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Published: January 19th 2008
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Waterfall Bliss
Finally at the goal!!!!! Yesterday we ventured on the long march to the San Ramon waterfall on Ometepe. The day started out easy enough - breakfast at the hotel and a leisurely morning of reading and enjoying nature. We had decided to go on the 3 km hike up to the San Ramon waterfall - about 1-2 km from our hostel and then 3 km to take us about 1/3 of the way up Volcan Maderas. We had heard the hike was rough, but that hiking the whole volcano was even worse. I figured if we could make it to the waterfall we'd know whether or not to attempt the whole thing. It's a good thing we started small....
Yael joined Wes and I for the hike, and we headed back down the main road to the entrance, where we paid a small entrance feel at the Biological Research Station and then headed to the first of many distance marker arrows. 3 km wouldn't be too bad. Not far into the hike we were passed by a young couple on a motorbike that we had photographed earlier. They were having a great time and we were a little jealous that they were taking the
easy route. The hike started out through an open field and it was HOT. About .5 km in it started to rain and I must confess that I was hoping it wouldn't stop. We continued up dodging off and on showers, finally passing the 1 km marker. From there the path got pretty muddy and we actually passed the couple on the motorbike. Another car came up from behind us, nearly taking me out when they fishtailed in the mud. At the 2 km point we stopped to rest, admiring the views of the lake. The motorbike couple reappeared and asked how far we had left. After I told them 1 km they started laughing and explained that their odometer said they'd already come 6 km! Which made more sense when we thought about how long we'd been hiking....
From there the meter markers only got more laughable. As did the "lose rocks ahead" signs. The hike got much prettier though - shifting from open fields to rainforest, complete with gorgeous blue butterflies and the cries of howler monkeys. We didn't manage to see any monkeys, but they sounded very close and very unhappy that we were treading on
their territory. The two groups that drove gave up and turned back but assured us that we were not far from our goal. More lies of course. By the time we got to the bottom of the waterfall it felt like we'd been hiking for hours. And then we had to keep going up - we were actually only at a lower section of the waterfall. We scrambled over wet and muddy rocks and hopped across the river a few times on our way up. At the top we were greeted with an immense sheer cliff that water just tumbled over. By this point we were exhausted, so we quickly stripped off our boots and used the waterfall like a shower - standing in the shallow pool at the base and letting the water fall over our heads. It felt great!
On the way back down (and man I'm getting old - down was far worse on my knees than up) we stopped at the station for lunch. It felt good to sit down and eat and drink - we had not brought enough snacks and we were still pretty drenched from the rain and the waterfall. By the
View from the Top
or at least from the entrance to the difficult part of the trail time we got back to the Monkey Island Hostel we were ready to just hang out and drink and talk until it was time for dinner. We made friends with a Dutch couple and spent the night talking to them, the couple from Seattle (Christian and Natasha) and Yael. Dinner was grilled fish - the perfect ending to a long and strenuous day.
This morning we decided to depart for San Juan Del Sur. I got up and took a quick shower, and when I grabbed my towel I swore I saw a scorpion underneath. I looked the towel over and saw part of a leaf, and just assumed that since I was too blind to want to put my face up to the blob on the wall, it must be a scorpion shaped leaf. Of course, as soon as Wes walked into the bathroom he was saying, "Hey babe? Did you know that there's a SCORPION on the wall of the bathroom?" I think my poor eyesight probably saved me from a mild heart attack. Scorpion it was - and pretty big too. Didn't seem to mind sharing space with us though and just hung out in the
same spot all morning.
We shared a taxi with Yael, Christian and Nathasha to the ferry, enjoying our last tour of the island. It was a long wait for the ferry - we didn't make it on the first one and had to wait an hour for the next one. When it finally arrived the later ferry docked before the ferry we were waiting for, so we climbed up to the other dock and snuck on. Of course, our ferry arrived, unloaded and reloaded before the ferry we had snuck on to left. In the end, both ferries arrived in San Jorge about the same time, so it was a wash. Plus we saved 10 cords. (Small consolations). We managed to bargain to taxis down to $36 to take the five of us to San Juan del Sur and made plans to meet up later that night in the Central Park. The ride was long and full of potholes, and entirely uncomfortable in our tiny and ancient taxi.
Yael checked into the Casa Oro hostel while Wes and I held out for a private room at Rebecca's Inn. Our hostess there was great and the room was clean
and large, with really nice bathrooms in the house. A nice change from showering with scorpions! Wes and I met Yael and headed to Jerry's Pizza for an early dinner, where we almost immediately ran into Natasha and Christian. We all went for a sunset walk on the beach and made plans to rent surfboards and take the beach shuttle in the morning. Wes and I showered and rested and then met Yael for some barhopping. We ended up at Josselina's where we split a 1/2 liter of rum and ate shrimp and lobster ceviche while staring at the ocean. Not a bad way to end a long day of travel at all!
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Omar
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Liked it
Came across your blog (?) and enjoyed reading the page!