479 - Playa Peru
Oh Playa Peru, how are you?
Today’s adventure was a continuation of our Ometepe island expedition. Except instead of light and airy butterflies, today’s adventure involved cows so fat they could feed all of Timbuktu.
But we didn’t get to meet those beef cakes without a little adventure. Our journey started at Playa Peru, the number two best rated beach campground on Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. (Number one rated things are inherently suspicious to me.)
The place was the real deal. A literal island paradise complete with swaying palm trees, a suspicious rope swing, and a full tiki bar. And did I mention we had a front row view of a volcano?
But that was all to be saved for sunset. We had a more prominent mission on our hands until then: to kayak through Rio Istian- a narrow waterway home to tropical birds, alligators, and water plants.
On paper, it looked easy. A quick in-n-out burger, as I like to say. I didn’t even bring my camera. But after about ten minutes, I realized that I severely underestimated how strong of a kayaker I was. I thought all this crutching around the past month would have gotten me jacked but apparently it didn’t do shit.
To set the tone for you, we had to kayak upwind about a mile to even get to the river. Even for two of us, it was a workout for the ages.
After what felt like an millennium, we finally arrived at the infamous river. We paddled upstream and kept our eyes peeled. Dragonfly territory was upon us.
It quickly became one of those situations where I wanted to see an alligator, but I also didn’t. Do those things flip kayaks? Probably not, I told myself.
The river began to get narrower and narrower. We went around a corner and all of a sudden there were 3 locals fishing with literal sticks, watching us. Was this real life? I thought that only happened in books. I half expected them to shoot us with poison darts.
Is that racist? I don’t know.
After about 20 more minutes of quirky birds, algae, and near stagnant water, the river became too dense with vegetation to continue. So we rolled up to a muddy bank, said hi to the local cow population, and pulled out some ham sammies.
The cows watched us eat, suspicious if it was beef or not. I suppose they’d never find out.
A few hours later we arrived back at our beach camp (sunburnt as a smoked tomato I might add,) completely and utterly exhausted. I hadn’t expected that mini adventure to turn into a full fledged expedition…
My camera was waiting for me back in the van, angry it hadn’t come along. Oh well… Some things in life are simply reserved for the memory bank. Then I wondered: how many great moments have I had in my life that I’ll simply never remember because I didn’t photograph them?
I suppose that's a good thing every once in a while. Knowing you’ve had some amazing experiences you’ll simply never think about again was oddly comforting.
Either way, it was time for sunset, and my camera was getting even more impatient with me. The light was starting to look like it was going to be good. Real good.
I loaded up my tripod and ran over to the beach tree swing like a kid at recess. Or should I say hobbled quickly? That doesn’t sound nearly as exciting.
It felt like a time for cutesy Instagram photos, even though I hadn’t posted on the app in months. For old times sake. Plus, what the fuck else am I going to do with swing? Haley and I sat on the wobbly chairs as I set my camera set on time lapse mode, capturing dozens of shots of us to pick from. Here was my favorite:
“Sunset Lovers”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 1000 ~ 18mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/250s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
It’s harder than you think to swing with a foot cast on. But I made do- for the ‘gram.
Now that that shot was taken care of, it was time for the big guns…. I wanted a wallpaper foreground + background shot. I spent a couple minutes wandering up and down the shoreline as the light got better and better, even traversing into the neighbor’s property (with their permission,) to find a foreground. But there was nothing interesting to me.
Then I had a weird thought. Why do foregrounds always have to be on the bottom of the frame? I looked up at the monstrous tree looming over my head. What if…
I clicked on my 17-28mm lens and aimed up:
“Overlookers”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8
[ISO 125 ~ 17mm ~ f/11 ~ 1/80s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I suppose ideas like this only come when you’ve done the status quo (in this case the foreground, background shot) so many times you’re forced to innovate to maintain your sanity.
So if you weren’t able to pick up the lesson there, keep shooting one shot style until you’re so goddamned bored of it you’re forced to be original.
That last shot’s edit was also super fun, I should add. Balancing how much the tree branches were exposed versus blacked out was an interesting challenge. I wanted them to be just detailed enough to be noticeable, but just blacked out enough to keep the attention on the volcano. All about that balance.
ALRIGHT. That’s today’s shoot. An innovative moment after an exhausting kayak ride.
In the next adventure we find every single backpacker in Nicaragua. Every. Single. One of them.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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