In late March the assistant director and I took a group of six high school students to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua for a visa run. We were there for about three days.
San Juan del Sur at sunset. You can see a statue on the hill on the right. That is Jesus, and he will be featured later.
The view north of San Juan del Sur from the top of the hill with the Jesus statue. It was hot.
This is Jesus, up close. He is made out of fiber glass and is the result of a Nicaraguan man who survived prostate cancer and wanted to give back.
Miravalles
In early April I went with the 7th and 8th graders on their field trip. We went to a wind farm in Miravalles.
The approach. I think they look like gentle gaurdians. I love them.
Drivin' by.
We got to go into the control room. This is a map the entire farm. I think I remember that they have 57 windmills and can produce 50,000KW of energy. That day there were only putting out 39,000KW because of wind velocity and five wind mills out of service.
It seems like everything there was labeled with worker names.
Everything.
The bases are painted green to lower the visual impact the windmills have on the environment. So far there have been no other complaints since the plant opened for full operation in December 2010, except one woman who complained about the noise that they make. Each windmill at full capacity makes less than 80 decibels, which is the limit for harmful noise levels, so the plant did not have to change anything. The stairs in the picture lead into the base of the windmill which you can climb up into for maintenance.
Miravalles Volcanoe as seen from the bus on our way to the Miravalles Geothermal plant.
Us at the geothermal plant.
Control room.
The turbines. We had to wear hard hats and ear plugs in this room.
This turbine was out of its casing and set off to the side. When I first thought of turbines, I pictured fans. It did not occur to me that they would be so detailed. Of course now, it seems obvious.
Giant gears.
Keeping the turbines clean.
Water cooling station. The water falls towards the center of the room because of the force of the cooling fans above it.
Leaving the geothermal station, Miravalles Volcano, source of the energy, in the background.
Our hardhats, awaiting their next tour.
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