This is our second day of riding next to Central America's largest lake…Lake Nicaragua. Her vast liquid scape is an important source of fresh water for all Nicaraguans. Lake Nicaragua, complete with a couple of stunning volcanoes, emerging from her waters has been majestically hugging our left hand since leaving Granada. Her windy, wave lapped shores appear in sight from time to time as we ride towards the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border. Interestingly enough, this area will dramatically change over the next five years and I am unsure of the future environmental impacts that it will have on this grand lake, and the Nicaraguans. A canal project similar to the Panama Canal, has been in planning, in-fact it has been a topic of discussion over hundreds of years! This massive proposed canal would link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via Lake Nicaragua. It was said that the canal would enable Nicaragua to become one of the wealthiest countries in Central America! Recently, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega along with Chinese billionaire Wang Jing, the sole owner of the Hong Kong based company HKND Group, signed the finance and construction agreement for the canal. The 40 billion dollar project is reported to begin in December 2014 and be completed in 2019 some time. The proposed route would stretch 278km, 173 miles from Punta Gorda, located on the Caribbean side of Nicaragua, through Lake Nicaragua to the mouth of the river Brito on the Pacific side of the country. Engineers from HKND reported that the canal project would be between 230 meters and 520 meters wide and 27.6 meters deep, more than two thirds larger than the Panama Canal. This project definitely makes for very interesting reading, and much speculation…I am just glad that I had the opportunity to hug her vast virgin shore line for a couple of days!
Nicaragua's wind machines were all impressively working. Their towering, sleek, aerodynamic columns, dominated the scape and their mighty blades rotated with force and dominance through the air. Huge shadows were cast across the road ahead of us, and at times the light and shadow fluctuations were almost strobe like. It was a very commanding section of road, all the way to the border.
The wind machines face Lake Nicaragua, only 50 feet away.
Their massive arms crated huge shadows that swept across the road and countryside...at times it was hypnotic.
Two hours dealing with Customs, Aduana, photo coping and transport, was efficient and pretty darn uneventful. The paperwork leaving Nicaragua was all confined within the buildings surrounding a parking lot. Now that we were entering Costa Rica it was essential for us to be baptized. Mother Nature blessed us with a torrential downpour and welcomed us over the border!
Completely soaked through once again! Excited and ready to experience Costa Rica.