Ometempe Island, Nicaragua

The island is in Lake Nicaragua, the 9th largest lake in the Americas.  The island was formed by two volcanoes which are linked by a piece of land.  There are a few stretches of beach, with dark volcanic sand and rock dominating the shorelines.  Although the water is warm, to my eyes it does not look inviting because of the suspended silt, which gives the water an angry cast.  the sheer size of the lake and the gentle slope leading up to the island means the waves can be quite impressive.  When I leave the island I will try to remember to take a few pictures of the wind farm on the west edge of the lake.
One of the differences between the wind farms in Alberta Canada and here, is the wind is never cold.

The vegetation change with altitude on the sides of the volcano.  As you can see in the above photo, the top is usually shrouded by cloud.  My lack of fitness prevented me from climbing all the way up, but I did get a few pictures of the stuff along the trail.   A few delicate flowers, which were only seen at the start of the trail.

The trio of small flowers were about the size of strawberry blossoms, and the single in the close up was roughly the diameter of a dime.

The thorns in the picture were slightly shorter than my thumb.  That makes the insects ( I am unsure if they are ants or termites ) truly tiny.

I did not adjust the exposure in the top picture, so the Howler Monkeys are dark silhouettes  against the morning sky.  The lower picture shows them better.  There are 6 of them in the top picture, though they do not all show.

For all of you coffee addicts out there, this is what an organic coffee plantation looks like.  At this point, the beans were harvested about a month ago, and it is still months to go until they bloom again.
As we climbed the slope of the volcano it became both cooler and more humid.  According to the guys who made it all the way to the top, it was a wet muddy mess at the top with a misty view of the lake in the caldera.  Over half of the climbers to the top had slid in the mud at least once and I am glad I did not try to get far enough up slope that the footing became slippery.    The view of the lake through the trees was very nice, and the pictures did not do it justice, so I will not post those.

One last shot, the Capuchin Monkeys that cluster close to the road for feeding time.  The pic is a little fuzzy, but the bump on the back of one of them is her baby.

Comparing

Comparing the tourist side and local side of Granada. 
Tourist first.

And one of the cross streets. Leading away from the tourist zone.

And the local market streets.

The top one is the side street.  Truly crowded with people and only foot or bicycle traffic seen.  The next is a main street (one way), with lots of vehicle traffic including buses.

There is a bow wave of pedestrians getting out of the way followed by a vacuum as it passes.  And no one on that bus looked comfortable.  Even the driver with a fan pointing at him looked sweaty and irritated.

Granada Pictures

Established and registered with the Spanish crown in 1524, Granada claims it is the oldest European settlement on the American continent.  Situated on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, it is both warm and humid.  The city is a nice size, and the tourist area is clean and the locals are very friendly.

As is common in the construction of the area, courtyards are a feature of almost every building.  I ate in a restaurant where four different cafes shared the same courtyard, allowing all the customers to mingle and enjoy the calm setting.

The main square is full of small vendors waiting to do business, and has a plentitude of benches and shade trees.

The cobblestone streets make for a quaint and old world look, but I suspect they are labour intensive to maintain and not the best for traffic.  Many of the streets have been upgraded to either interlocking brick or paved.

More pictures later.

Old and New

Going through both Antigua and Managua in one day lead to thoughts of the difference between the old and the new.
In most areas of North America and Western Europe, architecture has altered and changed as the society around it has changed.  Not only did it change to suit the needs of the world around it, but the society around it also allowed those changes to be made.  There are large portions of the world where homes are designed as much to safeguard as to live in, an it seems the lower the income of the area, the more important it is to be able safeguard the few things you have.  The building design of Antigua and Granada both speak to me of times when the rule of law was very thin.  The walls of the houses, the public face as it were are bleak and have little ostentation.  The face they present totally mask the inside, as much as the trunk of a car masks the contents.  There are more than a few places where the detail on the outside hints at if not wealth, at least pride in appearance, but it is when the doors are opened that the true spirit is revealed.  All of the places I have entered have had a courtyard in the middle, a calm and quiet refuge from the noise and business of the world beyond the front wall.
The contrast between that of the old and the new as typified by Managua is strong.  the newer places echo that of the USA and yet instead of each house having it's own private wall, there are now gated communities banding together to give security. 
Any of the places in towns where there has been a compromise between the old secure style and either cheaper or more modern design it appears the security lost.  And it followed in my feelings of insecurity and disconnection with those areas.
As difficult as it is to warm to a neighbourhood where the houses all present a blank plastered cement wall to the public, it is much colder to see one where the dominant feature is barb wire, steel and bars.
At this point I have not searched to find information to see if there is a difference in crime figures between the various places, but it is an idea that does spring up, both if there is a difference in the crime rate, and the type of crime between say Granada and Managua.  It truly makes me wonder if too much has been lost in imitating the 'modern'  and losing touch with what may have been a more effective system from the past.
One of the rules from modern security is to not just lock up you valuables but to hide them.  Casual thieves do not steal what they cannot see, and the blank wall very effectively hides all.
Poverty also plays a large role in what I see traveling through, for it is not cheap to build a place that is truly secure, but it could be a part of the cycle, for it is hard to accumulate wealth without security.