Driving the bikes out of the restaurant was just as fun as driving them into the building. We had time for a quick breakfast with our new friend Gustavo who would not leave us alone because he was here to help us through all of the hard paperwork getting onto the little boat, $200 cordobas later the bikes and the three of us are on the boat for the one hour boat ride out to Isla Ometepe.
We can see the Volcano from the mainland and for the entire ride the mountains rise our of the lake and grow bigger and bigger. In the middle of the lake the boat stops to pick up some fishermen who ran out of gas.
Arriving these volcanos are massive, rising up 1,600+ and 1,300+ meters. The island consists of these two volcanos and are attached by a small land bridge that is the windiest part of the island.
The three of us cruse south around conception and cross the land bridge over to the smaller volcano Moderas. These roads have water drains every 100 meters and dip down and we slow as we come to them and bounce our way accross. There are also a plethera of dirt roads that are more populated with animals than people.
We arrive at a beautiful lakeside hostel, Hacienda Merida with smiles on our faces.
We set up our hamicas, take a small rest and then gear up without the luggage and hit the circular road around the island. We find that the worse the roads are the more friendly the people, and these roads were bad! Covered in giant rocks, we almost spilled out many times. This island is special really truly wonderful. During the contra Wars this island was unaffected due to its remoteness. There are wonderful 360 degree vistas of both the volcano and the lake.
The hostel has a large dock that is our entrance to the lake. We sleep with views of the lake and the wonderful volcano breeze. One of the other guests has a young kid who is violently sick, they ask us to give them a ride to the other side of the island to get some Gatorade. We have a wonderful buffett dinner and a dessert of the local school kids dancing for us.
The final performance is with two local transvestites. This is quite amazing culturally that they are allowed to do this in front of everyone. There were many derogatory remarks, especially by some premedical students from the USA, made in the crowd.
No comments:
Post a Comment