Wandergliding: Ometepe Island

December 16^th-19^th, 2014

Ometepe Island is a large island shaped like a barbell in the massive Lake Nicaragua. The island was formed by two volcanoes, the larger one Concepcion which rises to 1610 meters above sea level and the other Maderas at 1394 meters. The lake itself, the 19^th largest in the world, is 161 kilometres from north to south and 71 kilometres wide. Unfortunately construction on a new canal, to rival the Panama Canal has begun in 2014 and it is funded and driven by a Chinese company. It will cut through from the west to the lake and then out the other side. The cost is projected to be upwards of $50 billion dollars and will take five years until completion. Unfortunately it will bring environmental damage and destruction to the ecosystem of this massive freshwater lake and it’s unlikely that local farmers who are displaced by the construction will be suitably compensated. All in the name of progress…

The ferry ride took a little over an hour although I’m not sure if the boat I took could really be considered a “ferry”. It was relatively small and we just sat on the flat deck on top which was just a roof for the lower level. As often happens, the “gringos” all hung out together. On the ride over I met a gregarious American from Miami named Jeff who, although he sounded like a crazy surfer dude, is a yoga instructor, there was also a young bearded Canadian Lucas and his El Salvadorian girlfriend Gabriella, Sean, a forest fire fighter from Nelson BC, a German who was in the insurance business named Thurston and there was Ontarian Steph whom I’d met back in Leon. Jeff had visited the island before and was staying at a place called Hacienda Merida. He gave good enough reviews of the hostel and its owner Alvarro that the rest of us decided to tag along and hope to find available beds there. We arrived at the tiny dock of San Jose del Sur (most ferry boats go to the bigger village of Moyogalpa, a little further north) and there were only 3-4 vehicles there waiting to receive the new arrivals. The Hacienda’s truck was able to hold all of us although Sean, Jeff and I had to stand in the back of the truck and we were pelted in the face by insects as we drove along.16^th-19^th, 2014

Starting towards the island:

Doing my Titanic:

On the ferry:

Getting closer:

Jeff already had a reservation as he had a yoga group showing up the following week but luckily they did have a private room for Lucas and Gabby and a dorm for the other four of us. I could tell immediately that I was going to enjoy my stay on Ometepe. We had a few beers, enjoyed sunset and then dug into a decent buffet dinner.

The next morning the plan was to hike up the nearby Maderas volcano. There was a policy that one guide was required for every three tourists and luckily we had six people interested in the hike. My dorm mates: Steph, Thurston and Sean, plus Fearghal (pronounced Fergal) an Irishman who has been residing in Vancouver for the last few years working for the air transport authority and Mike, an American from Oregon who although probably being the oldest, was the fittest of the group. We set off around 8am after a brief stop in a nearby shop for a few supplies (and surprises). The hike took us through some fields and along some pathways and the gradient slowly increased as we went. About two hours into the hike we were treated to a lovely view of Concepcion Volcano to the north. The wind began to pick up the higher we climbed and eventually we climbed into the clouds that were clinging to the top of Maderas.This unfortunately meant that once we reached the top we were not treated to a lovely view but instead…fog. Poor Sean got a nasty cramp in his calf just as he was scrambling across a narrow section where falling down would result in a serious injury, if not death. River guide Steph quickly hopped up there and helped him out.

One of the surprises in the store, Fearghal is modelling a nice cap with a picture of some lady legs that reads: "The word or the day is legs. Help spread the word"!

And now Fearghal's wearing the lovely cap with a rooster dress up like Superman and the caption: "Nothing like a big cock to wake you up in the morning"

Walking through the fields:

Our guides, giving us a talk about the petroglyphs and some of the local history:

This flower is oddly, yet aptly name "Prostitute's Lips":

The view of Concepcion Volcano:

Sean and Fearghal:

Getting windy...

It started to get steep near the top:

Starting to get a bit foggy:

Definitely in the clouds now:

Reaching the top:

Steph helping Sean with his cramp:

What a bad place to get a cramp!

We ate our packed lunch which we had ordered from the restaurant of the hostel the night before. I had commanded a chicken sandwich and the kitchen staff were reluctant to let me have it as they thought it would go bad before I would eat it so there were a few jokes about my “dangerous sandwich” at the peak. It turned out to be delicious after the big hike up.

Fearghal lovin' every minute of it:

The group at the top:

The descent was quicker than the ascent, but not necessarily easier as the knees and quads took a beating instead of the cardio challenge of going up. Sadly once we were most of the way down and could peer back up at what we had just conquered, the clouds had lifted. What a view it would have been clear when we were up there. Oh well, it was still a great hike, and a strenuous one at that as we covered 16 kilometres and 1350 meters of vertical, up and down. Sadly once we returned to the hacienda, they only had warm beer! Bastards!

The clouds cleared off the top of the volcano just as we made it down...and this is what I think of it:

Post hike:

We were treated to a lovely sunset for our efforts.

The following day I joined Sean, Jeff, Lucas and Gabby in renting motorbikes to tour around the island. In true “island” form, it took more than an hour, and a lot of confusion, before we had our bikes. During this time, Alvarro gave Sean and me a tour of the little school that he has constructed next to the hostel. Garbage removal or disposal is an issue on an island like Ometepe and Alvarro has adopted an interesting strategy to deal with the problem. Locals are encouraged to stuff one litre plastic bottles with other plastic refuse, and I mean really stuff them. They are paid a small sum of money for the bottle which is then used as a filler in walls, floors or even tables that are constructed from concrete. So there’s a side bonus that they don’t need to buy as much cement. So it’s a win, win, win situation. The school is to help educate local children in English and other subjects, garbage waste is reduced, locals make some money and Alvarro encourages foreigners to volunteer their time to help out teaching. Pretty cool guy with some good ideas.

The plastic bottle walls of the school:

The patio of the hacienda:

Once we were on the road, Jeff ran into problems with his bike, it just didn’t seem to want to go. There must have been a problem with air in the fuel line, or something with the carburetor or who knows but in the end he retreated back to the hostel. The rest of us continued on and it was a lovely ride up to Moyogalpa, on the north end of the island where we enjoyed a lovely pizza lunch. We continued our circumnavigation of the top end of the island and stopped at Ojo de Agua (Eye of Water) at the skinny middle section of the island which is a natural water springs pool. We ran into Jeff there who was able to limp his troublesome bike there. On leaving though his bike conked out so we left it there and he doubled with Sean (which he was not happy about!).

Lucas and Gabby with Jeff (in the red helmet) getting some consultation from Sean:

Live to Ride, Ride to Live!

There was a wicked lenticular cloud above Concepcion, and one downwind from it.

This is the view from the right side of the volcano from the previous pic:

We had an awesome pizza lunch in Moyogalpa, the main town on the island:

Now on the north side of the island:

Sean the Volcanologist:

And now Hercules Sean:

Concepcion's covered over:

A nice farm on the north end of the island:

The next morning it was time to leave Ometepe as I needed to meet my family in Costa Rica for Christmas at the fancy all-inclusive Dreams Las Mareas resort in the Guanacaste area. Sean, Steph, Fearghal and a few others from the resort also departed so we enjoyed the ferry ride, on a nicer boat, from Moyogalpa before heading off in different directions. I took a chicken bus down to the border, walked across (it took about an hour to get through) and then another local bus to the town of La Cruz. I lucked out and found a room for $15 which had an open air restaurant with a wicked view of the coastline below and it was a gorgeous sunset.

Boarding the ferry: