Bernie's Travels: Island of Ometepe

From Granada I traveled with Natasha and Lucia more than an hour south to get to the port of San Jorge on Lake Nicaragua, it had the easiest connection to the Island of Ometepe. Nicaragua is called the land of Lakes and Volcanoes, and nothing quite represents that like the striking image of Ometepe with its two volcanoes rising out of the lake. The day we arrived the volcanoes were hidden in the clouds, the visibility was low, and the water was pretty choppy. We took a ferry to the volcanic island and realized how much the lake had been affected by the recent rains. The dock was completely flooded and people had to walk out from the ferry on sand bags not to get wet. We caught the last bus to Bague and two hours later we were walked the last kilometer to a converted organic coffee plantation that would be our hostel for the a couple of nights, Finca Magdalena.

Finca Magdelena sits at the base of the smaller of the two volcanoes on the Island of Ometepe and there is a trail that winds from the coffee plantation to the top where there is a crater that has a lake in it. I hiked the volcano the next day with some other folks from the hostel and a guide. It started off as a cloudy day and it only got cloudier as the day went on, then the rains came and went. It was a beautiful hike even in the mud and rain, but the visibility was terrible. The clouds were so low and it would have been hard to tell we were on a volcano if it wasn’t for the steep hike. From the look out we could barely see each other let alone the lake or other volcano in the distance. The best view we had was of the gorgeous moss clinging to the trees. The other interesting sight on the way up were the ancient petroglyphs carved in stone. At the top we descended into the crater for lunch and a hazy view of the small lake within the crater. Coming back was slow and slippery, but we were frequently entertained by the different kinds of monkeys foraging in the canopy above us.

The next day Natasha, Lucia , and I left the coffee plantation. They went to another part of the island and I started to make my way back to the ferry. It was a hard day of travel since we missed the earlier buses and the later buses were contracted for political campaigning. We hitched our way along then parted ways. I continued to hitch hike with little success. Only one truck went by in more than an hour. Finally I walked towards the next village and was thinking about taking and expensive taxi when a Plantain truck came by. It slowed down and I jumped in the back with the rest of the field workers and finally made it to the main road back to the dock. I did make it by sunset, but it was too late to catch a boat so I stayed in the port city of Moyogalpa for the night.

The next day I left for the mainland by a smaller boat than the regular ferry and island was a striking sight from the water. The clouds had all disappeared and each volcano peak was bathing in sunshine. Once again I was leaving as the sun was coming out. Ah well, at least I got to see the volcanoes at all.