Day 8: Everyone got up bright and early and

Everyone got up bright and early and went to the lake. Unfortunately, the water was not very clear. We spent the whole day exploring the Solentiname archipelago in the southern part of Lake Nicaragua by boat.

With the help of the gillnet and the fish nets, we were able to catch two species of shrimp that were new to us, two species of cichlid, one characin species and one Poeciliidae. Too bad, snorkelling wasn't very exciting. In the cloudy water of the lake, I was inadvertently reminded that Lake Nicaragua was home to 3 meter long bull sharks. On the other hand, the locals have practically wiped out the whole population.

This lake is really huge! It evokes memories of Lake Malawi or Lake Tanganyika. However, it is much younger geologically. As a result, its fauna isn't as special as that of the two African rift lakes.

Here are the current water parameters of Lake Nicaragua at the Solentiname archipelago: 28 °C, one GH of 4, KH of 4, 219 µS/cm conductivity, pH level of 8.48 and < 0.02 Fe.

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