Flying back home from Costa Rica. Right now, we are over Nicaraguan territory. Directly below us – if you see the picture below – is an island. If you carefully notice, it is actually a volcano – Volcan Maderas is the local name. The waterbody around it that you can see is Lake Nicaragua (Lago Cocibolca is the local name). If you carefully follow the volcano contours, you can see the crater – unfortunately, from my angle, it is somewhat covered by a cloud. In any case, the crater is filled with water and is a lake itself. If you zoom that area, you will see a dark shaded area around the light shaded cloud shadow. I do not know the name of that lake. But that lake is a “recursive” lake.

It is a lake in an island which is in a lake!!

For the math geeks – the longest recursion is in the Philippines. Imagine what you are seeing here… just that there is a small island within the crater. And remember, the Philippines is an archipelago. So, you have an island in a lake in an island in a lake in an island!!

For the non-math geeks, understanding recursion is easy. First you understand recursion, then the rest is easy!!

The hotel property had a lot of flowers. Many of them I recognized as flowers that I grew up with in India. In fact, they were there all in our house itself. I guess these thrive in tropical climates. My Bengali friends will recognize “rongon”, “korobi”, “kaathgolap”, “purish” in the picture.

It was 2013 November. The two Roy families from Dallas and Atlanta had landed in Liberia airport for the first time. As we stepped out, one of the first things that caught our eyes were the humongous fans in the ceiling. Upon closer inspection, we found out that they were called Big Ass fans! I did not know then, but later realized that it is an American company based in Lexington, KY. The original CEO used to carry a business card that said Chief Big Ass! The name created some controversy too in its barely twenty years of existence. As an example, postmasters in my state Georgia refused to deliver their letters citing obscenity!!

Adreesh, Aneesh, Natasha, Nikita, do you remember those fans? Today I collected a few more pictures of them!

First time seeing a porcupine in the wild! We were busy having dinner when this stranger showed up. None of us could recognize it till the server told us that it was an African porcupine. It was about two feet long without the tail. It got on to the scaffoldings under the roof and just nestled itself there for the rest of the evening.

That is a spectacular view

From Villa Caletas. The resort is at a height of 1320 feet. To put this in perspective, Atlanta is at about 1050 feet. That was a sheer drop. We could see the macaws gliding by in pairs. Unfortunately, I did not have my DSLR with me this time. Could not catch any of them from such a distance with my iPhone. Saw a couple of hummingbirds flit by very near to us.