Nica Time

---

I´ve changed my mind about Nicaragua, although I never did fall in love with Granada. Maybe Leon is just more my style. Nicaragua on the whole, however, is ranking right up there with Guatemala for me now.... I am loving it here!

I ended up in Granada for a few days, again sucked in by an always-fun, all-inclusive hostel called The Bearded Monkey. I met Debra, Tom and Jim in the hostel bar at the end my first slightly traumatic day. We ended up at a disco, dancing to the Nica (Nicaraguan) beats, and became fast friends.

The next day, I decided to visit Lago de Apoyo, a Crater Lake just outside of Granada. About eight of us piled into the back of a pickup truck, had innertubes dumped on top of us and arrived a dusty 30 minutes later at the lake. We spent the day swimming in the cool, fresh water that fills the volcano, and for the first time since Cinque Terre, Italy, I felt like I might have found my idea of heaven. I can´t quite figure out why this place felt so special for me.... Maybe it was just a serene and scenic respite after Granada, but I loved it there. I took out a tube, paddled to the middle of the lake and just floated in awe at the moutains around me. We layed on the narrow beach, jumped off the pier, read in the monkey hut´s hammocks and reluctantly crawled back into the pickup at the end of the day.

Debra, Tom and I tried soaking up Nica culture the next day by visiting the Parque Central and nearby churches. We took a boat tour of the Isletas, a chain of hundreds of tiny islands just off of Granada´s lakefront. We saw beautiful homes owned by rich Nicaraguans, Americans and other ex-pats, a well-preserved old fort, monkeys in the trees, and local fisherman making a living as we drifted along. We spent one last night in the sweltering dorms of The Bearded Monkey and the next day we set off for Isla de Ometepe.

Ometepe is a wild, lush island comprised of two volcanos rising high out of Lago de Nicaragua. It´s a bit of a hike to get there so it hasn´t been completely overtaken by tourists, yet. We stayed at Hacienda Merida, on a wind-swept shore with a perfect view of Volcan Maderas and Volcan Concepcion. We settled in after our long day of travel and several beers later, decided we were going to climb Volcan Maderas! Signs all over our hacienda warned that we had to have a guide to climb the volcano (apparently two people who recently went guide-less never made it back) so we arranged for one for the next morning.

Jim, Tom, Debra, Pascal and I were ready at 6:30 am, and true to form and Latin time, our guides showed up about an hour later. We started our hike and twenty minutes in, I was soaked in sweat.... This trek was one of the most challenging and most rewarding things I have ever done. It took about 8 hours in total. I had to wear calf-high black rubber boots because the terrain was so slippery and muddy. We realized that the ground is wet because it is surrounded by clouds. It reminded me of the landscape in Lord of the Rings or Jurassic Park... it was absolultey breaktaking!

Near the top it was less of a hike and more of an obstacle course, where we had to hold onto tree roots and branches to pull ourselves up and through small holes in the brush. I experienced a severe fear of heights at one point, where the terrain changed to steep, jagged rocks. The view of the cloud-shrouded, tree-surrounded, green crater lake below helped me conquer my fear, and we made it to our destination. Finally, we reached the top of the volcano where we swam in the cool, muddy waters of the crater lake.
Covered in mud, blistered and battered at the end of our descent, we went for another swim and celebrated with beer.

We spent our last day on Ometepe kayaking to Monkey Island, where the territorial white-faced monkeys climbed out on the rocks to greet us as we approached. We had to keep the kayak far enough away, so as not to get attacked! We tried to arrange a horseback ride that never happened, which was probably just as well for our jello-like legs. Instead we swam and drank some more and ended the night trying to learn how to breakdance from eager Nicaraguan teens who eventually professed their love....

Ah yes, Ometepe turned out to be quite an adventure! ;-)

---