Nicaragua: Know how to run free

I hadn't been fishing in quite some time.

I don't even remember the last time. I don't even eat fish anymore, which is why some of you may be surprised when I tell you I went fishing recently. So what if I didn't catch anything; my casting skills were still impeccable. This all happened on the archipelago called "Solentiname," in the southeastern side of Lake Nicaragua. It was there I found a tropical oasis complete with incredible plant species, a crazy variety of birds, fascinating political and religious history, and interesting artwork.

Even after being in Nicaragua for two years, there are still places within this country where I have not been. I'm taking advantage of the time I have during these last few months to see those places (In addition to wrapping up my work. My work has not finished yet.) The region of Río San Juan was one where I had yet to visit, so I recently decided to go down and check out the hype.

36 islands comprise the archipelago of Solentiname, but only four of the larger ones are inhabited. One reaches the islands by taking a boat from the mainland--the slow kind takes three hours and the fast kind about an hour and a half. The approximately 1000 people who live scattered across the islands make a living on fishing, selling artwork, and increasingly on tourism.

Historically speaking, Solentiname is rich. These islands are where liberation theology--essentially a combination of Catholicism and revolutionary socialism--was born during the 1970s, a time of great political strife in Nicaragua's history. It was Ernesto Cardenal, a Nicaraguan priest and poet, who established a religious community of poor farmers on Solentiname in the late 1960s. This is their church:

The front of the altar inside the church.

The walls are covered in art that looks like it belongs in a preschool classroom.

View from the altar, looking into the church.

Around the same time, Cardenal invited Roger Perez de la Rocha, an artist from Managua, to visit the islands and teach painting techniques to the locals. Their artistic inclination gave rise and many islanders began to paint scenes of everyday life on Solentiname. Their work is characterized by bright colors and often features textured flowers and leaves, lots of birds and other animals found on the islands, and sometimes religious scenes. They also carve fish, birds, and other animals out of balsa wood and paint them with the same bright colors. Here is a glimpse into one of the galleries where they sell their work:

Scattered among their handiwork, I found something strangely familiar: hand-carved and painted fish earrings.

Grandpa Ray's earrings are better, simply because he made them. However, these come in at a close second.

Living on these islands may be the epitome of isolation. The slower (and cheaper) boats travel to the mainland twice a week, and those are the days when people go to town to buy and sell. Avocadoes are not quite in season yet, but apparently Solentiname has the biggest and the best ones in the country. Fresh produce is so abundant here that, when I picked an orange from a lady's tree and asked her how much I could pay for it, she said, "Just take it."  

Solentiname: A tropical treasure and truly fascinating place.