More from Ometepe and my adventure home

We were not exactly sure what we wanted to on our second day on Ometepe. There is a waterfall that a lot of people hike to and a number of nice places to swim and explore. We thought about getting bikes and checking out one or more of these places, but we decided that we would first visit an eco-lodge nearby. A friend of a friend of Daisy's was running this eco-lodge, and she was told to go visit it. So, we headed off to check it out. As the crow flies, it was not far away. But, it is fairly out of the way, and we had to make a big horshoe-like loop to get there. The lodge sits slightly up the side of Volcan Maderas and has amazing views in all directions. Rising up behind the lodge, is Volcan Maderas. Volcan Concepcion, with its cloud cap, stands to the north of the lodge. The positioning of the lodge also gives its guests a nice view of the small strip of land connecting the north and south parts of the island, as well as views of the lake on both sides of the island. It is really an amazingly beautiful spot. I do not think many women would complain about spending all or part of their honeymoon there. The project is not complete, but the lodges first guests are currently staying there. When finished, there will be 5 guest cabins and a large lodge with a bar and restaurant. Everything is underway, but only two of the cabins are completed. There is also an organic farm at the base of the hill where volunteers grow a large number of plants. A couple small cottages for the founders and permanent workers also sit tucked away on the hillside. We sat and enjoyed a beer with a couple of the people working on the place and then headed out.

When we got to the main road, we just kind of started walking. We were sort of headed toward an area known for its nice beaches. On the way, we bumped into a Sunday afternoon baseball game. We stopped to watch for a few innings. It was very entertaining. The players were wearing uniforms, but they were all different. I do not know if it was just a pick-up game, or it was some kind of local all-star game. The field was dry, dusty, and bumpy. Chickens, dogs, and pigs wandered aimlessly in the outfield, and a drunk heckler/motivator/consoler paced up and down the third baseline, hollering constantly. It seemed this guy was sort of part of the game. When a hitter would take a big cut, miss, and step out of the batter's box, he would head over to them, put his arm around them, and give them some words of advice and encouragement. He yelled and waved his arms wildly in the direction of the baserunners when the ball was in play. The only time anyone seemed to really take note of him, was when he wandered into play. The third base coach would quietly put his hands on the drunkerd's shoulders and guide back to foul territory without the game stopping(the heckler is on the very right side of one of the photos wearing all white and raising his arms). I really enjoyed the couple innings we watched. I could have stayed for the whole game, but we were with a couple of girls that were not too familiar with baseball. So, we headed on down the road. We ate lunch at a restaurant right on the lake as a fairly hard rain came down. It was the first time in 5 weeks that I had seen anything more than a sprinkle. We headed to the small beach town when the rain stopped(I cannot remember the name of the village at the moment). The lake was really high, and the beaches were covered. We had seen that this was not the case a little back down the road, so we backtracked to a nice strip of beach. The sand is soft and black because it is volcanic. We sat for awhile and enjoyed the beauty. I could not resist getting in and soon Daisy, Nick, and myself were all battling the waves. Lake Nicaragua is one of the biggest freshwater lakes in the world, and the waves can be almost like ocean waves. It was fairly shallow for about 100 meters, so Nick and I headed out and crashed into wave after wave. Though we still had a good walk home, we swam until it was almost dark. I agreed with Nick when he said, "I feel like a kid who does not want to go home." We enjoyed a nice walk back to the hostel. The streets were full of people talking, biking, and listening to music.

That night, we joined 2 Dutch girls and 1 German girl for supper. We had a good meal, and good conversation late into the night. Nick and Daisy wanted to catch a bus at the crack of dawn, so they went to bed before I did. I decided I would rather sleep a little longer and have a solo adventure home. The next morning I got up at about 9AM, had some breakfast, paid my bill, and headed out on foot. I knew there was a bus that was supposed to come at 11 and would have to pass me on the road. I figured I would take this bus, but wanted to walk as far as I could in order to avoid the hot, bumpy, crowded bus as much as possible. My goal was to make it to Altagracia by 2PM to catch a ferry straight to Granada. It was a very hot day. I walked and walked, sweated and sweated. The bus never came, so I ended up walking all the way to Altagracia. It took me almost 4 hours to get there. I think I must have walked about 12 miles, maybe more. I got there at 1:25PM and did not know where the ferry left from. I found a woman who spoke English and asked her. She said it was a ways outside of town and would probably take an hour to walk. So, I tried to find a taxi that would be cheap, but they tried to screw me. They wanted 15 U.S. dollars, which is a ton for a short drive here. I thought about trying to run, but wondered if I would make it or even find the right place. So, I ended up taking a bus to another town with a dock, taking a small boat back to the mainland, and taking a shuttle from there to the Rivas bus stop only to find out that I had just missed the last bus to Granada. It was only about 4:30PM. I talked to a few taxi drivers, but they were asking 20-30 U.S. dollars. I knew I could probably stay in a hostel for $5-6 dollars, so I turned them down. I also gave some serious thought to trying to hitch-hike back. I thought this could be really fun but also that the sun would set in less than an hour, and I would be less likely to be picked up. I would have been ok with sleeping in the ditch, (it would have been a good story) but I was worried my poor Spanish could land me far away from Granada. So, I stayed in Rivas. I took the bus home early the next morning and my trip was over. Overall, it was a slightly frustrating, but fun little journey. You never really know what will happen when travelling, but it can be fun as long as you have the right attitude.

Dedicated to Stijn

We finished our summer activity group last Wednesday with our trip to the zoo and had almost a week before the regular school year started. I definitely wanted to head out somewhere for this break and had a number of options. A group of girls were heading to the beach at San Juan Del Sur, a small beach/party town on the Pacific Ocean. I was very tempted to head down with them, but there were a few problems. I decided to move from one volunteer house to another and wanted to do this on Thursday, when the girls were leaving. I also wanted to go somewhere that I could do a little Spanish studying and thought there might be too many distractions in San Juan Del Sur. A few others were talking about heading to Ometepe, which is an island in Lake Nicaragua that was formed by two volcanoes, Concepcion and Maderas. I also thought about heading to a quiet beach on the Pacific that was highly recommended by Aleta. I ended up moving Thursday and missing the trip to San Juan Del Sur. I decided that I would head to Ometepe with Tiia, Nick, and Daisy and would head to the ocean sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Tiia decided that she could not come Thursday night, due to necessary preperation for a job interview in Managua on Monday. Nick showed up at 7:30, somewhat ready to head out. Daisy and I were not ready to roll. I had developed a cold a number of days earlier and was not feeling too well. Nick had been at a going away party the night before and was quite tired. When Nick heard that I did not really want to climb Volcan Maderas because I was sick, he informed me that he did not really want to go if we were not going to climb it. So, we started to think that we would not go. But, Stijn came to the rescue. He overheard our conversation and challenged my manhood. He basically asked me what kind of *wuss I was. My competitive nature has dwindled drastically over the last 6 years, but apparently I still have enough to take this challenge head on. Nick took a nap, I got ready, and we headed out a few hours later than planned.

The trip to Ometepe was a bit exhausting. We took an hour and a half bus ride to Rivas and I stood most of the way. It does not seem to be common practice to give up one's seat for a woman and even less so for a child. But, when I have a seat and see an old lady standing in the aisle, I remember mom teaching me to open and hold the door for others at the grocery store. I also look at their weathered skin and feet and think about how they have and will spend much more of their life on their feet than I ever will. So, I give my seat up. On this ride, I gave it up, got it back, and gave it up again multiple times as we dropped off and picked up more passengers. I ended up standing nearly all the way to Rivas. This was not too bad at all, but the trip was just beginning. We took a small shuttle from the "bus station" in Rivas to the dock, bought a ferry ticket, had some lunch, and headed out. The ride on the ferry took about an hour and was very enjoyable, with great views in all directions. Volcan Concepcion grew larger and larger as we creeped up on it. When we were about 50 meters from the landing dock, a shirtless Nicaraguan jumped off the ferry and swam quickly to the dock with a large rope in tow. We were soon pulled in and unloaded. We boarded a full bus and then shuffled around as they crammed 20 more people and their bags aboard. They would say through the windows from outside in Spanish, "move forward, move forward!" And then, minutes later yell, "move back, move back!" I have been on a lot of crammed buses, but I think this one took the cake. Ometepe seems to draw some interesting characters, and the bus was full of them. In the back, a shirtless guy with a surfboard tried hard to look as much like a stereotypical surfer as he could. Next to him, stood a light-skinned white guy wearing a wool-knit beanie, while I soaked my clothes with sweat just a few feet in front of him(it turns out this guy has been traveling for months and just lays down a sleeping bag and sleeps on the side of the road). Also scattered throughout the bus were a number of dread-locked hippie looking types that seem to flock to the island. All-in-all very interesting, but I wish there had been about 30 less people on the bus. It was a long, bumpy, hot, dusty, uncomfortable ride with a lot of stops. About 3 and a half hours later, we reached our destination. It was well after dark and we had to hike about 20 minutes up the side of Volcan Maderas to get to our hostel. Nick informed us that while riding the bus, he was reading his guide book. It said when heading to Finca Magdalena, our hostel, be sure to arrive before dark. We had a good laugh, pulled out our flashlights, and headed up the hill. It was actually a fun little hike. I think we were all happy to be off the bus. An English guy was walking behind us and asked if we knew where we were going. We told him we thought so, but were not totally sure. He told us his name was Ollie, and that he had missed his stop and had just hopped off with us. The four of us chatted about the stars and the beauty of the night until I saw something moving on the gravel road in front of us. I shined my flashlight in its direction. What we saw amazed us. The biggest toad any of us had ever seen was hopping quickly away from us. It was about the size of a small bunny or a really fat hampster.

We made it safely to the hostel, which used to be the center of a coffee and fruit plantation. A woman guided us to the dorm and unfolded some cots made of a plastic tarp like material. This would be our home for 3 nights at a whopping $2.50 a night. We had a late supper, arranged for a guide in the morning, and headed to bed.

At 8AM Nick, Ollie, and I headed up Volcan Maderas with our guide. Our guide was very friendly and pointed out birds, monkeys, petroglyphs, and plants on the easier beginning of the hike. He also explained a little history of the island and told us that Ometepe is a Nahuatl word which means two mountains. The Nahuatl's were the islands native inhabitants.

The climb got steeper and muddier with every step we took. We soon realized that the views would not be very good as we entered the clouds. It got to be extremely sloppy. We were basically walking up the bed of a small very steep stream and the soil was a very slippery orangish clay. It was not uncommon to have to get down on all fours on the climb. We climbed the way I like the most, at a good and steady pace. We only made a few very short stops on the way up. After reaching the peak, we took a few pictures. I dedicate the John Randle esque picture of myself with mud on my face to Stijn. We then took a sharp descent to the lagoon. Since we were in the clouds, we were only able to see the edge of the lagoon but enjoyed our sandwiches next to it. At the top, we met a family of Nicaraguans who had hiked up the other side. There were two young children with the family. I would estimate their ages to be about 6 and 8. I was amazed that they were able to make the hike and even more amazed to see that they did it in flip-flops!

The hike down consisted of a lot of slipping, sliding, and splashing. The clouds started to clear and when we were about 2/3's of the way down, we came out of them. The view was stunning, even though we were only about 1/3 of the way up the volcano. I can only imagine what the view from the top is like on a rare clear day(most volcanoes have a clouded cap even on completely clear days). I think our guide liked us, as we kept a good pace up and down the mountain and laughed and joked our way through the muck and slop.

I have a lot more to say about Ometepe and my journey back, but it will have to wait.

The Zoo

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Stijn and Marlies raised some money from Stijn's place of employment before they came here. They decided that they would try to do something special with some of it, so they planned a trip to the zoo to finish our summer activity group. We took a pretty big group there last Wednesday. My favorite part was the bus ride to the zoo. In true Nicaraguan fashion, we crammed a ton of students, volunteers, ayudantes, and parents on one bus. Many of the kids sat 4 or 5 to a seat, and most of the volunteers were standing. The school we work at, Juan Diego, is about 20 minutes outside of Granada and sits at the base of Volcan Mombacho a couple miles off the highway. Many of the students have not been far from home. So, going to Managua was a big deal. As the bus began rolling down the road, the children were pasted to the windows. They got even more excited when we hit the four lane freeway. Xavier got them all riled up each time we passed another vehicle. Xavier and all the children would howl "whooooo" every time we made a pass.

We had sandwiches and juice before heading into the zoo. All of the children were broken into groups with 3 or 4 volunteers to a group. Mara, Dietrich, and myself presided over the hipo group. We had the youngest kids, mostly 6 year-olds. The zoo itself was pretty fun, though I spent most of my time trying to keep the group together. We had a guide from the zoo for each group. He would tell the kids a little something about each animal we saw. But, it seemed the main goal of the young ones was to be the first to see whatever was next before the other children. It did not matter if they were face to face with a lion two feet away, they would try to see the donkey because it was next. Of course, this was also kind of funny. It is really something to see such youth and curiousity at work.

The bus ride home was filled with just as many "whoooo's." I sat in a seat with four young boys. One would not think that I would fit in a bus seat with 4 boys no matter how small they are. But, they all piled on top of each other and pressed their faces against the window, leaving me a comfortable seat next to the aisle. Overall, the trip was a huge success and went off without any major problems. Stijn and Marlies did an excellent job of putting the whole thing together.