Murciélagos en Masaya

Volcan Masaya is a national park about 30 minutes south of Managua. We drove in after hours to catch bats. Merlin Tuttle is teaching a group of students and biologists about bats.

The cave and trap site were on the other side of the crater, an active crater that off gases all the time. The lava is visible at night though we didn't stop on the way out of the park.

The group of students had set up a bat trap at the mouth of a cave. The cave looked like it was a collapsed lava tube, collapsed a long time ago if the trees growing out of it are any indication.

The trap is two parallel series of monofilament line strung vertically above a plastic bag. Bats flying out of the cave hit the line and slide into the bag. The trap is so effective that the bag has to be emptied frequently to prevent the bats from suffocating, a very unlikely event so long as someone is there to watch things.

Rafting Rio Cangrejal, Honduras

So we had some fun in Honduras. We went rafting to gather photos and information for a sample brochure and video to show the sustainable tourism training participants. Rough, right?

Rio Cangrejal falls out of the coastal mountain range near La Ceiba. Funny thing is I think I rafted this river in 1993 when hitchhiking back to the States from Costa Rica. I know I have a business card from La Moskitia Ecoaventuras in my desk at home from that time. The logo hasn't changed in that time.

The river was higher then but the rocks (big rocks, lots of rocks) were pretty much still the same.

A little show of our trip is here.

20 angry men

A story from Honduras that slipped my mind.

The north coast of Honduras seems to be pretty active for tourism development leading to land speculation on many fronts. Driving from San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba we stopped at a small village, Barra Vieja, on the beach. A huge amount of fill had been brought in or moved around to form a raised area that earth moving equipment had flattened out. We learned later this would be some big hotel.

A few minutes away a row of thatched houses stretched down the beach. A few people sat under the sun shelter in the distance. We walked around a few of the huts, talked with folks hanging out.

































Back in the van we drove further into the village. Very suddenly a large group of men appeared from a village that previously was sleepy and empty. They made motions like they wanted us to stop which we didn't until one guy with a bicycle stood directly in front of us in the road. About twenty men surrounded the van when it stopped.

Things were pretty stressful for a while as we talked with them. One guy with watery eyes scanned the inside of the van while talking, trying to get a sense of who were were and what we had inside. They let us go after a few minutes and we turned around immediately. We left unscathed though scared.

The north coast is usually Garifuna people. This group was definitely not Garifuna. We think these guys were setting up houses to be able to claim ownership of the beach if it comes up for sale. Drug running is another very high possibility.

Sound link finally working

See previous post about Honduras night sounds.

Sustainable Tourism training in Honduras

This is the second sustainable tourism training I've helped with. The first was Guatemala in December. Course content flexes based on the communities, participants, location. This flexibility is important as little consistency exists from one training to another. Like I know after two trainings, right? These are only a few in a series though, beginning before I joined up.

The trainings teach business skills like market analysis and segmentation, budgets, product development, partnering. Also image creation and branding, design basics for materials like brochures, maps, posters, signs. This time podcasting and YouTube were introduced.

Podcasting could be a really easy way to get information to travelers or potential travelers. It is astounding the number of earbuds stuck in people's ears on planes and where tourists are found. Presumably people with enough money to travel also have iPods. They probably also use the Internet for much of their travel research. A complete set of podcasts with details of a destination would help travels decide where to go and might actually help them get around on the ground. They can download the podcasts and listen to them in country.

Would this lead to museum-like recorded descriptions guiding people around a city? How many podcasted zombies would there be walking around Tikal, Mombacho Volcano or Grenada, Nicaragua?

Honduras Night Sounds

Finally figured out how to get the audio online. Internet is spotty here at the Dodson compound. So, the audio follows after the jump.

The clip is around 6 minutes. I'm talking at the beginning and end a little bit. Working on my radio voice. If you listen closely the ocean comes through in the background.

Link to honduras sounds

Sounds of Honduras

We flew from Managua to Honduras early Sunday morning. That was my third day in a row waking around 3:30 or 4 AM. The first two nights the howler monkeys at Domitila were the cause. The third time was the taxi to the airport.

From San Pedro Sula we drove to La Ceiba, a place of good memories for my mother who did her Peace Corps time in Honduras. Unfortunately La Ceiba didn't impress me. A lot can change in 30 years. Maybe a bit more time would improve my perspective.

The drive to Balfate, further down the coast from La Ceiba, was quite nice with the ocean to the left and ~8000 foot mountains to the right. The coastal range is really quite beautiful with steep rocky rivers. Balfate is in the middle of no where. The road here is unpaved, dirt with memories of gravel and holes showing the way forward. The compound at the end of our ride is owned by a retired plastic surgeon from Mississippi. He is the host of the sustainable tourism training that brought us to Honduras.

The first night, after a long day of work preparing for the training I walked around the grounds with my field recorder. I'll upload the audio when I figure out how.

Life list boost

CAVEAT: All apologies due serious birders. I fully realize the following list will induce severe envy on their part. This envy can be resolved by visiting many of the places I will visit, including Domitila Private Wildlife Reserve.

David Davenport, EcoQuest Travel, brought a group of high school students from Raleigh, NC to Domitila while I was there. He kindly let me accompany he and his group on five hikes they took Friday and Saturday morning. As a result I saw and knew what I was looking at more than I otherwise would have.

Here is the list.

Birds:
Magpie Jay
Oropendula
Mangrove Cuckoo
Black Headed Trogan
Whiteheaded Puffbird
Brown Crested Flycatcher
Yellow Throated Vireo
Turquoise Motmot
Squirrel Cuckoo
Wild Muscovie
Tri-colored Heron
Barethroated Tiger Heron
Northern Potoo
Crested Caracara

Herps:
Yellow-headed Gecko
Mexican Parrot State
Banded Gecko

Mammals:
Prehensile Tail Porcupine
Four-eyed Opossum, Philander Opossum

Insects:
Tarantula
Tailless Whip Scorpian
Scorpian (specific type unknown)

Ticks

After the third hike of the day at Domitila Friday I swung in a relaxed way in a white hammock under the thatched roof common area. A few bugs flew around in the relative cool and shade while outside temperatures hung around 100 with a brilliant blue sky all around. I swiped a mosquito away from my forehead and returned to journaling. A few notes later the mosquito buzzed the same spot. Again I shooed it away. After the third swipe I registered the mosquito as a crawling thing that wasn't going away so easily.

A close look at my shirt and pants showed hundreds (yes, hundreds) of tiny ticks. Little red dots, smaller than the head of a pin swarmed around the cloth. I briefly entertained the idea of freaking out and running for the shower. Inwardly screaming I calmly walked to my room, stripped and turned on the shower. The vigorous soaping and rubbing made me feel much better, confident that I was clear.

The contaminated clothes are sealed in a plastic bag here in my room in Managua, sitting like a puffy bomb in the corner.

Lets say I never knew so well the freckles and birthmarks on my body as I do now.

Domitila Private Wildlife Reserve

Domitila is this -














and this -














and this -

I heard a gecko last night

Clucking in shadows and heat.

Going on walkabout

Spent a few minutes today planning visits around the country. This looks to be a chock-a-block kind of month. No complaints here. I'm looking very forward to having something (data) to look at.

The schedule is really quite intimidating. Before getting into it let me respond to Mark's comment: what exactly I'm doing here.

Several months ago, spring 2007 I think, I found an article about Domitila Private Nature Reserve. The article described this private land owner's goal of conserving her land and running tourism on it, specifically sustainable tourism. The idea that land necessary for biodiversity conservation can be preserved while also providing economic income is a basic tenet of sustainable tourism. Instead of extractive uses the land is visited, appreciated, conserved. That is the basic idea anyway.

Add to this the increasing importance of private lands for conservation purposes and the difficulty of government to protect important ecosystems and manage protected area systems and you get my study. How are private protected areas, in this case in Nicaragua, using sustainable tourism to conserve land?

I'll visit 5 private nature reserves over the next few weeks. Domitila is Thursday for a few days. A large group from North Carolina will be there. Together we'll walk the entire reserve. Very Exciting! Domitila has an agreement with Paso Pacifico, a local NGO to replant trees in their dry tropical forest.

Sunday we leave for Honduras for a week. There is a sustainable tourism training there. Upon return I'll spend a week north of Managua visiting El Jaguar and Finca Esperanza Verde. I'm told El Jaguar has an exclusive contract with Whole Foods for their organic cloud forest coffee.

From there it is back to Managua for an Earth Day celebration. Details yet to come. The next day, back to the field, this time flying to San Carlos near Costa Rica to catch a boat to Sabalos Lodge. This area is the vacation spot of choice for Nicaraguans and prime birding. Montibelli is the last place. I hung out with the owner's son today and in Guatemala in December. Pomares has a reputation for his bird guiding expertise. Meeting him you can see why, very charismatic, very knowledgeable.

Lots of work. Here's hoping it pays off.