Isla de Ometepe

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We got up and ready to head out. We're just taking overnight bags, and leaving the rest of the stuff at the beach house. Sylvia was a little delayed in getting ready, but we still had an hour and a half to do a drive that should just be an hour, so we figured that was plenty of padding.

The drive out from the beach house wasn't nearly as bad as the drive in. It was much easier to see the bumps in the road in the light of day, and navigation wasn't nearly as difficult when we'd already been on the road once. In about 25 minutes, we were already getting off the dirt road that had held us captive for probably an hour and a half when we had initially arrived. Phew!

The rest of the drive went equally smoothly. We gassed up and then continued on to the ferry dock. A guy came out to help us sort out our tickets. We had read online that there are helpers who will want a tip, we had already decided we were fine with giving tips to have less headaches of trying to figure things out for ourselves. We were quite early as we had made good time, so the ticket office wasn't open yet, but one of the tourist activity booths were, so we had a seat there and got information about kayaking on the island. We made plans to go that afternoon, then got some coffee for Sylvia (she drinks an incredible amount of coffee!), and then took the car around to load up on the ferry.

The ferry pricing for car and for 2 people was just 550 cordoba, which is like $16. So cheap! The trip takes about an hour, so we couldn't believe the cost, in comparison to the ferry back in Roatan.

The lake looked pretty choppy, so we hoped that the ride would go ok. I had to board first, and Sylvia needed to drive the car on by herself. I used the bathroom, but wished I had found one elsewhere, it was pretty gross. The ferry was pretty small, space for about 6 vehicles (there were a couple of cars and then a few big trucks). The ride went really smoothly, not rough at all. Before we knew it, we were there.

We programmed our destination into Mabel, and headed out. We decided we'd stop at Ojo de Agua along the way, a natural pool from a fresh water spring. It was pretty, the water was super clear, and they had some fun swings over the water. We just made it a short stop and then continued on to our hotel.

The hotel had a pretty bumpy path going to it. Partway in, there was a parking sign, but we couldn't see how much further it was to get to the actual hotel, the trail seemed to keep on going, so Sylvia emphatically declared 'no!' when I mentioned about parking. We drove a few minutes more, but it became clear why the parking spot was earlier on in the trail, as the lane started getting very bad. We turned around and left the car at the parking spot, then continued on foot.

It was quite a bit further to get back to the hotel, and then we started seeing individual accommodations, but no reception. We gave them a call, and someone came out to meet us and show us to our room.

We had a little 2 story house, called the Jungle House- Volcano View. One floor had the bedroom and bathroom, and the upper floor, accessed just by a small wood ladder from the porch, had a living area with a futon, and a balcony with a beautiful view of the volcano. We left our bags, and then headed out to find the kayak spot.

As we had a bit of time, we decided to make a short detour to find a spot for a smoothie, as we hadn't had lunch. We had our smoothies, and I sent a message to the kayak tour company, to find out the exact location that we needed to go, as we just had a rough idea, and knew it was about a 20 min drive. We got an answer back that the guide was by our car, and we were sent a photo of the guide. We exchanged confused looks, and I figured that the guide must be confusing us with someone else that had arrived. I explained where we were and that we had stopped for a drink, and questioned if the guide was by us, as we weren't at our meeting spot. I couldn't figure out how he would have found our car, but then was thinking maybe he had passed and saw the Honduran plates. Sylvia was adamant that he wasn't here, then poked up her head to look to the road, and said 'he is here!'. I joked that maybe they had put a tracker on our car. It turned out that he lived in the opposite direction, and was headed to the kayak spot when he spotted our car on the side of the road.

He decided to leave his moto and hop in the car with us for the rest of the way. We soon found out why- another very bumpy dirt road. We finally got to the kayak spot, put on the sunscreen, and went down to the water. We decided we'd each take a single, so we could take photos of each other better.

The lake was very calm at the spot that the kayaks leave from, and there was a beautiful view of one of the volcanos (the island has 2 volcanos, 1 is active and 1 is inactive- people hike them, but it's apparently pretty gruelling, so we had long ago ruled out that activity).

We kayaked along the shoreline. There were lots of birds, and pretty trees. The plan had been to stay out til sunset, but unfortunately Sylvia's back started to bother her, so we cut the kayaking short and headed back. Big clouds were moving in, so I don't think we would have caught a very nice sunset anyway, and the bonus of of finishing up early was that we didn't have to drive that dirt road in the dark.

We dropped off our guide by his moto, then looked up some restaurant reviews and picked one with great recommendations that was pretty close to where we were staying, Cafe Campestre. It had delicious food, and as they also have a farm, they sold some of their own products, like mango chutney, nutella, honey and coconut oil. We bought a few gifts, then headed back to the hotel for the night. During the night, I could hear the sounds of monkeys in the jungle around us, which was pretty cool.

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