Ometepe

We took a ferry to cross from the port at San Jorge to Ometepe Island. This place is pretty phenomenal; it’s an island made of two volcanoes, Conception, an active volcano, and Maderas, a dormant one. Ometepe is the second largest freshwater lake in Latin America (after Lake Titicaca), and the lake is on average only 30m deep. The island has been inhabited for around 4,000 years and the volcanoes have had some pretty immense eruptions. The island has a population of around 50k living in approximately 30 different communities so it’s fairly substantial!

We stopped very close to the port for lunch, I had grilled chicken with rice and vegetables and a drink for C308 (£7.06) while we had a bit of a brief about the island.

Then we went to the community centre and we were introduced to the women that run it, and we were divided into pairs and introduced to the woman we would be staying with for two nights. Vanessa and I stayed with Sandra, and she walked us up to her house. It was a bit different to how I imagined a homestay – Sandra and her family run the place as an Airbnb and so they have a separate building for guests rather than staying with the family.

The whole group hired bikes and we rode to Punta Jesus Maria to watch the sunset. I had no idea until later that evening just how much impact the raised water level would have on the island – there’s a stunning sandbar which is currently submerged. Sunset was beautiful with a view of the volcano behind us.

On the ride back, the grass on either side of the road was sparkling with fireflies – a magical sight.

After sunset, Vanessa and I returned to the homestay for dinner. I had hoped for a good opportunity to practice speaking Spanish and to be fair, we did have a few conversations about the trip, the group and their family but it did feel like we were intruding on their evening and we went to bed early.

Up and out on the road ready for collection at 5am. Surprising amount of people up and about. Or perhaps less surprising when you consider that the cockerels start cock-a-doodle-dooing at 2am!! My back had some nerve-related pain so I ended up not doing the volcano hike, I went for a walk as the sun was coming up. I walked to the abandoned airstrip which has been closed since the latest unrest in 2018. From there you can get a lovely view of Conception.

Instead of the hike, I joined the group doing a tour of the island. We started off on a wildlife walk including a butterfly garden at a place called Chaco Verde. The butterfly garden was quite small but it was packed with life. On the jungle walk we saw howler monkeys and quite a lot of cool bugs and birds.

Next stop was to visit an archaeological site with petroglyphs carved by the early settlers 3,000-4,000 years ago.

After that we took a diversion from the normal itinerary to visit Chocolate Paradise, a very strange retreat on the lakeshore where you can undergo a chocolate ceremony. We met some of the patrons who have been through the ceremony that morning and to be honest they seemed off their heads. We stayed long enough for some of us to have lunch, I paid $16 for a delicious coconut curry, a smoothy and a cappuccino. The cappuccino was awful but the rest more than made up for it.

We had some time to enjoy the beach club at hotel villa paraís and I spent a while down by the water birdwatching. The beach here has also been totally submerged by the high water. Hopefully when it finally recedes, there will be a beach left to enjoy.

Our final stop was Ojo de Agua, a volcanic spring pool (not a hot spring) in the jungle. It’s a lovely place to relax. Not a lot to do but there’s a rope swing and a decent sized pool to swim in.

To celebrate Vanessa’s birthday we all had dinner at the community centre. It was all going fine until we went over to the kitchen to collect our plates. I stood in an ants nest in the dark while wearing flipflops and ended up getting really badly bitten (and needing steroid cream to calm down the blisters!).

Pick up was at 0500 so we had another early night. It’s been pretty nice to get up early to be honest. I’m not a morning person but I’ve enjoyed seeing the dawn light.

We went to the port and our ferry finally left at 6am after being loaded with two alarmingly large trucks on the same side, one packed to the brim with pineapples.

Now to head to Costa Rica!!!