Ometepe 19th – 21st Aug

 
As the boat approaches this island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, you can wonder at the fact that there are Bull Sharks & Sword Fish in the fresh water below you which made it by ‘jumping’ up the river from the Caribbean Sea. The island looks magical, like something out of Jurassic Park, with two towering volcanoes, each surrounded in mist & lush jungle beneath them. We hopped onto a chicken bus on arrival to travel for two hours to the other side of the island. It is not that big, however, the island does not have proper roads and there was a big downpour as we arrived, making the mud tracks into muddy rivers. The 1960s US style school bus delivered though and we made it to the track at the entrance to Finca Magdalena, a hostel we had outlined before arriving. We did get a little unsure as we walked up the steep ‘1km’ pitch black dirt track through the jungle, dripping with sweat from carrying our rucksacks. After checking with a local, we discovered that we were on the right path and kept plodding on. The track was more like 2km & having been warned about snakes before getting on the bus, we were a little concerned at our lack of torch. However, out of nowhere, hundreds of tiny & beautiful twinkling lights appeared making the darkness look like there were fairies everywhere guiding us along – glowworms of course – my first experience of seeing them was entirely magical & meant that I didn’t care how long the track was as I could have looked at them all night flashing away. We heard lots of other exciting noises from the jungle too on the walk up, the most memorable being something which sounded a bit like a laser on a computer game firing away – not sure what it was, but hoping to get a guided walk in Costa Rica to find out! We arrived at the hostel, which was very basic but fun, had some food and collapsed into bed early.
On waking up the next morning, the view was spectacular – the climb up to the hostel meant we could see way out over the lake and all of the lush foliage which came before the beach. The lake is so big, you actually forget that it is not the sea you are staring at. There is a great veranda at the hostel, which is always full of interesting travelers swapping stories and enjoying the island. Directly in front is a beautiful tropical garden filled with all sorts of exotic, colourful flowers & subsequently, hundreds of butterflies. That is no exaggeration – they are everywhere, different shapes, colours, sizes fluttering around and they certainly made breakfast very pleasant indeed. We were even lucky enough to see a hummingbird fly right in front of our table to enjoy a bit of morning nectar. The hostel is actually a working farm that includes coffee, banana fields & they pride themselves on being 100% organic. The food is cheap, simple & delicious & the coffee speaks for itself – you cannot get fresher than this.
Mark & I enjoyed a walk around the jungle, looking out for interesting bugs and monkeys, which we could hear but were proving to be elusive. We followed a trail which is famous for its periglyphs – interesting stone carvings from the pre-Columbian era. We also walked down into the village, which is very poor and basic, with dirt huts, farms animals, etc, but quite obviously self sufficient and full of friendly smiles. We found some American girls who also wanted to climb the volcano & so we got a cheaper guide for the next day.
Climbing the volcano was interesting – 8 hours up and down the muddiest, rockiest path I have ever seen. The four of us were sliding all over the place and we certainly got to the point where we would have been happy to lie on the floor and do star jumps in the mud as we were past the point of no return. The path took us up through the coffee and cocoa plantation, then up into the jungle and cloud forest. We saw some interesting wildlife…Howler monkeys, White Faced monkeys, lots of red ants, a coral snake and most interesting, a mountain crab! I just assumed he was a bit lost and confused, but apparently they live in the mountains too. At the summit, you descend into the crater to find a pretty lake, which you can swim in. We sat and nibbled our crackers as we had not been organized enough to get sandwiches and were kept entertained by the many rats that live in the grasses, who kept coming out to investigate. After a cold shower, bowl of chicken soup and some tea, we were feeling human again ready for our very early bus the next day [4.45am] – yikes. JG
Nb. The climb is steep and not necessarily easy. The hostel lies at 100m above sea level and through five kilometers of jungle you hike up to 1200 meters before dropping into the crater to the lake which lies just below it. The change of the vegetation was pretty interesting from jungle through to cloud forest at the top the massive amounts of mud made the trekking challenging. MT