Day 30, 31, and 32 : Ometepe, Nicaragua

Day 30, 31, 32  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, March 17, 18, and 19

     The Hotel con Coridon ( Hotel with Heart) provided a nice breakfast with fruits, homemade bread, eggs or pancakes, coffee, tea, and a different kind of juice. We hung out at the hotel for the morning and took a cab at 10:00 to the ferry to purchase our tickets for $4.50 a piece to ride  the ferry to the island, Ometepe. Ometepe means two hills and was  formed by twin volcanos rising out of the lake.We were told that the island was unspoiled with shocking roads (My gosh, I have seen a lot of shocking roads already!) and  unbelievable charm.

     The ferry terminal was busier than the day before with people arriving with goods to be put on the ship and vendors selling snacks and drinks. After showing our passports, Larry was able to purchase two tickets. We got back into the taxi and went back to the hotel. The hotel was a relaxing oasis as the day grew hotter. At 12:30, we took a taxi back to the terminal.

Front of the boat terminal

Chicken Bus, local transportation

The Ferry Boat

The railway that had a flat bed railcar loaded to take supplies to the boat.

Men pushed the emptied flat bed car back to the building.

One vendor on the dock selling drinks and snacks before getting on the boat

     We boarded the the boat going to the top level. All Nicaraguans paid  the equivalent of $3.00 and rode on the lower level of the boat while the foreigners were told to ride the top level of the boat. Larry paid the equivilent of $3.00 each for two lounge chairs to sit out on the outside deck where the wind was whipping white caps in the lake. The boat pulled away from the dock a few minutes after 1:00.

These seat were pretty relaxing, I enjoyed reading a good book during our ride.

     We were surrounded by back packers, young couples, and  retirees who were looking for an adventure. Many were planning to rise at 5:30 the next morning to take the 10-12 hour steep climb up to the top of  Volcan de Conception which rises 1610 meters(about 5000 feet) above the lake in an almost perfect cone. Conception is still active with its last major eruption being in 1957. Would you want to live on this island knowing that the volcano out yourback door was still active? The other volcano, Maderas was smaller rising 1394 meters.  The boat ride was suppose to take 4 hours, but because of the high winds, it took 6 hours. We passed no other boats on the lake the whole trip and passed two volcanos to the west and land was spotted the whole way....thank goodness.  It was very windy and sprays of water from the lake would come over on us at times even on the top deck.

Another beautiful sunset on Lake Nicaragua

Two nights before the super moon

     As the sun set it was quite cool, especially with the spray of the water and wind blowing . We arrived at 7:00pm. The sun had set and we  walked through a large group of people who were boarding for the 9 hour trip to San Carlos. I did not envy these folks because of the rough water on the lake that they were going in encounter with the high winds.
     We had to walk up an unpaved  road for a bit of a distance, through a tall fence looking for our driver who we had hired earlier in the day to take us to the hotel. Luck was on our side that he was parked beyond the gate. He had his wife and his one year old son with him. Climbing into the back of his rickety van, he took us for a half an hour ride from the dock to Santa Cruz, Nicaragaua. For about 15 minutes of the ride we rode down another rough unpaved bumpy road. His car was making a grinding sound and Larry said, "This car needs some axle grease bad." I thought, "Please just get us to the hotel." The road then turned to the interlocked paved blocks that we had seen in Granada....a welcome change. Through the moonlight (it was almost the super moon) we noticed a lot of banana or plantain trees on each side of the road. Many natives were sitting outside their little houses enjoying the breezes.
     We were so happy to check into the hotel. It had air conditioning, a television with two English channels, a front porch with a hammock and two rustic chairs and table, and an attached bathroom, but no hot water. The walls were stoned from the inside...looking  very rustic at night. The wind blew hard all night.

We stayed at Hotel Villa Paraiso (Paradise)

                                                        The hotel lobby was open air.

Our bungalow, spent two nights here

View of Lake Nicaragua from our hotel

       The next day we realized that we were actually in a little bungalow and there were 20 such houses that sat right on the edge of a beach on Lake Nicaragua. The views from on top of the  little cliff where our bungalow sat were gorgeous looking out on the lake. The hotel restaurant also had magnificent views of the lake. We explored the little village and the beach on Friday. There were horses for rent across the street to ride up to the  volcano,  Two small rustic stores were located along the road  close to the hotel. We enjoyed the day taking pictures and relaxing with the new folks that we had met. This was the real Nicaragua. In the late afternoon around 3:00  the winds died down and these tiny little mosquitos came out....making us retreat to our room. The restaurant fixed us a great grilled chicken, plantains, rice, and salad dinner....one plate was enough to feed both Larry and I.
      The following morning we jumped into the hotel van around 8:15 and headed for the other side of the island to catch the ferry, a half an hour ride to San Jose de Sur. We passed through a couple of villages. The homes were stucco with tin roofs.Lots of Nics were riding horses or pulling carts with horses. Many had been busy gathering fire wood. Several horses were loaded down with the fire wood. They used this firewood to cook with.

A cart loaded with firewood.

       We made it to the ferry by 8:55 and watched the ferry dock. We boarded the ferry....this one allowed us to sit in the bottom of the boat, paying 80 cordove to ride for an hour to Saint Georgie.

The ferry to St. Georgie

     Our driver that we had arranged for in Granada did not show up, but we did manage to get a taxi to take us back to Pinas Blancas, the border town. We approached the same situation of tractor trailer trucks lined up on the Nicaraguan side of the driving lane. Our taxi drove in the on coming lane squeezing between these trucks and buses, other tractor trailers, cars, bicycles, horses and whateverelse came our way. Sometimes it was a pretty tight squeeze getting through and I just held my breath thinking, "I don't know how the cabby is going to squeeze us through."

So long to Nicaragua!

     Finally we made it to the border, and two people approached us telling us that we had to pay a dollar for this and a dollar for that. We passed through a little fenced gate with two girls collecting a dollar for each of to pass. This young man who spoke pretty good English came out of no where, guiding us to the places that we needed to go. It was such chaos that if he had not been there, I'm not sure we would have been able to find our way back. Anyway, he lead us clear on the other side of a huge building to the Nicaraguan passport office, which we recognized once we got past the building. I went into get our passports checked in while Larry went to find the most gosh awful bathroom that he has ever used in his whole life including China's.Men and women were using it and he had to pay two dollars to get a few sheets of TP as well as some water that you would use to flush it. The passport guard checked the passports out of the country but would not give me back Larry's passport. Larry had to go and get it from him. Then the young man led us to the Costa Rica pass port area which was way on the other side of the building.. No problems here. Larry found a cab driver that he negotiated with to take us back to the Oaks, a two hour ride for $65 dollars. It was a bargin to us. We could have taken the pubic bus, but it would have taken 4-5 hours to get back into our area during the hottest part of the day which this time of year is the 90's. Besides that the public bus has no airconditioning. The cab driver was fantastic meaning, he drove without passing everything on the road and he used the airconditioning the whole way. He spoke very little English so it was a very peaceful trip.
     In summary, Nicaragua is a lot poorer than Costa Rica. It is a lot dirter. You can not drink the water. We were told that it was a lot cheaper to live here...but we did not see any indication that it was. Perhaps if we had gone further into the country  we may have seen this. We did meet an American couple from Richmond who had sold their home in the USA and were planning to live in Granada for the year. They had been there for a month and seemed to be enjoying it.  Nicaraguans appear to live in structures that are more sturdier than the grass huts of East Timor. They don't seem to have the compounds or fences around their houses that we see a lot of in Costa Rica. Their windows of their houses are not barred as frequently....perhaps because they do not own valuable things to keep safe. They do have their share of dirt roads.

     When we arrived back at the Oaks, it looked fabulous. Traveling to Nicaragua was a good experience, but we sure were glad to have our nice conveniences of a hot shower, clean housing, and pleasant surroundings.