Right smack in the middle of Nicaragua is a lake.... big lake. Some time ago two volcanoes popped up and created an island in the middle with a tiny isthmus between the two. The big volcano is Concepcion and the smaller is Maderas. The island is called Ometepe and that was my next destination.
Don't worry this is not the island itself, merely an artists rendering. I hopped on a little boat that resembled a tugboat and went accross the lake to the island. The water got pretty rough and I once again felt a false sense of manliness by not vomiting. In fact I have not gotten sea sick on any boats this trip. Of course the water has never been more than a few feet and choppy but I now consider myself a seafaring fella. Ahoy, Whitey! Isla Ometepe is quite a unique place. Lots of wildlife, tons of birds and two kinds of monkeys. A taxi driver told me that years ago they passed a law saying that you could not shoot any animals on the island... except of course for chickens and dogs, he said. Awesome! I suppose they got a good view of keeping the animals safe and keeping tourists comingback. The first day I rented a motorcycle with Swiss Chris whom I have been traveling with. We rode all aound the island. The road circling the big volcano was paved but the road circling the other smaller volcano was dirt track and very bumpy. I have not ridden a motorcycle for over 25 years so I was slightly nervous. I figured it out pretty quickly and was off. As we crossed the island we saw tons of birds, a few howler monkeys and tons of smiling faces. As we got to the other side of the island we stopped for some water. When I got back on the bike I sorta spun out and fell down. A few locals ran outside to see what the hubub was about and started laughing at me. I was more than happy to provide a little entertainment. As I got back on the bike I realized that I did what I do with every rental peice of equipment that i'm on which is break it. The gear shift by my left foot was bent and as I tried to bend it back into place it snapped off. Luckily I was in second gear so for the rest of the trip I went a whopping 35km per hour. Seriously, it could not have happened at a furter point away from the start. To turn back would be the same exact distance as it would be to go on. I could not help but laugh at my clumsiness. We stopped at a hippie ecolodge that Swiss Chris wanted to stop at ate some delicious fresh bread which is very rare around here. Bread does not seem to be a thing the Central Americans concern themselves with. The bread that you can find is usually a glorified Wonder bread so this was indeed a rare treat. Then we went to a natural pool fed by volcanic waters called Ojos del Agua. Pretty spot but were terrorized by the local parrot gang who would not stop squawking and buzzing the tower of my noggin. I brought the hobbled bike back to the shop and had to pay an extra $30 for the part that I broke. What are you gonna do?! The tourism industry on Ometepe has taken a hit lately because Volcan Concepcion erupted less than a month ago. The hotel we were at still had a lot of ash on the leaves of the plants and the peak lost 100 meters of height in the blast. That is about 300 feet in a single minor eruption. When I heard this there was only one thing to do... run! The next morning a few of us got a guide and headed up the volcano. Elmer (our guide) would only take us up to 1200 meters of the 1600 meter volcano due to the recent activity. In addition to being bummed we could not go to the top I was disapointed when he would not let me take my machete. Apparently my pre-school arguement of 'but you have one' was not persuasive enough.
My disapointment was soon overshadowed by my inability to keep enough oxygen in my lungs and my profuse sweating. It has been a month or two since I had hiked and I was feeling it! As we got to the arbitrary 'do not cross this line' of 1200 meters I was overjoyed that we could stop going up and start to descend. The hike was really nice but rather steep near the end.
The wind was whipping but the sun was out and the views were great so I was very happy to have done it. We went down a different path and went through some pretty thick jungle trails. Now is the end of the dry season and the previous rainy season was one of the driest on record so the jungle was not as thick as usual but it didn't stop me from thinking I was grabbing a snake everytime I went to grab a branch. I believe the word is paranoia. At this point I wished I had a smaller machete that I could have concealed from Elmer until after the hike was well along the way. Hmmmm, note to self. Looks like I might once again be heading to little place called machete-town!
