Isla de Ometepe

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Ometepe is a unique island in the middle of lake Managua, it is basically made up of 2 volcanoes surrounded by settlements, petroglyphs and waterfalls and is its own little paradise. This is one of our last stops in Central America so we wanted to spend a few days here chilling out and doing some of the activities the island has to offer. When we arrived we found a cute little guesthouse called Hospedaje As Mi Tierra in a small hamlet called Balgue on the North side of the western island. This is the end of the road where all the tourists stay as they tend to stay at the isthmus between the 2 volcanoes as there is a nice beach there. We decided to go to the beach the first day and then meet some other friends for dinner at a place called Café Campestre in Balgue. The food was delicious and we had a really nice evening. The beaches have volcanic sand and the lake was super warm to swim in. The problem was the amount of midges and flies around the area which were really irritating. The beach was nice and the sea was SO warm, it was also very quiet and ideal for chilling out.

On our second day I hiked up the volcano Maderas which is the smaller of the 2 but the other one is too active to climb at the moment, Maderas also has one of the countries only 2 cloud forests. I'm still not quite sure what a cloud forest is but it's something to do with clouds, humidity and forest. The first half of the hike was simple and humid through some coffee plantations and wooded areas, but the second half was more of a scramble through mud, rocks and trees and was quite a logistic climb. At the top you went into the. Crater where there is a lagoon, which was pretty cool. I sat there for a w hike before making my descent through the mud to the bottom. I really enjoyed the hike and the jungle was beautiful. It was also incredible to hear the sounds of the forests, where the insects were so loud they were echoing around the jungle. We then met up with the boys that we had met previously and had dinner with them. We had a final half day in Ometepe so went to some petroglyphs (Central American hieroglyphs) on some stones in the woods, I haven't read much about these but have heard they are of some historical significance and there are lots of sites around the island where they lie. They are pretty cool but I really should know more about them.

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