Nicaragua
So the big climb was scheduled for the following day, Sunday. My husband and I had all Saturday for ourselves and spent it exploring the island.
We began with a pool called Ojo de Agua or Eye of water. It is a natural spring pool filled with water from an underground river that comes from volcano Maderas. It is actually two pools, one is bigger and the other is smaller, excellent for splashing in cool, crystal clear water.
After swimming in the pools, we went to Playa Santa Domingo on Lake Nicaragua. It is a fresh-water lake; however it is inhabited by bull sharks that can be up to 11 feet in length. Initially, scientists thought that these sharks are a unique species since the lake is landlocked. They tagged the sharks that eventually were found in the Caribbean. This proved that the sharks could travel the nearly 120-mile journey up the San Juan River and they were not unique.
The lake is so big that it looks and sounds like the sea. Water on the beach was shallow; we had to walk quite a distance from the shore before it was deep enough to dip into it. Luckily, we did not see any sharks, only birds and horses.
An idea of building a canal across Nicaragua first appeared in the 19th century. The route would run up the San Juan River and connect the Atlantic and the Pacific. The Unites States took this idea seriously and in 1887, the US Army Corps of Engineers surveyed potential canal sites. The canal through Nicaragua would be longer than the Panama Canal but its construction would be easier. Later, the US abandoned this idea and instead, bought the Panama Canal from the French, finished building it and ran the canal until 1999 when the ownership was transferred to Panama.
The same idea resurfaced in the 21st century when a Chinese businessman, Wang Jing proposed to finance the project. The Panama Canal, despite its recent reconstruction, was not wide enough for modern supertankers and cruise ships. The project was a private enterprise approved by the Nicaraguan government in June 2013 with much fanfare despite environmental concerns. The operation of the canal was meant to help the impoverished nation. It’s hard to understand how because the State of Nicaragua would have only 1% of the shares.
The canal construction officially began on December 22, 2014 by building a 13-km stretch of a road. “It was the first time that the announced works became concrete and it would be the last time that Chinese businessman Wang Jing was seen in public.” https://todaynicaragua.com/is-the-gran-canal-de-nicaragua-dead-in-the-water/. No work was done since then.
Six years later, in September 2019, the Grand Canal project concession expired. The project became a spectacular failure.
We also went to the ecological reserve Charco Verde. It is a nice natural park between the two volcanoes with lots of birds and monkeys.
Although we were busy from morning till evening with various activities the leitmotif of the day was tomorrow’s climb. All day long, my husband’s gaze was fixed on the volcano. His head was turned toward it like a sunflower that always looks at the sun. He photographed Concepción from every possible angle.
The weather was excellent with clear skies. However, a small cloud was stuck to the summit that might have made impossible viewing the island from there. My husband kept musing about the weather next day if it would turn bad and if he had missed his chance to climb Concepción that day.
On the way back to the American hotel, we met a man from Denmark who said that he climbed Concepción to the midpoint only because it was too tough. The man was in his 30s; he served in Special Forces and looked fit. His story added to my anxiety and once again, I thought that perhaps I would regret what I signed up for.