Stranger on a strange isle

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The ferry to the Island of Ometepe from Granada is a four hour journey. Lake Nicaragua is the second largest lake in the world and it falls short of Lake Titicaca in Peru by a mere 100 sq km at 8264 km sq. Ometepe is the largest freshwater island in the world. As it goes.

I’m a big fan of moving around in all forms of transport, pleasantly sitting for hours in planes, trains and automobiles. Boats on the other hand are a different story, especially if the water is turbulent sea sickness can start to take hold of me making me feel nauseous. However, it was a smooth journey and standing at the helm of the boat felt as if I am heading towards some exotic island yet to be discovered.

Approaching Ometepe I am met with the grandeur of the volcano Conception, it’s still active yet hasn’t blown its top in over fifty years so I’m not too concerned. I arrive at the dock and am greeted by a fresh cool breeze that I could swear was coming from the ocean. It is hard to comprehend the enormity of this lake. I’m staying at a little hotel in Altagracias that doesn’t even have a name, it’s owned by a family of big women, big being quite an understatement. No backpackers are here they are all staying at the Hospedaje Ortiz. A 40-something American guy Robert, lives in the room above me. He wakes me up at night when I think it’s raining buts it’s merely him pissing out of his windows. He tells me of wanting to set up a restaurant in Altagracias to pass the time, he has been in Nicaragua for 4 years. It is excruciating to listen to his bad broken Spanish with a strong American accent. He tells me that if people want to talk to him they should speak in English. As it goes.

Ometepe consists of two volcanoes, Conception and Maderas, its smaller counterpart. I take a walk to the beach 20 minutes from the centre of town. I have a hard time calling it a beach considering it’s not the ocean and even though it consists of dark volcanic sand it’s nice to walk along them.

2 hours south is the main tourist spot called Santo Domingo. It is where people with lots of money come to stay and pay about 20 times of what I’m paying for a beachfront hotel room. They sit on the beach, sun bath and look pretty whilst drinking champagne and taking photos of themselves to show their friends back home that they have been to Nicaragua.

The next day is Sunday, so it is time for the family to go to the local beach Tagazuiapa, and they have invited me to come along. To save a lot of the people having heart attacks or collapsing of heat exhaustion there is a truck organized for our transportation. It’s fairly old and we have to be careful as parts of the floor in the back have rusted out and we can see the dusty road beneath. The way is fairly uneventful apart from someone almost falling out the back after hitting a bump in the road. Of course everyone thinks it is very humorous.
We are all very well prepared and most of us have brought everything down with us except the kitchen sink. Whilst the lunch feast is prepared we play an interesting game which kind of resembles baseball but using the hand to hit the ball instead of a bat and there only 3 bases and there is no pitcher either, come to think of it, it isn’t like baseball at all. Our team lost abysmally, our fielding was atrocious and made us look only slightly better than the English cricket team. Afterwards, we eat while one of the locals plays guitar and sings Mexican ranchera songs typically about being drunk and being dumped by a beautiful woman. Some middle aged couple entertains us by dancing badly in the sand whilst being overly drunk on cheap distilled cane sugar.
Next I'm persuaded to play a game in the lake which at first seemed like an innocent game of water polo but this version had a very perverse twist as I found out about half way through. The object of the game was to pass the ball around in a circle and if you fail to pass the ball correctly you had to remove a piece of clothing and the last one left and any clothes on is the winner. We all ended up naked and I was quite thankful that the water was obscuring the vision as the naked bodies of a lot of them would not be a sight I would like to see.

The next morning I awake with an aura of invigorating energy with I feel needs an outlet. I have not really ventured far from Altragracias and the rest of the island was still an enticing mystery. I decide the only way I could remedy this was to hire a bicycle for the day and let myself loose on the island. It has become a token adventure for me as I have ridden bikes around the isles of Polynesia and found breathtaking views and met interesting characters also. That sense of the unknown is always what stirs me deep inside to see more.

After haggling with a few vendors for a good price, I find a bike which seems decent and I head out with an air of excitement and anticipation. It is a hot day but not overbearing. I probably should at least ask someone of the quality of the roads or how far it is around the main island but then the journey would lose some of its mystery.

The first hour passes fast as I fly down the one and only road across to the southern part of the island and I'm quite surprised that the road is very well formed, I climb uphill for sometime and I get off the bike and walk up as I think of all those crazy people biking across huge mountains and valleys and wondering how possibly they can accomplish it. I guess its all in the mind. I am relieved when I reach the apex and let go full throttle down the hill, wind blowing through my hair and hoping there are not any holes or rocks in the road. I reach the small town of Los Angeles ( very different to is counterpart in the States ) about 2 hours into the journey and decide to stop by the local beach. No one is around, the sun is shinning brightly, the beams splatter across the lake throwing back glimmering golden rays. Not knowing exactly how much further it is back to Altagracias and realising I have about 4 hours left of sunlight, I decide to high tail it to the western part of the island. Two hours of riding are followed without any major events as I arrive in the main port town of Moyagalpa. Its still a fairly small town with a bunch of little hotels, a mini-supermarket and internet, it doesn't have the same friendly, remote feel to it as I found in Altagracias. Nevertheless, I ride down to the beach and catch a few glimpses of the sun setting across the horizon. Still, I can not relax as I know darkness is looming and judging from my novelty map I still have about 10km to go and even though my feet are sore and my legs are numb I leave promptly without haste. I start to fret when I ask someone the distance back to Altagracias and they tell me its at least 3 hours away and its all uphill and the road is terrible. They also tell me the last bus has just left and there is only about 1 hour left of daylight.
Optimistically, I press on and ask another man further down the road the same question and he tells me its only an hour or so and its all downhill. I dont know what to think so I continue on in the hope that he is right. The road decides to turn to steep rocky gravel to the point I cannot ride further. Ahead on the road I meet two guys, black as the volcanic rock that shaped this curious isle thousands of years before, each standing on either side of the road like two gatekeepers. To get confirmation of what I already know, I ask them the same question they tell me what I fear the most that its 3 hours to Altagraicas and the road is terrible and mostly uphill. This is when lady luck decided to leave without even saying goodbye. After trekking less than half an hour upwards there is a problem with the bike, the wheel bearings in the back wheel are shot and the bike is not rideable. As it goes

I arrive at the tiny town of La Flor just after sundown, with both me and the bike broken, I drag myself into the local repair shop. I explain my story and the repairman lets out a deep, bellowing laugh and adds that I am completely mad. Perhaps I am, but then there is bikepacker who has travelled 400 days from England to Singapore solely on a bike. He pauses for a moment and now believes that im only slight mad. The tears apart the bike faster than I can blink and as the bits and pieces of the bike lay in front of me I start to worry about whether I'm ever going to get back to Altagracias. Seeing as though its pitch black, with no bike light, helmet or any street lights to guide me who knows where I might end up. He cheers me up by insisting that the road from here to Altagracias is good and mostly downhill. Within 20 minutes the bike is fixed, he charges me a $1, I give him $2 for the hospitality and with a hint of nervousness I ride off into the ominous black abyss. Of course, the way is terrible and uphill, I resort to waking, and for about an hour I contemplate if Im a masochist or just plain stupid. Up ahead in the distance, I see a shimmering light, for a moment I wonder if it is real or a mirage. It happens to be a Christian mission stationed out in the middle of nowhere, isolated and cut off from any form of malefic Catholicism that may be found in the neighbouring towns.
I see a small, stocky silvery haired man sitting on a bench by the kerb. I decide this is good a place as any to take a rest. We exchange the usual pleasantries and one of the first things Manuel tells me is that I am very brave to be out here, a foreigner practically lost in the night not knowing what type of people are lurking around. He exclaims that there is no way in hell he would go out there because the trail ahead is filled with vigilante robbers awaiting to ransack your possessions at first sight. Up until this time, I had not had the slighest sense of fear but now am completely petrified. I get up and take a look at the path that lies ahead and all I can see is a few eerie trees scintillating in the amber orange light. The surroundings are empty and black, a haunting head wind blows fiercely in my face that sends a chill down my spine. I rush back to the bench and consider staying in the commune for the night. Manuel introduces me to a some of his twelve children and I kind of gather that there isnt much more to do out here than make loads of babies. He starts to preach to me about the bible, god, the devil, heaven and hell and the rest of it, how all the Catholics are going to burn in hell. I try to transform the conversation into something more philosophical by retorting the "The kingdom of God is within" giving the example that I found that very day. The various people who had completely different perspectives of the distance and condition of the very road im on. Some believe its hell, hard, long and difficult. The others believe its a heavenly stroll in the park. The same road is something completely different depending on what they believe. Heaven is not something external but a mere reflection of your thoughts and feelings in front of your face mirrored in the amazing volcanoes, beautiful people, forest and starry sky.
Manuel could not grasp the idea I was trying to portray, I added that for someone living a life of faith how could he be so scared to walk into the dark forest. The faith will protect you or at least you would know that whatever happens your going to go to heaven anyway. I realised then as I looked into his eyes, he is just a scared little child escaping the world by hiding in a book that he hopes will save him. I understand that the bandits are merely illusions and can not harm me. Maybe I am wrong, maybe I am lost in the darkness but I sure know I'm going to get damn well back to Altagracias. I wish Manuel and his family well and I trek onwards into the twilight.
The road is becoming slightly better, I am glad I packed my mobile phone which conveniently has a low powered torch attached to it so I can see the next 2 feet in front of me. I swerve from side to side to avoid the large craters and boulders that lie on this so-called road. Out of nowhere I hit a large rock and fly straight into the gravel road under me. No major harm done so I continue and 3 minutes later "bang" my face hits the found once more and I deduce its probably better I walk. Time passes, nothing changes apart from my patience wearing thin, half an hour later the road becomes smooth and finally with much exhilaration and feeling of accomplishment I glide back into the town I left some 10 hours prior.

I arrive at the hotel and Ivuelka, one of the owners daughters greets me with a sense of preoccupation and discontent. She tells me that Robert, the 40-something American is dead, drowned that very day while swimming at the beach in Santo Domingo. As it goes

The next day the police are here to pick up Roberts baggage, I ponder about the frailty of life, how at any moment it can be snapped away in an instant. A good reason to live each moment as if it is our last.


El viaje para a la isla de Ometepe dura cuatro horas. El lago de Nicaragua es la segunda más grande en el mundo. El lago de Titicaca en Perú es grande con 100km cuadradas más. Ometepe es la isla de agua dulce más grande en el mundo.

Me gusta viajar en aviones, trenes y carros pero barcos no me gusta tanto. Especialmente cuando las aguas son turbulentos porque me mareo. Sin embargo, esta vez el agua esta calmada.

Cuando llego Ometepe puedo ver el volcán Concepción. Es muy grande y esta activo también. Pero no tiene humillarse por no menos el las últimos cincuenta años. Encontró una brisa muy fresca y crea que viene del mar. Estoy quedando en un hotel pequeña sin nombre. Las dueñas soy muy gordas. No hay mochilleros aquí todos están quedando en la hospedaje Ortiz. Un Americano estar hospedaje en el piso arriba mi cuarto En la noche me despierto cuando lo escucho orinando así afuera de la ventana. Me dijo que quería comprar un restaurante aquí, el ha vivido en Nicaragua por cuatro años. Se me dificulta comprenderla cuando habla Español por que habla muy mal. La gente que piensa debería hablarla en Ingles.
Ometepe tiene dos volcanes, Concepción y Maderas. La playa esta 20 minutos desde de centro de pueblo. Es difícil para llamarla las playas por que no son Oceanía. Dos horas al sur hay una playa turística llamada Santo Domingo. Aquí, hay gente rica que pagar veinte veces más por un hotel en la playa. El próximo día es domingo y la familia quiere ir a la playa Tagazuiapo y me invitan. Tienen camioneta para llevamos porque la personas están gordos y no resistan caminar mas de 5 minutos. Una persona casi se cae detrás la camioneta cuando pegamos un bache en la camino. Todo creerán que muy cómica. Cuando llegamos, jugamos una juego muy interesante que es parecido baisball pero sin bate y sin pitcher. Nuestro equipo perdió porque todas las personas no puden correr o agarrar la pelota. Después, comemos y una persona canta Ranchera con una guitarra. Unas personas bailando borrachos el la arena después tomado aguardiente. Después, me persuaden de jugar un juego dentro del lago cuyo objetivo es tirar una pelota a través de un aro y cuando fallas tienes quitarte una pieza de la ropa. Mas tarde, todos están desnudos y fortunamente las aguas esta oscuro por no quiero ver eso.

El próximo día me levanto con muchas energía y necesito gastarla. No he vista más allá de Altagracias. Decide alquilado una bicicleta por un día para verlos alrededores. En tiempos pasadas yo rentado bicicletas en otras lugares incluyendo de Islas Polinesias y encontré una pasajes bonitas y gente muy extraña. Encontró un bicicleta barato y esto listo para partir. Hay calor pero no demasiado. Debo verificar la distancias par superarlo enconito. Le primero hora se fue rápido cuando voló por sur de la isla. Me sorprendo por que la vías estar en muy buena estado. Por poco tiempo escalo una colina hasta no puedo mas. El resto la camino y pienso que se puede encontrar personas que montan bicicletas en las montañas y valles. Estoy emocionado cuando llego de arriba y voy por bajo rápido. A la dos de la tarde llego al pueblo llamado Los Ángeles y todo son bueno. Voy a ver playa y el sol esta brillante y puedo ver el reflejar los rayos sobre las aguas. No hay personas y es muy tranquilo. No se cuanto tiempo necesito para regresar a Altagracias salgo muy pronto por que tengo cuatro horas para llegar antes acaso. Dos horas más tarde llego a la ciudad de Moyagalpa. Es un pueblo pequeño con un supermercado, algunos hoteles y una cybercafe. Quiero ver ocaso pero tengo pocito tiempo hasta oponerse sol. Las peirnas y pies me duelle persiste de el dolor. Pregunto una persona cuanto tiempo necisito caminar y me dijo es tres horas y el camino es muy áspero. Me preocupado mucho y pregunto otra persona y me dijo es solo una hora y el camino es bueno. Media hora después el camino fue muy malo, la rueda de me bicicleta se rompió. Necesito repararlo si quero ir mas lejo. Llego a la pueblo llamada "La Flor" y encontró una almacén donde reparar mi bicicleta. El hombre desmonta rápido de me bicicleta y comenta que estoy muy loco para hacer ese viaje. Me insiste que el camino es como llegar a Altagracia en una hora. Pero no la creo, así. Después un ratito la bicicleta reparón y el cobra $1 por su trabajo. Voy en la noche y por supuesto, el camino es muy malo y empinando. No puede manejar pienso que fui tonto empezar en esas cosas. Desde camino veo una casita con luz. Un hombre se sienta y pienso es un buen lugar para descansar. Eso un lugar de una comunidad Christiana y el hombre que atendiese llama Manuel. Me dijo que como tuve valor para venir aquí, si en ese camino hay muchos ladrones. Hasta ese momento no tuvo miedo pero ahora estoy aterrado! Pienso que se mejor para quedar poco tiempo aquí. Empieza hablar cosas religiosas, dios y diablo, cielo y infernó. Le contesto el cielo es aquí y es en su imaginación. Por ejemplo, la gente lo he visto hoy piensen diferente. Algunas piensen el camino es difícil, largo y terrible y otros piensen el camino es muy fácil y corto. Yo le deje es como se fueras su vida y el no me entiendo. Veo en el profundo de sus ojos de Manuel mucha miedo, tal vez como se fuese un niño y pienso que el esta ahí para esconderse. Tal vez, pienso mal quizás estoy perdido en la oscuridad pero yo se las ladrones son un imaginación. Me voy hasta Altagracias el camino es mejor y puedo lo veo con la lampa de mi celular. Giro para evitar loas huecos y después caigo bruscamente y estrello contra piso. Pienso que es mejor caminar el resto de viaje. Después un hora mas el camino fue mejor y puedo montar hasta Altagracias mas de nueve horas después yo salgo.
Llego al hotel y Ivuleka una hija de las dueñas me dijo de Robert de Americano es se murió, el ahogo mientras iba nadando en dentro del mar. Próxima día la policía llego para tomar las cosas de Robert y pienso que la vida no es segura por que cualquier momento podemos morir. Es una razón muy buena para vivir el día como se fuese el último.

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Photos

Volcan Concepcion
Cemeterio Los Angeles

Volcan Maderas
Ometepe

Fisherman
Moyagalpa, Ometepe

Sunset
Merida, Ometepe

Old fashion travel
Ometepe

Bright Church
Los Angeles

Pig on beach
Moyagalpa, Ometepe

Christopher
Altagracias, Ometepe

Girl Dancing
Altagracias, Ometepe

Windy Washing
Beach near Santo Domingo

Comments

[Marta]

muy buena suerte
Es tan hermoso lo que escribes...Un abrazo grande y un montón de energía de la buena. Marta

[Vicky]

life
hey mark, Sounds like you're having a great time. Doesnt seem like you're so far from Xela (Well, you know, on he grand scale of the world), though i bet it feels like it for you. Adventures, people and life lived. vic x

[yasser ortiz]

como estamos
te saluda yasser ortiz de hospedaje ortiz