JANUARY, 2005
January 24 - 26, 2005
If you make your way to Nicaragua, Ometepe, an island in Lake Nicaragua is a must stop. The island, which is home to two volcanoes. Concepcion is the larger one to the north, and looks like a picture perfect triangular volcano out of a book. Maderas, to the south, has lost most of its top in previous eruptions, but now has a lake on top of it. The island is deceptively large, and can be clearly seen from the shores of San Jorge, and even Granada on clear days.
From San Jorge, we hoped on what can charitably be described as a small ferry. It cost something like 90 cents, but barely looked seaworthy, and seemed to be carrying way too many people, animals, and products for its own good. On top of it, the wind made the lake as rough as the open ocean. It did make for a fun ride though. Mike went to the highest point overlooking the bow and rode it like a rollercoaster while getting sopping wet, losing his hat, and watching some poor German woman lose her last 3 meals in the bow. Ruthie, Pat and Stacy were underneath listening to the locals screaming everytime a wave hit the boat, which was sort of funny.
After hititng the shore, we had the coldest beer and coke ever . By the way, Nicaragua considers beer unacceptable unless it is at least -5 degrees Celsius, which is a wonderful thing. We then tried to save time by taking a private taxi, as opposed to the bus to a hotel we wanted to stay at on the other side of the island. Of course, we spent 5 times as much as we would have on the bus, and some people on our boat who took the bus got there 5 minutes after us. Long story short, buses really do seem cheaper and alsomsty as efficient down here. But, of course, sometimes they are not! Make sense?
Our first night was spent at ______________, which is a beautiful lodge type of place right on the eastern shore of the island with beautiful views of both vocanoes for 18$ a night. We had a great porch and hammock off our cabin, where Pat and Stacy whooped us in Scrabble, and the food was very good. Come to think of it, the food throughout Nicaragua was very good. Surprisingly, you can find great Italian sytle pastas almost everywhere. It seems to have become local fare, as opposed to an "Italian food." Seemed a bit strange, but it was consistently good.
The next night we moved across the island to another Stan and Cindy recommendation, which was literally a biological reserve station, complete with para military looking type of guards and a security fence etc. What a great place. Cheap, great food, and situated directly at the bottom of Volcan Maderas, on the western shore of the lake. Our cabinas were at a high point of the reserve with an incredible lake view, and the sunsets were incredible from the hammocks. We also took a great hile up to a waterfall half way up Maderas. We got some good howler monkey sightings (and heard some very loud howling as well) and even saw an armadillo, which was a first for everyone.
On top of everything, when we least expected it, the manager noticed Stacy was hoping around on her broken leg, and gave her crutches he had laying around. Of course, a week of searching high and low for crutches ended on such a random note . . . sort of. The next morning, while waiting for the bus at the bottom of the hill, the bad "manager," manager, came flying down the hill on his ATV demanding that we return the crutches or pay for them, which obviously put the good "manager" in an awkward position. Long story short, after several machinacions, fake phone calls, and apparent aganozing, the bad manager tried to get 60$ out of Stacy for the crutches. He ended up getting $38, which was a good deal we guess, but we know the slob put the money directly in his pocket. He even took the tip we had already left for our breakfast that morning to pad his take for the crutches. Jackass!
Anyhow, the challenges of the day got better. The bus never showed, and after sitting on the road for 3 hours, we finally found a van to take us to an area where he said we could hitch a truck to the ferry. Luckily we found such a truck, which then took us another 15 minutes to where the driver said we had to get out to find another truck. The next truck was the best yet, in that we were all piled in the back wedging ourselves in any corner we could to avoid flying out on what can only be sort of described as roads. It was actually a lot of fun though, the kind of thing you always wanted to do, or did as a kid when your mom wasn't around. We made the ferry just in the nick of time, except of course that it left 45 minutes late, and we were back off to San Jorge. One corrupt taxi driver later we were in Granada.
