Ometepe Island, Nicaragua

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Volcano Trail, Day 11: Aug 4, 2009
Ometepe Island, Nicaragua

We left Granada around 9 to catch the "chicken bus" to Rivas, Nicaragua. Chicken buses usually do not have chickens on them (except maybe in Guatemala) but are the main form of transport for the locals of Central America. They are almost always old American school buses. They are decked out with spoilers, funky rims, stainless steel exhausts and pipes, racing stripes you name it. It seems to be a competition between chicken bus drivers to see who has the "coolest" bus. Inside there are endless pictures of Jesus and other religious stuff. They are crammed packed also. Luckily I got a seat! After buying a "pen light" (which is exactly as it sounds a pen with a light on it) which broke after 2 mins of use... lucky seller was off the bus by the time I realized... we arrived in Rivas. Here we needed to board a ferry to Ometepe Island. Lucky for us the main ferry was broken, so we would be taking the other ferry 2 hours later. And what a treat this was...

The second ferry was straight out of the 1950's. We wondered how it even floated. To make things worse, Lake Nicaragua was really rough. When we got on board the ferry there were no seats left, so we sat on the floor. Lucky me got a spot directly next to the engine room so I didn't have to worry about getting to cold - instead I had to worry about sweating to death, but at least I got a "seat". Then the boat began to move... shortly after the waves started crashing up the side, flooding the entire floor we were sitting on. Quickly grabbed our bags and placed them on our laps. 5o mins later, and after watching several locals hurl off the side we arrived on Ometepe Island.

Ometepe was formed by 2 volcanoes. One is still active, but you rarely see the top of it, as it is almost always covered in clouds. Ometepe is also quite remote. Aside from a few small towns, nothing is paved on the island. From the ferry dock we got on a bus and 50 bumpy mins later we arrived at our hostel nestled between the 2 volcanoes in a small town called Santo Dominigo. Our hostel was right on the lake and we were greeted by millions of little harmless bugs. I can't remember what they are called but they are everywhere after 2pm. You cant speak without eating some, let alone breathe without inhaling some. But like I said they were harmless, which is good as my bed was covered with them too! There is really not much to do in the evenings in Ometepe except... DRINK... and man did we get bombed this night... What a night...

Day 12, Ometepe
Woke up drunk, then nursed a giant hangover most of the day.
A couple people who didnt drink decided to climb one of the volcanoes, but I was in no form to do that. I decided to walk over to the "Ojo de Agua", literally, the Eye of Water. In the middle of nowhere, they have diverted a river and made it into a natural swimming pool, with a little bar surrounding it. Getting here was an adventure in itself. 5 mins into our trek, it decided to rain, and not just rain, but tropical jungle rain. DRENCHED! Luckily a pick-up was coming so we flagged him down and jumped in the back. The back was rusted right up, so we feared falling through, but it beat walking in the downpour. We arrived at the entrance, only to find it was still a 20 min trek through a banana field to the water hole. Shoes off due to the mud we arrived... and there is a heaven on earth! Finally some clean, swimmable water! A great place to chill out. Saw tons of tropical birds and plants, including the rare broom tree... I can now tell my students where brooms come from! (see pic). Arrived back at the hostel and hot the bed with the bugs a little early to get ready for a long travel day into Costa Rica.

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Photos

Ometepe Island
Formed by 2 volcanoes

This is not the chicken bus
We are on a short bus to get to the ferry dock.

Ometepe Island
Its too bad the clouds cover the tops of the volcanoes

Moyogalpa
The largest town on Ometepe

Volcan Maderas
this volcano can be climbed