Category: Travel

Fortress of the Immaculate Conception

The Río San Juan was once critical to the entire region, the river was the main route of access to the entire country. Wide and navigable the river allowed hundreds of miles of thick tropical jungle to be easily transited. People and cargoes could be shipped from the Caribbean to the enormous Lake Nicaragua and the rich farmlands of central Nicaragua. Together the river and lake offered an easy crossing of the isthmus, allowing passengers and cargo to pass between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. At the northern end of Lake Nicaragua is Grenada, this old colonial city was the crown jewel of the region, where the treasures of the New World were amassed before shipment to Spain.

El Castillo
The old Spanish fort looming above the town of El Castillo, Nicaragua
Defense of this critical river link proved to be necessary in the tumultuous history of the region. On several occasions pirate forces passed this way to loot and burn Grenada. In response to these incursions the Spanish selected a site on a high bluff and overlooking a significant set of rapids on the river as the ideal site for a defensive fortification. A large stone fort was built here, completed in 1675, becoming the lynch-pin for defending this critical access route to the interior of Nicaragua.

Somehow the name Fortress of the Immaculate Conception just does not bring to mind any form of military installation. Despite the name, this fortress is an impressive fortification, easily equivalent to the best contemporary fortifications elsewhere, quite a surprise as the location is and was quite remote. Most photographs fail to convey this, much of the fortress walls are concealed by a surrounding ditch making it difficult to appreciate the fortress without a visit in person. Setting the walls low like this was an important feature of fortifications built during the age of cannon, making the walls a difficult target for attacking gunners. The defenses are well laid out, clearly the work of an experienced military architect. The bastions are properly angled to deflect incoming artillery rounds, gun-ports are positioned to sweep the walls of attacking infantry. Taking this position from prepared defenders would be a difficult proposition indeed.

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Leaves

Leaves
Autumn colors in fallen leaves on a Portland street
There is something going on in Portland… For some reason the leaves on many of the trees are turning yellow or red and dropping from the trees. Fallen leaves litter the streets and lawns of the cities neighborhoods. Some trees already appear to be dead, skeletal and leafless.

Local residents seem to take little notice of this ongoing environmental disaster, going about their business. They even stop and take photos of the fallen leaves. The effect is admittedly quite pretty, with striking colors.

Walking a Market

Traveling Central America offers a wide range of photographic opportunities, but few offer the concentrated view of local culture that is offered by a city market. A real market is something that has been lost in the US, long ago pushed aside by supermarkets and shopping malls. A central location, filled with small shops or simply stalls, where one can buy everything they need. These markets still exist in much of the world.

Vegetable Seller
A vegetable seller poses with her merchandise

A market brings everything together in one place, the very character of the country. The people of the region, produce and tropical fruits, the goods and services of everyday life. You can spend hours in a few city blocks, wandering and shooting, a good photo around every corner and down every dim alleyway between the stalls. From vegetable stalls to cobblers and barbers plying their trades, cell phone accessories and racks of colorful shoes, everything is on sale here.

Markets are public spaces, a place where people take little notice of the camera and seldom object to being photographed, where your wanderings will draw little attention, except perhaps from peddlers hoping to make a sale.

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Nicaragua

Yes, Darker View has been a bit quiet lately. I have been not only off-island but out of the country for the last couple weeks. I flew to Portland to join my parents on a trip to Nicaragua.

Campesino
A Nicaraguan farmer leaning against the wall of his home in Tierra Amarilla
We spent ten days in Nicaragua, the first part of the trip helping out with El Porvenir, an NGO that does water and sanitation work with rural farming communities. The last part of the trip was spent playing tourist, traveling the Rio San Juan on the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The trip allowed me to spent a good deal of time with my parents, do more than a little photography, and visit a beautiful country.

Back at home and back online, I have a series of posts in the works to record my experiences. The trip was extraordinarily memorable, with interesting stories to share. Along the way I did a lot of photography, thus I have gigabytes of material that needs to be sorted through. The best of this will appear here on DV as I have a chance to process it. My hope is that I can preserve a bit of the experience here in blog form. Not only for you to read, but as a record that I can read many years from now to remember this wonderful trip.