October 2007 - The plan…..to backpack Nicaragua. I found Nicaragua to be an amazing country, full of helpful and generous people. Hightlights were; the island of Ometepe, the ecolodge at Morgan's Rock and Don Jorge! On Ometepe we met Don Jorge, a wonderful 60 year old Nicaraguan, educated at Cambridge in sustainable agriculture. Don Jorge was as peaceful as Gandhi and graced with the heart of a true lover of living things. He was caring for over 40 homeless dogs (in addition to numerous pigs, goats, sheep etc) who were living on the beach and under palms. Every day Don Jorge would walk the beach with a bit of food for each. The dogs would come running....wish joy to see Don Jorge and his meager amount of food. After meeting Don Jorge and the dogs I realized these dogs were not homeless at all, they were a family on a beautiful island! I fell in love with a particular dog, Nico. He was not the most handsome dog and his back leg was broken and infected, but he had a kind heart. Nico was quickly invited into my lake side cabin, where I made him a bed and fed him every night. Don Jorge provided some antiseptic and I did my best to clean up the wounded leg. I keep in touch with Don Jorge after leaving Ometepe and later (2years) found out Nico had died, but had had a happy life with Jorge!
