Feb 8 - Jonathan - Kickin' It Not So Clean

So, we just got back from a weekend excursion... our only weekend excursion in Nicaragua. We decided to go to Ometepe, an island with not one, but two volcanoes, poised to erupt at any moment. I highly suggest going to www.googlemaps.com, searching for “Ometepe, Nicaragua,” and zooming in as much as possible with the satellite view... pretty cool.

The island was beautiful. The volcanoes were impressive. The adventure was solid.

So, we took a 6am bus out of our little town Saturday morning. Early bus, should be fairly empty, right? Nope! Picture an old school bus, jammed with people, 2 or 3 to every seat, people squished into the aisle more than anyone thought humanly possible, plus a ton of people riding on the roof. That was our bus.

So, it was no wonder when it broke while trying to negotiate a corner in Tola, a small town not far from our tiny village. We got a partial refund, had to wait for another (thankfully, slightly less crowded - though we still had to stand) bus, which took us to Rivas. There, we thought we were going to take a bus to San Jorge, but we couldn’t find anyone honest enough to tell us where the bus stop was, because everyone we talked to had a taxi they wanted to chauffeur us in.

We finally caved in and paid the $4 to take a taxi to San Jorge, where we had to catch the ferry. There were lots of smaller boats, but they apparently are a lot less smooth of a ride, and considering that ferries hadn’t been running for a few days prior because of winds 30-40mph (think tropical storm), we thought it wise to take the big boat.

We had to wait awhile, but it provided an excellent opportunity to play Uno, people watch, and watch people on the smaller boats unloading bags (which consisted of hurling huge suitcases and backpacking packs over about a 5’ wide gap between the boat and the dock... no bags got wet while we watched, though.

Finally, we took the ferry, after about an hour or so of waiting. Once we got to the other side of the island, we ate lunch. The restaurant only had two fish left, so we got them, and a few other things. I still am not entirely used to the fact that the entire fish is cooked and served here. It looks cool, though.

We had planned to venture further inland, toward the more distant volcano for some hiking, but our journey had taken longer than expected, so we decided to try going about a third of the way - to Charco Verde, where there’s some lagoon with a chico grande or something living in it, who gets mad if you take his picture, but often offers to buy your soul for lots and lots of riches. And then your soul apparently goes into a cow on the island. Or so that’s the story they tell.

But this place turned out to be basically the middle of nowhere. We got off the bus and had to walk a long ways to find any other people. We found one of the three hotels listed in Lonely Planet, and it didn’t have enough rooms for us. So, we headed back to the city where the ferry dropped us off.

Fortunately, just when we got back to the road at Charco Verde, a bus came by and picked us up. We went back to Moyogalpa, and pretty quickly found a hotel there. We got rooms. We had heard ahead of time that the town didn’t have water (some broken pipe somewhere), but were told it would come back on around 6pm. But they had a pool, so at least we could kick it chlorine clean.

Only, when we got there, we found out that the new water return was forecasted at 8pm, and the pool was broken and therefore closed. Nicaragua. Ahhh...

We went to eat at a pizza place because all of us were a little sick of rice and beans and fish. The pizza was really good. It has been really easy for us to almost always stay under our budgeted $4 each for breakfast and lunch and $7 for dinner. We got three medium pizzas and drinks and were still way under our $21.

We went back to the hotel and had had enough adventure. There was still the possibility of hiking in the morning, so we went to bed. When we woke up and talked to a guide (Lonely Planet says gringos die hiking the volcanoes if they don’t get guides), it turned out the hike was going to be at least $20 per person (for taxi to the trailhead, plus his fee), so that was suddenly a lot less appealing.

We ate breakfast and considered seeing more of the island by bus, but very few buses run on Sundays, so that didn’t really work out. We had experienced a lot of adventure, though, and all of us were fine with the plan to just head back.

So we went to catch the ferry. None had left yet, but there was one in the dock. We asked people when it was going to leave, but no one seemed to know. Then Neil and I noticed that there were people working on its detached rudder. And there was a broken propeller on the dock next to it. Didn’t look good.

Another ferry came around 10:30am We got on, hoping it would leave soon. It didn’t. At 11:30, they told us the winds were too bad, and we could go ashore, because it wouldn’t be leaving until 2:30. Fortunately, Alisha pointed out it might leave early if we abandoned ship, so I asked the guy, and he acknowledged that if the winds died down, they would leave before 2:30.

We ended up leaving at noon. It was a fairly smooth ride - better than the way there. We got another taxi to Rivas (where our bus back home would be), and had a heck of a time finding people honest enough to tell us that a bus was, indeed, coming. We got to Rivas around 2pm, and the bus was apparently leaving at 4. We stopped at a supermarket and got some cucumber, tomatoes, tortillas, and cream cheese to make wraps. After walking all the way back to the bus stop, I realized I didn’t have my swiss army knife, which I was counting on to cut the veggies, so we went back to the store and bought a set of kitchen knives.

The bus had come while I was buying the knives, so my three companions had boarded and saved me a seat. We made our wraps sitting on the bus, waiting for it to leave (that’s right - I said sitting). The ride back was thankfully uneventful, and we made it safely to the Surf Sanctuary.

Slightly annoyingly, they didn’t have dinner for us, even though we had told them we would be back for it, so we had to go to a restaurant down the street infamous for its bad service. They almost got our order right, though, and it only took a little over an hour for our food, so all was well with the universe again. Especially with a fresh pineapple that we had bought in our room, waiting to be introduced to our new kitchen knives.

Also, just so everyone knows, this may be the last internet access until El Salvador (Feb 15-ish). Just so you know.