Into The Wild

Last night, I slept in the jungle!

Brianne and I set our for El Chocoyero - El Brujo wildlife reserve just before nine yesterday morning, our bags packed with sweet bread, peanut butter and bananas. We'd read a little bit about the reserve and knew that once we got there, we'd be able to rent a tent for the evening. We were excited to see parakeets, monkeys and a waterfall!

The biggest challenge, it seemed, was getting there. We thought we'd be able to walk the 8 km from the highway, but a quick chat with Leo on Friday night (he used to do Jose's job) revealed that such a walk would be more than a little risky for a couple of gringas by themselves. We asked Jose to ask someone from the park meet us at 9:30, but he told the guy to meet us at 8:30. Luckily, he was still waiting when the World's Slowest Minibus dropped us off on the side of the highway at 10:30. We took a tuk-tuk to the park office and it became clear only a few minutes in that this was a very good idea. While we were thrilled to be seeing lush green countryside, fields of pineapples and the occasional dragonfruit plant, we also saw at least half a dozen people walking along the muddy path with machetes. We were glad to have the guide's company!

Once we arrived at the office, we had lunch (bean dip and tortillas) and started exploring the park. Chocoyero is home to a plethora of different plant and animal species, but it's most famous for its namesake, the chocoyo. There are apparently only two places in Nicaragua when you can see these brilliant green parakeets:  in Chocoyero reserve and around the craters on el Volcán Masaya. There are several hundred that live in little holes in a giant rock face next to Chocoyero waterfall, which provides drinking water for nearby communities. When we first went out hiking along the most difficult of the three trails, we couldn't see much of the birds until our guide pointed to some little green blobs; his binoculars revealed that there were in fact couples of little green birds in a lot of the holes. During the walk, he also pointed out a few other birds, a ton of butterflies, some cool lizards, a big squirrel and a toucan! Unfortunately, none of these things were willing to sit still enough or close enough to us to allow me to get a very good photo. The trees, however, were very photogenic.

We were really hoping to see monkeys while we were in the park, but we were told that they stay higher up during the winter. This didn't stop us from hearing them, though! When we went back out to the waterfall after a nice break in the camping area, we were more than a little creeped out by the distant whooping sounds of the howler monkeys. That being said, it made us feel like we were really in the jungle!

It was important to be back at the waterfall by four-thirty so that we could see the parakeets come home to roost for the evening. They arrived right on time! Again, they were too speedy for photos, but it was really neat to sit near the waterfall and watch all these bright green birds zip down to their own little birdie condominiums. Honestly, parakeets don't seem (to me) like birds that actually exist in the wild. Seeing them flying around reminded me a lot of the first time I saw a hedgehog in the wild; kind of like, "Wait, don't you live exclusively in pet shops?" Once all the birds had arrived, hidden perfectly in their little holes, it certainly sounded like a pet shop. A few hundred screeching parakeets can make a lot of noise!

After the second trip out to the waterfall, I'm really not sure what Brianne and I did other than talk. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of peanut butter, bananas and tortillas, which was kind of a big deal because I hadn't had peanut butter since I left home! (I've also eaten exactly one apple in the past six weeks, by the way.) Our tent had been set up for us while we were gone, but since it had no fly and it was going to rain that night, the park ranger set it up under a roof instead of in the camping area. We couldn't help but laugh when we saw it - they had even put foamies and sheets inside for us! It was quite the contrast from what we'd been expecting, but I also think it was the perfect middle ground - close to the jungle but not really in it; left to our own devices but within earshot of a park ranger. Still, we used one of my little backpack locks on the tent door because we couldn't decide if we were more scared of snakes, tigrillos, bugs or the park rangers themselves.

Still, despite chloroquine-induced dreams about being covered in bugs and the loudest rainstorm I've ever heard, we got some sleep and woke up at six, ready to go. We hiked out to the waterfall again and ate our breakfast in the company of more parakeets. We'd secretly hoped that our last two bananas would bring out some monkeys (apparently they'll mug you for your bananas!) but no dice. The trail felt even more Jungle Book-y this morning, though. Everything was especially green and shiny because of the recent rain, the path was muddy and a beautiful mist hung in the air over everything. Looking out at some parts of the forest, I really expected to see monkeys or ocelots or something crazy coming out of them. Alas, we were left with lizards and butterflies, which were still pretty special.

When we were ready to leave, we ran into a few communication difficulties and a very brief moment of panic; the road was very muddy and it seemed unlikely that a tuk-tuk would make it all the way to the office. (We realized then what the driver meant on Saturday when he asked if it was one-way or not.) After a lot of, "No entendemos...¿Otra vez?" we finally got the point across that we'd walk the eight kilometres, just not on our own. The lady kindly sent a 14-year-old muchachito with us to keep the bad guys away, and we ran into a tuk-tuk after only 45 minutes of trudging through the muck. Once up at the highway, we bought two giant pineapples and stood to wait for a minibus, marvelling at our good fortune. The weekend was such a success that when John slept through the doorbell and we had to wait outside the house in the scorching sun for two hours, we weren't even that upset. (It's amazing, actually, that we managed to kill those two hours just sitting there. I'm finally getting the hang of it!)

Brianne just booked her trip home for this Friday and while I'll be sad to see her go, I'm really glad we chose this trip for her last weekend. I think that camping in general is always a nice way to escape and remember to appreciate different things in life - amazing things like waterfalls and jungles, but also simple things like peanut butter sandwiches and friendship.