Blogs from Isla de Ometepe, Southern Pacific Coast, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 7

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Ok, so the entry date for this blog says May 5th, today is June 2nd. I uploaded the3 photos May 5th but even that was a month late. I need to catch up and soon or I might leave out/forget some important things here! So on my last entry, I finished with my hike to El Mirador Santa Catarina. This should bring me to my trip to Ometepe. Ometepe is a magical island in Lake Nicaragua. It was formed from 2 volcanoes (Concepción y Maderas) that rose out of the lake and are connected by a patch of land between the two. It is like something out of a fairy tale. There is one major city on the island called Mogogalpa and it is where the ferry lets you off. It is also where the ... read more
shore line of Lake Nicaragua in Granada
shore line of Lake Nicaragua in Granada
shore line of Lake Nicaragua in Granada


I got to the pier for 1pm, as advised. I'd bought my 90C (it said you had 2 options but in the end, the lady explained the cheaper one was “commercial only”) ticket earlier that day, so it was pretty straightforward. When I arrived, I spotted Antoine, the Swiss guy I'd met on the bus the previous afternoon, so I went and let on. With him was another Roman Swiss called Baptiste. We got on the boat and sat down for the 4 hours ride to Isla Ometepe, a volcanic island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. The island consisted of 2 volcanoes, making it look a little bit like 2 islands joined in the middle. The main thing to do there was to hike up the volcanoes, roughly a 7 hours up for the small ... read more
Rubbish museum
local bird
Ojo de Agua


I'm sitting here this morning in the restaurant overlooking the lake, up before the employees arrive, watching the birds collect twigs for their nests. I really love having the mornings to myself. I'm almost always up before everyone else but when I get to sit outside & enjoy the activities of the wildlife in the mornings, that is my favorite. The birds are all always so busy in the mornings & they sing & sing & sing while working. Now, after sitting out here alone for over an hour, the employees are here & I am already working on my second cup of coffee. Thinking about my third.... Geoff woke up & joined me in the restaurant. Maybe TMI for some people but Geoff mentioned that usually within the first two hours of any given day ... read more
Waiting for the bus to Punta Jesus Maria.
This should have been the beginning of our trek, but the bus driver forgot us again.
Volcanos and Farm Animals


We've decided to leave this morning & head to another little town on Ometepe. Mix it up a bit. So, we did our usual packing & had our last yummy breakfast. We have been running a tab here, which so many places like to do, so I'm a little scared about the total. Plus, I've learned to add it up myself after they give me the total. Something about math skills here. No judgement but it is really an issue. For example, when you buy something at any little store, & they have to make change for you, they definitely bust out their oversized calculator to figure it out. Even if the change is something obvious like it costs 195 & you give them 200. Out comes the calculator. It's kind of a trip & has ... read more
Geoff packing in our cute little room.
Kassandra gets plantain chips & a juice bag. Yippee!!
Turist Information


Our room here has the most genius fan setup. They took a regular fan & hung it from the ceiling directly over the bed & it rotates. Perfect. A MacGyver ceiling fan. It really makes sleeping in this heat a little easier. And helps to limit the mass quantity of bug bites Geoff wakes up with. This morning we had breakfast with Karen & Justin. I gave them all the pics I've taken so far on Ometepe since Karen lost her camera. That would suck. It was our farewell breakfast. They're heading to Granada today. Back to me & Geoff taking on the world alone! :) I had a delicious omelet full of veggies & Geoff stuck with his scrambled eggs & gallo pinto. We each had a lot of coffee. Addicts! We said our goodbyes ... read more
Our room...
& our bathroom.
Our restaurant at Rancho Merida.


We reconvened at the restaurant for breakfast & it was ready pretty much at the time we asked. That's great service for Island time combined with Nica time. I'm impressed actually. Water bottles purchased from Margarita's Bar & we were on our way. The first part of the walk took us down a long, dusty road toward the city of San Ramon. We arrived at the entrance to the waterfall park after about 45 minutes. The entrance to the park is really pretty & well maintained. We paid our $3 to get in & began our 3 kilometer climb to the waterfall. It was pretty much straight uphill & we guesstimated it was really more like 4-5 km but at least it was early enough that the sun wasn't blazing hot yet. We started to wonder ... read more
Kung-Fu Chicken
The entrance to the waterfall hike.
Half way to the top and it is HOT!


Today the hike was off to a roaring start but probably not my (Gillian's) most shining moment in choice of family activity. We ascended into the cloud that may have something to do with the amount of moisture that perpetually greases the trail to the laguna. It got wetter and wetter, until everyone in our group gave up chance of keeping anything dry or clean. David, the nice German guy with us worried that he would have to replace his sister's bag that she had lent him for the hike, Niels just stopped worrying about his entire lower extremities and charged through the middle of every slick as snot mud wallow, mom laughed when I said I thought the whole thing was pretty apropos considering this trip was with craig's frequent flyer miles, and I was ... read more
sunset from taxi
edelma - our lady driver
just a taste of mud


Waking up in a town that you arrived in at night is always a treat in the morning. It's like Christmas. What did we get?!? The total population of Isla Ometepe is 35,000 which isn't much since it is the biggest island in Nicaragua & has 2 very large volcanos on it. One on each end. It's really beautiful. All the pueblos on the island are very small. At breakfast this morning we met Justin & Karen from Seattle! We're all heading to Merida this morning together. We caught the local schoolbus & began the 1.5 hour, only 12km distance, ride. The roads on the island are really the worst we've seen. Reminiscent of the road to Punta Allen, Mexico. Big rocks, big potholes, really bumpy, slow ride. (I just heard a donkey make his hee ... read more
There are handpainted maps of Ometepe all over.
Just another ordinary transport service...
Gary's on the bus & waiting for us, all ready to go!


Today we are on a mailing mission. We have to package up another box with our hammock and a bunch of trinkets, cross our fingers, put it in the hands of the Nicaraguan mail system, & hope it gets home! Of course, our mail experience was a bit of a journey. We get to the post office with box in hand, very very well taped (like half the roll on the box because the one box that made it home, we were told, was in bad shape) & find out we need a copy of our passport for them to attach to the package. OK. Off to find a fotocopia store (they're all over for some reason, maybe because of this need?). Find one, buy some OFF, pay for the copy & head back to the ... read more
Our transportation to Isla de Ometepe.
Loading cargo onto the Hilario Sanchez
Looking good...


In all honesty I hadn’t heard too many great things about Costa Rica from other travelers and given how expensive it is in relation to other C.A countries and the length of time I spent in Panama, I decided to just cross the country in a day and get to Nicaragua as quickly as possible. The journey consisted of a four hour journey to the capital, San Jose, followed by a taxi trip across town to a different bus terminal (none of these Central American cities seem to have a central bus station), and then another four hour journey up to Liberia in the north-west of the country not that far from the border with Nicaragua. Here I stayed one night in a hostel that was basically the first one I came too after leaving the ... read more
Volcano Concepción
Inside Volcano Madera
View from Charco Verde




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