Playing Catchup!

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Hello all...its been a while! I have been so busy for the last...well however long it was since my last blog. A lot has happened since then...for example, we are now on a new continent!

I shall start where we left off, heading for Ometepe Island in Nicaragua - please excuse me for not going into massive detail on every point, you would be reading a novel rather than a blog otherwise!

So... Ometepe is a Beautiful Island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (which is 188km long and 80km wide!) which consists of 2 volcanoes covered in jungle and not a lot more - a couple of towns and fincas is all you get!

We got the ferry across the lake (1hr) which was just enough time for Sarah to develop seasickness for the first time in her life! This was very promising considering that in a couple of weeks we were to embark on a 5 day open ocean crossing to Colombia!!!

After yet another taxi driver tried to rip us off by telling us there were no busses on the Island (even though the bus was waiting directly behind him - a 40ft old American Schoolbus) we proceeded to hop on the bus and take the ride to the town closest to Santa Domingo where we were to meet a couple of friends we had left a while back in Honduras. We got off and found out we had missed the connecting bus by 2 minutes and it was the last of the day... fortunately, a half blind old man picked us up in his truck and for a dollar each took Sarah, Andries and myself the rest of the way.

We checked into a pretty awful hostel and waited for our friends to arrive. During this time, Sarah somehow managed to find yet another jewellery stall on the beach selling exactly the same stuff as every other stall in Central America!

We met our friends and decided to go for a swim in the lake... unfortunately, nobody had told us about the plague of flies that descends on Ometepe at lake level in the afternoon - the lake itself looked like it was covered in brown dust - uncountable numbers of gnats - fortunately they weren´t biters but pretty disgusting nontheless!

At dinner that night, every mouthful was accompanied by at least a couple of the damn things - there was no escape, inside or out!

The next day we went for a swim in a beautiful freshwater pool which was greatly appreciated as a relief to the relentless heat and humidity!

Andries and the Tazmanian girls were heading off the following day and we were heading up to El Zopilote, a finca up in the jungle. We decided to take our things up there, check in, and return for a final farewell over some Rum and a game of Yanif (our daily card game over the entire trip). We set off walking but managed to catch a ride from some very friendly chaps delivering signs - it was a good thing too because the walk was about 4km and in the heat with our bags there wasn´t much chance of survival!

After clambering up what was apparently a path to the finca, we headed into the jungle (this turned out to be the actual farm) and checked into our Cabana.

We made our way back to our friends on a couple of rented bicycles - however there was 3 of us so Sarah rode pillion on the back of Andries´ bike (trusty dutchmen love their bicycles).

After dinner and a bottle of rum it was time to head back to our finca, so we said our sad farewells, donned our head torches and headed off into the night on the ride home.

El Zopilote was beautiful - simple paths through the jungle which was actually a whole bunch of different crops grown on top of each other. The food they made there was incredible and as organic as could be imagined. Outdoor showers (cold of course), composting toilets, the works.

It was beautiful and peaceful but I soon developed itchy feet to be on the road again as it was a touch too isolated for me. I think Sarah could have stayed for a very long time. She felt quite at home with the great unwashed that resided there!

after a couple of days we headed back to the mainland on the return ferry (which I would argue was barely seaworthy - I´m not sure whether it was the man hand pumping water into the engine to cool it or the fact that the pilot above couldnt control the engine from where he was this had to be done by the pump man!) Sarah again was feeling queezy when we hit dry land so we jumped in the first taxi we could find and headed back to the bus station to head to San Juan Del Sur...It was time for some Pacific beach time, surf lessons and a bit of civilization again!

Here endeth the first in what will probably be a long line of blogs!

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