Hurricanes and tropical storms

     I don't wish bad weather on any locality, and tropical storm Joaquin's hitting the east coast right now with predictions that the storm will become a hurricane.  Richmond, VA's in line to get a lot of the rain and wind and other places to get much worse.
    But when these things happen I'm still surprised that most people assume that Nicaragua is constantly hit by these same hurricanes and tropical storms when in fact those things hit Nicaragua far less than they hit the eastern coast of the United States. 
     Yeah, I know. That was a surprise to me too. See an early post on this same thing:  http://falsebluff.blogspot.com/2011/07/hurricanes-and-monkeys.html
     This sort of bad weather stuff always hits the Caribbean, right? Wrong, and since tracking storm activity in the Caribbean I've wondered, without doing any research, why bad storms so seldom hit Nicaragua.
     Granted, when they hit there they hit hard, like Joan in the '80s. But I think that when a new storm forms it runs into something caused by the land masses of the eastern-most Caribbean islands...and gets swept up toward the eastern U.S.
     After looking at decades of Caribbean storm patterns (most avalable on NHC/NOAA), the pattern's pretty consistent. Whether it's a tropical storm or a hurricane, most of this weather seems to start in the Atlantic and then bounce up and off the Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic, Cuba...to smash into Florida, Louisiana, and the east coast going ever north depending on how strong it is.
      I have no idea why that's the pattern of most storms over the past decades, but for Nicaragua's sake I'm glad there's one less bad thing the country has to deal with...the place gets overlooked in a lot of ways like this little map below that doesn't even show where Nicaragua is!

Green and Brown

     I don't even remember who brought this event to everyone's attention.  Even after it was pointed out it was difficult to see until you got very close.  Looks like green wins.  

Little closer from a better angle.

Brown Basilisk Lizard

     Around the head of the canal there are bunches of Brown Basilisk Lizards.  There are usually two on the wooden canal gate for the boat parking.  They seem to love the lumber stacks and wherever you pile up all the cut coconut fronds.  They are also able to run on water with their big back feet.

Green Vine Snake

     Bright green and still hard to see.  Even when you are right up on this one they blend very well with vegetation.  This is called the Green Vine Snake.  Per Wiki they do not have venom but do have toxic saliva that is "fast acting on small animals but has little or no effect on humans".  Instead of trying to see if Wiki is right or not I'll just stick to my rule of, look but don't touch the wildlife.

Missing Sunrise?

   
     Put up a few nice pics of east coats sunrises a couple posts ago.  Just wanted to show a beautiful day without a sunrise.  In the early mornings near the beach it actually gets shivering cold outside.  During our first camping trip to False Bluff we stayed in hammocks next to the beach.  Figure we're going to be in tropical jungle so I didn't bring anything warm.  Ended up sleeping with long sleeves and a double pair of socks on, but still would wake up around 4am shivering and start a fire.
     The temperature usually rises about as quickly as the sun, but every now and then you will get a nice cool foggy morning like below.

Swamp Lilies in Bloom

     Landscaping can be tricky so close to the salt water.  Even further back from the Caribbean the salt air kills a lot of plants.  Luckily we found the swamp lily.  It blooms pretty much all year long.  It is easy to dig up and divide.  It puts off huge bulbs that look similar to onions and they root very easily.  Probably one of the top native landscaping plants out on the Bluff.

Sunrises or Sunsets?

     Which is better, watching a sunrise or a sunset?  The left siders get the sunsets but we right siders get the sun rises.  It's always nice to start a day with a good sunrise when the Caribbean is flat and glassy.  It's a good way to mark the start of each day.  Hopefully good starts make for good days.

Seasonal - White Flowers

     Yep, not the most informative title.  Not sure what this ground cover is called but when in bloom it makes quite an attractive lawn.

Seasonal - Butterfly Swarm

     One of the strangest seasonal migrations out on the bluff are the butterflies.  For about a week there is a steady trickle of black butterflies heading south.  Seem to be higher numbers in the morning and evening hours but all day long they are flying by.  They follow along the beach or close to it.  Didn't see any over on the lagoon side of the bluff.  For a few days its just a stream of butterflies.

Cutting the Line In

     It was quite an effort to get the power line cut in, especially considering it was done by hand tools.  Everyday the crew would have to walk all the way back to where they stopped cutting the day before.  A lot of the cutting was done in standing water.  Not even sure how they got over the estuaries.   Even from the air you can only see a couple miles of the whole 30 mile project.

Farm Friends

     Its always nice to make new friends.  This little chick was quite spoiled and preferred to spend the days begging food from people instead of foraging with the other chickens.  In the evenings it would roost on someone's shoulder.  Once it fell asleep we would put it up on a high shelf so it was safe.

How can you say no to that face?

Farm Food

     Do we really need electricity?  Figured it would be decades before power lines were out on the Bluff so everyone had just gotten along without it.  Who knew running a line through some very tough jungle would be the easiest way to connect BLU to the rest of the country.  Is it worth hooking up to now?  Maybe a post on that one day.

     So one of the most frequently asked questions is how do we store and cook food?  A lot of the fruits and vegetables are fresh off the farm.  Since we front on the Caribbean and back up to a lagoon seafood is easy enough to gather.   Before leaving town we usually stock up with some canned goods and dry goods.  These supplies are usually more than enough to make some nice meals in between boat trips.  A nice glass of ice water does hit the spot though.

Bug Power - Leaf Cutter Ants

     Like a massive interstate highway these leaf cutter ants are non-stop carrying vegetation snippets back to their colony.  For a couple years we have had to step over this ant highway so I finally snapped some pictures.  Not sure how long they have been there but with this constant level of labor the colony is probably quite large.  Its worth a couple minutes to just stop and watch the flow.

Noni Fruit

     The Noni Fruit, scientifically known as Morinda Citrifolia but more aptly nicknamed the Pig Apple.  The juice from this green brainy looking fruit sells for a pretty steep price in the USA.  Out of all the "Superfoods" it's always near the top of the lists.  Based on a quick scan of the internet this fruit does everything and hardly nothing, which seems to be the case with all "Superfoods".

   One thing this fruit does do is stink.  The more it ripens the stinkier it gets.  Supposedly to make medicine from Noni Fruits you pick ripe ones off the ground, put them in a glass jar, let them liquefy for a week in the sunshine, and then drink the juice.  Noni seems to grow pretty much anywhere, including the beach within 20 paces of the hi-tide line.

Bug Power - Termites

     Seems like in the jungle there is a termite nest every hundred steps.  With vegetation growing all year long these colonies have the important task of keeping the cycle of life up to speed by devouring dead wood.  They will also eat up any untreated wooden construction that stays in contact with the ground so plan accordingly.  Termites and their nests have all sorts of uses, including fishing (previous post).

Old Boats

     There are two ways to get to Bluefields, by plane or by boat.  There aren't many planes but there are a lot of boats.  As the old saying goes, the two best days when you own a boat is the day you buy it and the day you sell it.  Luckily getting back and forth from BLU to False Bluff doesn't require a huge boat or the problems that come with them.

     The below boat used to be a catamaran.  Seems that Cayman Rocca isn't the only sea mount along the bluff.

The South End

     It's quite nice to walk out your front door and have miles of empty beach.  But how long of a beach stroll would it take to reach civilization from False Bluff?  Heading north would be quite a hike, 18 miles to reach the entrance to Pearl Lagoon.  Heading south is a bit easier with an 8 mile walk to the town of El Bluff at the head of Bluefields Bay.

     At the very end you reach the reason why El Bluff got its name.  A huge chunk of beautiful red clay sitting on black volcanic rock.  Could even be called a cliff, but who would name a town El Cliff?