Isla de Ometepe

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August 9 – Holy crap it's hot. I got up at 7am, thinking I would leave at 8am and get an early start to Ometepe. I repacked the rest of my things and had some granola for breakfast. I talked to Gerry while I ate, and discovered that he bought a dog yesterday. It was a puppy and sleeping under the table. So cute. He will send it home at night with one of the girls who works there and it will be at the guesthouse in the day. So cute. So something to look forward to. I left just after 8am and walked to the bus station. I got there at 8:15 and was told the bus to Rivas leaves at 9:30. What a bummer. So much time to kill. It was cloudy, which was unusual, but I thought it would make it a bit cooler out. I was wrong. Just standing there, I could feel rivers of sweat running down my legs, my back, my stomach and my arms. Amazing. I eventually just sat on the bus and wrote in my journal a bit. The bus ride was much like any other, and I was half asleep and half awake. It rained a bit, which made me nervous.

When I arrived in Rivas at 11am, I had to get a shared taxi to San Jorge, where the boat leaves for Ometepe. I shared with two Israeli girls. We arrived at 11:10am, and the ferry had just left at 11am. So now we had to wait until 12:30 for the next boat, which was a smaller lancha. So much wasted time today. As I waited, the clouds were getting thicker and there was some thunder. It did rain a bit, but not much, and the boat was covered. But my backpack was on top of the boat and got wet, though my clothes did not. It was the slowest boat ever, but that was fine, since usually it is a bumpy ride to the island and this was fine. I spent most of it talking to two Dutch girls. It took a little more than an hour and then I collected my wet bag and walked to the hotel. Everyone else I met was heading to a different, more relaxing part of the island. But my book was pretty bad at this part of the trip, so I wasn't sure what to do. The Rough Guide is ok, but it is no Lonely Planet. I had decided to stay in the city where the boat arrives, hoping to find a tour around the island, but it was more difficult. I should probably have gone somewhere else more beautiful. But since I was only going to be here a couple days, I thought this was best. The hotel is ok, and I have a room with tv and bath. The hotel was explaining that I could get a taxi and it would take me to a few places, or I could get to a few on the infrequent buses, or hire a guide with a motorcycle. They suggested Jessie, who would charge 40 dollars plus gas and entries to sights. But then I realized I would have to rent the motorcycle and be responsible for it if anything happened. At 3pm I had a late lunch at a nearby restaurant while watching synchronized swimming. What a strange sport. But cool to see. I went back to the hotel and talked to Juan, who works there. Really nice guy. We talked about tours and the guide choice I had to make. I decided to look for another. I went to a nearby restaurant and asked the guy there if he knew of anyone. He called his guide and for 35 dollars, we could do the same, but the bike was his and gas was included. I came back to the hotel and talked to Juan again, as well as John, the American guy who runs owns the hotel. It was nice chatting with both of them. At 6pm I met with the new guide, Elmer, and decided to go with him. We'll meet at 8am tomorrow and I'll get to see some of the sights of the island in a long day tour. Probably the best choice for such a quick stop here. Maybe I should have stayed longer, but I am excited to get back to the nice place in Granada and enjoy my last couple of days. After I met the guide, I went to the shop for something cold to drink. There was a little orange kitten in there that I stalked. He was afraid of me at first and then I petted him and he started purring. Very sweet. I hope he still has a momma – he was tiny. Bought a ginger ale and a water and drank them quite quickly. No way to make up for the sweating, but that should help. Skyped with my sister but couldn't get the call to connect to my mom. Will just relax a bit tonight and get my things together for the tour tomorrow.

Wednesday – Today was a long day, but good. I woke up at 7am and had to be ready at 8am. I thought I would get some breakfast, since I couldn't make any here, but decided on a bag of cookies instead. I was worried about the weather – it was very cloudy and I could hear thunder occasionally, and I wasn't sure if I made the right decision about the motorbike tour or now. I met Elmer at 8am and decided to give it a go. He gave me a helmet and off we went. It had been a long time since I was on a bike like that, but it was ok. I found it was hard to get comfortable, and my arms were tired from holding on to the back of the bike. We passed the new airport they are putting in – the road runs right through the runway. I'm not sure how that will work exactly, but I expect they will not have many flights, so maybe they will just close the road during take off and landing. I quite liked what I could see from the bike – chickens crossing the road and pigs, horses and dogs, people on bikes.

Our first stop in the day was almost an hour and a half away. For the first part, the road was good but then we were onto a bumpy dirt road, and that was a bit harder to take. Eventually we arrived at the reserve that has the waterfall we would be walking to. It was a 3 km hike, but uphill. It took us three hours round trip and although I have often mentioned being hot and sweaty on this trip, this was even more so. If sweating were an Olympic sport, I would have taken the gold medal on this hike. I could feel water flowing down my arms I was so hot. Amazing. My clothes were soaked. Here, you just have to get used to being wet, but it is hard. Towards the end of the hike, I met Emma, a British girl with a different guide. They went the first 2 km by minivan, but we caught up to them. She has terrible shoes for the hiking and was quite slow, but nice to talk to. There was also a couple who had gone up by horse most of the way. The waterfall was nice but not strong as there hasn't been much rain lately, despite it being the rainy season. Walking back down, Elmer and I actually got in front of and beat the horses down. Strange.

When we got back to the bike, Elmer noticed that one of the tired was low on air, so he had to leave me for a bit and get some air for the tire. When he got back, we drove back down the bumpy road. When we got to the good road, we had a short while to go before we got to Santo Domingo beach. We had lunch at a little restaurant here. The food was good but took forever to get. Our next stop was Ojo del Agua, a natural spring fed pool. There were some people there swimming, but they were all couples or in groups, and I was the only person alone. It feels a bit strange to swim alone among other people, but it was ok. The water was clear and cool, very refreshing. I really enjoyed it.

After Ojo, we drove on towards the Ceiba Museum, but again, we had a problem with low air. This time he had to leave me on the side of the road and went to get air. It took 45 minutes, and he actually got a new tire. I was worried because the museum closed at 5pm and it was 4:30pm when he came back. He drove quite fast and we arrived with 10 minutes to spare. I didn't think it would be enough, but it was fine. The museum gave me a guide and she explained about the pices. It was an archeology museum with pieces of pottery and petroglyphs found on the island that went back as far as 3000 years ago. Very impressive. And it was air conditioned. A miracle. From here, we backtracked to Charco Verde reserve, because he told me yesterday we would have time to go there. Here we hiked up to a lookout and saw the lagoon and then walked around the lagoon. I saw a few howler monkeys here which was nice. By the time we left, it was sunset and then starting to get dark. We drove back to the hotel and stopped for gas along the way. By the time we arrived back, it was just before 7pm. Earlier, Elmer asked me if I could help him with a sign in English for his business. I agreed to meet him at 7:30pm. I was hoping to get to the shop for a soda, but it was closed. The power in the town was off as well, so I needed a candle to get to my room. The shop was closed, but the pizza place across the strret had a generator, so when Elmer came back I asked if he would like to eat there. We shard a pizza and it was quite good actually. I got my cold soda too, which was a bonus. Then we spent some time planning and then making his poster. Hopefully his business will expand. Let me be the first to recommend Elmer for a tour of Ometepe. For 35 dollars, he spent 11 hours showing me the sites of the island, which was great.

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Photos

My room
Behind the wall is the shower. Jeroen's head would have fit over it.

Map of Ometepe island
Two volcanoes, very cool