusive ones are not inclined to do so. I’ll include more landscapes as I have more travel experiences. I have seen a number of very colorful birds that somewhat resemble orioles and finches, but I’ve not been able to get a photo (it’s also challenging with only a 3x telephoto). In addition to the birds, I’ve seen an occasional lizard, a toad, spiders, moths, beetles and, of course, cockroaches, but these, too, have been hard to photograph. I understand there are some larger mammals around as well, including some cats, canines like foxes, rodents, armadillos, etc., and some snakes, but the ubiquitous dog population keeps the larger animals mostly away from settled areas. Oh, I’ve also seen mice on occasion, including running in and out of my room—so far, however, no scorpions. For landscapes, I’m simply throwing in a few from around here for reference since they haven’t fit in any other blog topic yet.

Landscapes

View of Sabana Grande from above looking about SW. The Centro Solar and my house are also pointed out. The Centro Solar is about an 18 minute walk, so just a bit over a mile. This about where I sit so the modem connection is good enough to Skype Susan--the towers are on one of the nearer hills across the valley.

A view to the west from the hills just north of Saban Grande and not far from where the last photo was taken.

A view to the east from the front porch of the house of one of the women in the Co-op.


A creek called "La Muta." It's a very nice, sudden change of eco-systems and only about 2 km from my house.

A sunset view of Tepesomoto, an extinct volcanic cone. This is taken just a bit NW of my house.

Fauna

This is a wasp nest about 1 m long. We made charcoal almost under here and when the smoke was going up, there was an eerie, rhythmic beat coming from the nest.

Flora

"La Ceiba" This tree is on the main road into Sabana Grande from the highway and is a very well-known landmark. When getting a taxi in Ocotal, you can say you want to go to La Ceiba and they'll know what you're talking about. The tree is more than 500 years old (probably a sapling or small tree when the Spaniards arrived). The red line is approximately my height (1.8 m); it takes me 20 paces to walk around the base.