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Published: December 25th 2007
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I spent the remainder of my time in Granada mostly lounging around, reading, and sleeping in a hammock. By no means exciting, but nevertheless relaxing. While I was out for lunch I noticed a sign stating that there was a poker tournament at 6:00 PM on Thursday evenings. Since it was thursday, I planned on returning that evening to play some cards.
There were six of us in all. Three regulars, the man who owned the hostel, who´s nationality I´m not sure of. An American from Minnesota who has been living here in Granada for the past two years, and an older guy from Conneticut, who I assume also lived here. Then there was myself, a German, and a Kenyan who has been living in Scotland for the last 5 years. It was nice to be in the company of people who spoke English, but just after an hour into the game I was out, for the second time and there was no more buying in. I returned to the hostel planning on listening to the Canucks game on the computer, so I killed the time reading until it started. It was a pretty boring game until the 3rd period,
but with 8 minutes left in the game I was kicked off the computer for the evening, as one of the employees was shutting them all down. I was glad to wake up the next day to see that nothing had changed in those last 8 minutes and we successfully beat Dallas 3-2.
The next day I said my goodbyes to Granada and took a shuttle to San Jorge to catch the ferry to Isla Ometepe. Isla Ometepe is the largest island that exists inside a lake in the world, and Lake Nicaragua is one of the largest lakes in the world. The island has two volcanoes, Conception, and Maderas. Maderas is an inactive volcano and the larger one, Conception, is active and last erupted in the 1950´s. Though it hasn´t erupted in over 50 years it does still explode on a regular basis, throwing ash over the town of Moyogalpa. The first day on the island I took a taxi to a hotel on the isthmus of the island. This is the thin part connecting the two round parts that house the two volcanoes. It´s also closer to where I would have to start a hike up the
volcano Maderas. However, the next morning I woke up too late to get a guide for the hike. This was dissapointing, so I checked out of the hotel and got a ride back to Moyogalpa, the town with the ferry port. I checked into Hospedaje Central and then wandered around the small town. While I was walking, a man asked me for the time and we got to talking, in English. He owned a restaurant near my hostel so I went over there for lunch. The guys name was Jerry and he was originally from Victoria. He´s lived abroad most of his life and before shacking up in Nicaragua 2 years ago he lived and ran a Animal Shelter in Guatamala for 14 years. We talked for a bit and I made a point of going back for dinner. It had been nice to talk to someone since it get´s quite boring at times. During dinner a friend of Jerry came in. Rob, and his two daughters Muna and Marion. Rob is the general manager for Coldwell Bankers in Nicaragua and currently resides in Granada. He´s also a vancouverite, and both of his daughters are going to school on the
east coast of Canada. More time was spent talking, and later on we were joined by a Swiss and German girl. All in all not a bad evening, it had been pretty much the only time on this trip thus far that I was able to have conversations with people and enjoy the company of fellow Canadians.
That evening Jerry was able to get me in contact with a guide for the next day. Only since I was now in Moyogalpa I would be hiking Volcan Conception, the larger, active volcano. The next morning I got up at 7:00 to begin the journey. My guide was taking me up with another guide as well as a Swiss, a German, a Welsh, a Brazilian, and another Canadian. The other canadian, Reuban, and I were able to talk hockey before we left the hostel. He´s living in vancouver as well, and surprised me with the fact that he actually knew what was going on with the Canucks, and who the current call-ups were. Finally someone to talk hockey with who knew what they were talking about. After leaving the hostel we all stopped at a little market and got some food
for the trip. Bananas, bread, oranges, water, etc. Then we hopped on the back of a truck and got driven the 4 kms from town to our starting point.
The beggining of the hike was nice, relaxing, and most importantly, flat. It lasted about an hour, and throughout this time we could hear the deep rumbling growl of howler monkeys in the distance. And before we knew it the hard part started, we reached the actual volcano. Then it started to get steep, really steep. It reminded me why I don´t ever do the Grouse Grind, because I hate hiking. It´s non stop pain, punctuated by short stops where all I can do is close my eyes and try to catch my breath. And as soon as you feel well again, 30 seconds more of climbing and you´re exhausted once more. Our guide was speedy and seemingly tireless. The Swiss, Welsh, and German also seemed to keep up with him somewhat easily. Meanwhile myself and the other candian brought up the rear, exhausted and cursing. After maybe an hour or an hour and a half of climbing up the jungle we reached the end of the treeline. From here
on it was to be sparse vegetation until finally it was just volcanic rock. As soon as we exited the treeline, 35km winds started to buffet our bodies, and it felt bloody amazing. We were able to look down on how far we´d come and be refreshed with cool air at the same time. I was immediately reinvigorated and ready to press on. At this point we started to enter the cloud that was sitting atop the volcano, and as we headed upwards the bushes started to dissapear, the shrups and the grass started to dissapear and before we knew it we were walking on volcanic rock. Each step had to be taken with care as gravel, and loose rocks made the accent slippery and dangerous. If one were to fall here it would be difficult to stop. Finally, at around 1200-1300 meters up we had to stop. We were running out of time and the cloud was getting thicker. We stopped in a small rock chasm and ate our lunches and enjoyed how far we had made it.
We headed down, and I relished how much easier it was then going up. It was more painful on the
feet, but less painful on my entire body. One of the areas that was enveloped in cloud during our accent was now cloud free and we were treated to a spectacular view or the island, and the town where we were all staying. Before we knew it we were back in the trees and nearing the bottom. At one clearing, where we rested, we started to see monkeys in the distant trees all around us. One baby monkey was following it´s mother, tentatively poised at the edge of a branch hesitant to jump to another. It was a wonderful sight. That´s pretty much all I can say about the volcano hike. It was torturous, but in the end, very rewarding. The whole hike took us around 7 and a half hours.
I drank and ate with the guys I met on the hike before packing it in for the night. The next morning I checked out and got the ferry back to San Jorge where I caught a taxi to San Juan del Sur, a beach town at the south end of Nicaragua with some of the best surfing in Central America. I´m not sure what my plans are
going forward. There will obviously be some surfing, and then I´ll see.
Until next time.
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eva
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HEY THERE...
Hi Craig, Thanks for the update. Fun to read and glad to hear\from you. Happy Adventure (Merry Christmas). Love you. Aunt E