Island of Ometepe

This month we had the chance of going to visit Ometepe Island, which is really not far at all from Tola. In fact, from some parts of town one can see the principal volcano on the island, Volcan Concepcion.

Jean and I along with my sister and her family went together, cramming 6 of us in a small car. Our trip started early in the morning as we left from Tola for the port of San Jorge near Rivas. I was really surprised to see how different the transportation systems are here on the Pacific than on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, and felt a bit sad for the people on Corn Island and what they have to put up with.

To get to Ometepe, one can take a ferry from San Jorge. There are several different boats run by different businesses that travel several times every day, usually once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The boats are very large and also comfortable and well maintained. You can also take your car, so we hopped out just before my brother in law drove onto the ship, where he was told to cram it into the corner so tightly the doors wouldn't open, so he had to get out of the passengers side door.

El Rey

Deck 4

The boat we went on was called "El Rey" or "The King" in English, which we read in some places was the nicer of the boats, and it certainly was a nice one. There are 4 decks, the top being open air with benches, and the other floors having more comfortable padded seats and tables, but being closed in by windows. The lower deck also had a small store selling phone credit as well as snacks. The trip to the Island takes about one hour, and is generally very calm as it is across a lake rather than the ocean.

Deck 3

The trip costed about 50 Cordobas per person, and as we came into view of Ometepe we had some breathtaking views of the two volcanoes that make up the island.

Jean giving me attitude

What stood out about the Island the moment we arrived was how lush and green it is. It is the rainy season, and its true that all of Nicaragua is relatively lush and green. But something about Ometepe takes it to another level. Not only are there a lot of trees but they are also huge. Perhaps it is due to the local government's strict rules on protecting the islands ecology, or maybe because of the rich volcanic soil. Whatever the case, this place is intensely green, and everywhere you go you are overwhelmed by the majestic view of the enormous volcanoes. I really had no idea of how big they were until we got closer. For perspective, the larger volcano was even visible from our balcony in Jinotepe.

Jean has always been a bit nervous about volcanoes, talking about stories she always heard about Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii. I kept reassuring her that although Concepcion (the bigger one) is indeed active, its not "that kind of volcano". To reassure her further that it was safe I did some research on volcanoes, different types, and the history of concepcion. To my surprise, Concepcion IS in fact "that kind" of volcano. According to wikipedia it is a "stratovolcano", some famous stratovolcanoes are Mt. Saint Helens and Mt. Vesuvius... And Concepcion's last major lava spewing eruption was in 2015...

Anyways... Ometepe is pretty. We stayed at a hotel on the eastern coast of the Island, between the two volcanoes. On one of the days of our trip we went to visit a really amazing place called "Ojo de Agua" which means "Eye of water". It is a naturally occurring spring reinforced into a swimming area in the middle of the jungle. Despite being a popular tourist destination it was very quite and peaceful. There is a well equipped restaurant up the hill and vendors by the water serving rum inside coconuts.

Another highlight of the trip was when we went horseback riding up to a waterfall on Volcan Maderas, which is definitely not "that kind" of volcano. It is in fact, extinct and has a lake in the crater. For our horseback tour we went down the town of Merida on the south west side of the Island. Along the way we met some of the witnesses who were out in the ministry, completely at random as they were walking along the dirt road in the forest, Coincidentally we knew one of the couples as they were old friends of Jean's from Bluefields. There are 6 congregations on the Island of Ometepe despite its relatively low population.

We understood that it would be a 2 hour ride on horseback to a waterfall. We weren't sure if we were going up the volcano very far, we imagined not because it would be a really long distance. As it turned out we were confused, the ride was 5 hours and we were climbing the volcano on horseback. The waterfall was right at the point where the volcano pokes into the clouds. 1 hour in we were already feeling sore, none of us having any experience with horses. Once we started to climb the views were spectacular. The road narrowed into a rocky path through the rainforests which blanket the bottom of the Maderas Volcano. As we got higher the bush became more and more dense, we heard and saw howler monkeys and many other exotic animals and birds. According to the information we had, at certain altitudes Maderas changes from rainforest to cloud forest. What this means is that because of the extreme humidity and cooler temperatures brought by the clouds the plant species in the area are completely different. By the time we reached this point we were a little light headed, and it was time to get off the horses and climb the rest of the way. The plants were absolutely enormous. There were ferns with branches the size of a house hanging from cliff sides overhead. the white haze of the lower fringes of the clouds drifted across the pathway. despite exhaustion and some dizzyness we made it to the waterfall. Words really can't describe the place, but the cool mist spraying off the fall was very refreshing.

The way back was less exhausting as the horses were a bit tired and didn't feel like going so fast. Except for the part when they realized they were going home and decided to gallop at full speed. Its been about a week now and my blisters from the saddle are just starting to heal. For a couple of days all of us had problems walking, but it was worth it.

I really liked Ometepe. Too much in fact. It has made me realize that I have a problematic addiction to exploring new places. When I go to a new place, I tend to like it so much and be so excited about it that I have a burning desire to go and live there. We JUST moved to Tola and that is just not an option, and theres no really good reason to do it either. The congregation needs us here, plus it was a lot of work to move all our crap. So, definitely not moving to Ometepe. Even though part of me wants to. Being on an Island again brought back a lot of nice memories from our year on Corn Island. We're looking forward to the next time we can go back there, maybe this time I'll actually have the money to get a diving licence.

Throwback Thursday

While we are having a very busy month already with our planned move to Tola, we decided to squeeze in a visit to Pearl Lagoon. Jean's mom had gone through a period of sickness and also had a surgery on her hand, so we felt we needed to go and spend some time and help out around the house.

We started out by catching the circuit assembly in spanish in Ticuantepe. This is the circuit assembly for the Tola congregation so it gave us a chance to meet some of the brothers in our new circuit. Even more exciting, my nephew got baptized. I am still so amazed that my family are here in Nicaragua to stay, and that my own nephew was answering the questions from the platform with "Si" instead of "yes". Right after the assembly my Brother in law gave us a ride into Managua. He insisted on driving us all the way to the bus terminal even though none of us were sure how to get there. We had always gone by taxi in the past. We consulted google maps to plan our route through the city, which gave us a very quick and direct way to get there. Unfortunately Google Maps does not have ALL the information... It didn't send us the wrong way, into any dead ends, or down any one way streets... but it did give us a lovely tour of the ghettos of Managua. We drove fast and kept the doors and windows locked, and we made it to the terminal. My brother in law and family took a different, somewhat longer route along the main highways to get back out of the city.

We were able to get our tickets that same day from the Wendelyn Vargas terminal at the Ivan Montenegro market. The bus would depart at 9:00 pm and travel to Rama overnight. We like this method for several reasons, one being that the night bus is always "express" meaning that it doesn't pick up extra people along the way. The trip took us about 5 hours, our chicken bus rolling through the night like a disco ball. We were in rama by 3:00 AM. Our bus ticket also garunteed us a seat on the 6:00AM panga to bluefields. The town of Rama never sleeps, so we were able to get some good breakfast for about 30 cords each while we waited for daybreak.

Another panga and lots of heavy rain and we were in Pearl Lagoon. The town has changed a little bit since we were last here, but not that much. It is still a quiet, friendly and slow paced town where it is easy to feel relaxed. Everywhere we go people are waving at us and shouting greetings from inside their house. "Ey! Wen yu reach back!?" And things like that. It looks like the rainy season is starting, although it's still fairly dry for lagoon. The entire area is still Incredibly lush and green compared to the pacific right now, due to the atlantic getting regular rains all year.

The congregation is also just as we remembered. Warm, friendly and crammed into a tiny house for the meeting. Although word is that they will be renting a larger house out towards Haulover to accomodate the rapidly growing congregation. Just like before it was so hard to get out the door of the kingdom hall because nobody wants to leave after the meeting.

It all feels so nostalgic being back "home" in Pearl Lagoon, the place we met and were married. We celebrated our 1 year and 6 month anniversary by having dinner at Casa Ulrich, the same restaurant where we went on our first date and where we had our wedding reception, which is still the very best in town, maybe even the best in Nicaragua.

In another post I plan to make a tourist map for Pearl Lagoon much like the ones I made for Corn Island. It will Include an up to date list of hotels and restaurants and also some travel tips, like how to get here and how to evade the town drunks.