Isla de Ometepe

I was a little sad to leave the familiar comfort of NicaYoga retreat center...but also so excited to set out on a new adventure. My first destination was a spot that was highly recommended to me by almost everyone I asked for advice on Nicaragua. Isla de Ometepe is a Lake Nicaragua island comprised of two volcanoes, one of which (Volcan Concepcion--and sorry that I can't figure out how to use the accent marks on this computer keyboard) is still considered active and the other of which (Volcan Maderas) dormant and now has a crater lake at its peak.

 

The trip to Ometepe from the mainland involves a ferry ride, and by "ferry," I mean something like this (I was really glad to be on a bigger boat, which could actually carry a truck and several other vehicles on the back):

 

Safely docked at the island's principal town of Moyogalpa, I checked into a hostel where I intended to stay for a night or two before checking out other parts of the island. But I really liked Moyogalpa and ended up staying there all four nights of my visit, doing the rest of my exploring in day trips.

One of my first tasks was to find a post office to mail the postcards I'd had for nearly a month, since it turned out there's not actually a post office in San Juan del Sur (at least according to the bus driver I asked directions from). One of the Moyogalpa hostel managers told me to walk almost all the way out of town on a particular road and then look for a "Correo" sign, and that would be the post office. Skeptically, I followed his directions (aren't P.O.'s usually in the center of a town?), found the sign, and nervously entered what appeared to be the yard of a family home. Just as I was about to hightail it out of there, an adorably energetic woman bustled out of her living room and directed me to a side room (AKA, the post office), featuring this desk piled a foot high with paperwork. It took her several minutes to even locate the stamps amid all the chaos, and once she found them, she began a painstaking process of trying to fit the four stamps required into the one-stamp space I'd left on each card. She cheerfully rejected my help and sent me on my way after I'd paid and watched her spend nearly 10 painstaking minutes putting stamps on the first three (of many) of my postcards. She might still be at it as I type this days later, and I'm pretty sure my postcards will be swallowed up by that desk rather than actually being sent anywhere, but I tried!

My "work" done, all I had to do for 3 days/four nights was to explore the lovely island. I feel like I barely made a dent and am going to have to come back here someday, for sure. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I didn't feel very interested in doing the tourist things (the 10-12-hour ascent of Concepcion just sounded like torture, and that despite my psychotic love of volcanoes), and though there were some completely affordable daytrips available, all I wanted to do was ride public buses around and take long walks and say hi to everyone I came across and see what happened.

 

So that's what I did. A tour guide who roped me into listening to his spiel suggested that a good solo walk from Moyogalpa would be the three miles out to a gravel isthmus called Punta Jesus Maria. So on my first day there I made that walk and loved the amazing views of the spit and the mainland, the volcano, and the lovely scenery along the way.

 

After this and every hot, sweaty day, I got to shower with banana trees overhead. Literally.

On another day, I rode a series of public buses from Moyogalpa (on the Concepcion side of the island) to the Maderas side to see how the other half lives.

Maderas is definitely the quieter, less populated half of the island, which is saying something. I loved walking from Santa Cruz to Balgue, watching impromptu baseball games in the street...

...and trying to make friends with everyone possible.

I know this sounds trite and cliché, but the people here are just really SO NICE. When I've said hello to a stranger or assaulted anyone's ears with my poor Spanish, nine times out of ten they've been nothing but kind and generous and smilingly polite to me in return, helping however they can. So lovely. And the food is right up my alley.

Ometepe also boasts a 17-kilometer-long beach (Playa Santa Domingo). Not the most gorgeous beach I've ever seen (horseback is a popular mode of transportation here, and people seem to like riding on the beach as much as anywhere else, so you're just as likely to step in horsecrap as you are fresh sand), but certainly impressive in its length, not to mention the backdrop, and fun to see just as many locals as gringos enjoying it all.

I'm already planning my return trip (scheduled for: someday), when I'll stay on the Maderas side of the island, visit a waterfall that's supposed to be nice, check out the public hot springs pool, and maybe even drum up the guts to tackle some or all of one or both of the volcanoes.