To the Waterfall. And Back??

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"Hay mas vida que tiempo". There is more life than time. So time has slowed down. A week ago it rushed toward our departure on another exciting Bowdon family adventure to an exotic land. Over our first few days, time decelerated to its present lanquid laminate flow. Today was the key to our transformation in attitude.

We caught the 8 am bus to San Ramon as planned, except it didn't quite get us to San Ramon, only "close" to it according to the driver. That turned out to mean a 25-minute walk. "Close" is a relative concept, after all. Fine. Then we hiked up the volcano 3 km to the waterfall, La Cascada. There we got a surprise. Instead of a cool swim, we got blasted by a wet, 20-mph gusty wind, as water carried air down the cliff. Dramatic, yes, worth the hike, yes, but uncomfortable.

We had passed some workers doing trail maintenance. Shortly 10 of them showed up at the waterfall, interrupting our private enjoyment, to work on some pipes. And me in my underwear, too. Good thing I'm not modest.

So we hiked back down in time to catch the 2:30 bus back to Santa Cruz. Hot again by now, we had a few extra minutes to walk around the town and buy some cold water. As we waited on the bus stop bench, a gringo came from the hospedaje nearby, where he had been having lunch, to inform us the bus would not come until 4 pm. Fine. Except I decided to inquire myself for more information. The woman spit out a lot of espanol which the gringo helped translate as "yes, the bus will come here at 4 pm but will not leave again until tomorrow morning." Hmm.

Our options were 1) spend the night in San Ramon unexpectedly - not an appealing idea! - or 2) walk for an hour to Merida and hope to find someone to drive us to Santa Cruz, or 3) walk 2? hours to Santa Cruz. (Recall that at this point in the day we had already walked and hiked up and down a volcano.) We hit the road for Merida.

If any car or truck had passed during the next hour we would have tried to hitchhike (which would have been a first for the kids). Finally strolling into the "town", such as it was, I asked a guy in his yard, who told me to inquire at the Rancho Merida. We found it - padlocked. Just then two guys came by in an old Honda SUV. (It was beat all to hell - must have been at least two years old - the roads here are hard on cars.) I practically threw myself in front of it. The passenger, a gringo, said sure, his friend the driver would come back in 10 minutes and take us to Santa Cruz. Actually it was sort of a taxi. We could wait in the restaurant over there - the one with the rusted hanging disco mirrored ball and the pet bird. Saved! (Not like one of the past guests at El Encanto, who spent a night alone on the trail, Sr. Carlos told us later.)

When the driver came back, we bought him a smoothie like we were having. The drive back to Santa Cruz sure seemed to take a long time. The top speed on that sorry road is, maybe, 10 mph. We paid him 200 Cordobas (plus the drink) - about $10, not enough considering he rescued us. I'm embarrassed we paid those other guys $25 to take us from Moyogalpa to Little Morgan's.

Ometepe really is a lot like going back in time. Imagine, traveling by foot, carrying a heavy wooden table on your back, like one guy we saw from the bus. Others ride horses or ride bikes. Some have those cheap Chinese motorcycles, but only in the past five years have they become common. When a young man scrapes up his first $100 cash, he can make the downpayment.

After today I decided we're tougher than I thought, so Benjamin and I *can* bicycle back to Ojo de Agua tomorrow after all, as he's been asking. When we get home I won't be a wimp about biking to Bond Park. In the summer heat. You get sweaty, so what?

It's the peak of the rainy season here. We've heard some terrific thundering downpours at night. In the daytime, not much rain at all. Today is absolutely perfecto. I write this in full view of Volcano Concepcion, puffing its clouds as the sun sets. Over there, butterflies and hummingbirds take turns at the flowers; there are plenty for all.

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Photos

Imported landscaping?!?
Ometepe Biological Station, run by a consortium of US universities, serves as the entrance to the waterfall trailhead. Students come in the winter and summer. They seem to be trying to bring the US to Ometepe. Nowhere else has actual glass windows. And are these imported evergreens?