April 13 – April 14, 2018
We headed back to towards Lago Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) to take the ferry to La Isla de Ometepe. Ometepe consists of two volcanos, the active Concepcion (which hasn’t done anything in probably about 70 years) and the inactive Maderas, which ages ago became joined to form a single island.
We arrived without a ferry reservation and were told that we could get a spot on the next sailing, leaving in about an hour. We drove to the loading dock and were instructed to wait while they loaded other cars onto the small ferry. They loaded a car, then a truck, then a mini van…we were starting to think that there was no way that they could fit our vehicle on, but when it came our time to load, we were shoe-horned in; Derek had to climb over the console and out the passenger side door, and we both had to climb up on our front bumper to get to where we were required to ride out the trip to the island.
The view of the island from the ferry terminal, Concepcion on the left, Maderas on the right.
Seymour enjoying a boat ride. Our back tire ended exactly where the rear ramp folded up.
The ferry ride took about one hour and the lake was wavy, requiring a spare hand for the boat any time you tried to walk anywhere. We stood outside at the front of the ferry and watched as the two volcanos got closer and closer. Piper stayed close to the hull of the ship, using the deck and the hull of the ferry to keep her balance.
Once on the island we drove a short way to our camping spot for the night, on the property of a nice hotel with a restaurant, a pool, electrical plug in, wifi and a beautiful view of the sunset. That evening, we walked to the end of the road to Punta Jesus Maria, a sand point that when the lake is low can extend as far as a kilometer out into the lake. We watched the sun go down with several other tourists, mostly young backpackers who were on the island to have zip line adventures, rent ATV’s or do the brutally hard climb of one or both of volcanos that make up the island.
The view back to the mainland from our camping spot.
These two buddies hang out in one of the trees near the hotel we camped at. The scarlet macaw is injured and cannot fly and cries out for it’s best friend anytime the other parrot gets too far away.
Punta Jesus Maria and the view back towards Volcan Concepcion.
Sunset.
The next morning as we left the hotel to go exploring, I was once again surprised by the enormity of Volcan Concepcion as she emerged from behind the trees, having half forgotten where we were. We drove around the cone to Ojo de Agua, a natural mineral spring where we were able to swim in nice cool water. As we were leaving we chatted with a couple from Seattle who had driven to Panama and were now making their way back home. They gave us a cool sasquatch sticker, which is now proudly on the back of our camper. Their buddy makes stickers and gave them a variety of stickers to hand out to kids along the way, and they thought we needed a Bigfoot sticker, and they were right!
The beautiful Volcan Concepcion.
We had discussed maybe climbing one of the volcanos on the island, but after reading the trail descriptions we decided against it….they are both tough, often muddy climbs, and you are likely to be in the clouds when you reach the top. it just didn’t appeal to us in 30 degree plus temperatures. Also, we wouldn’t be able to take Piper, and stuffing her in the camper for 8 hours didn’t seem right (sure, blame it on the dog!). Instead, we continued driving on the small island roads until they became too rough, then we cut between the two volcanos and back to the same spot we had spent the night before, had a nice dinner and some wine while we watched the sun set.
Mom and colt. We see lot of horses in Nicaragua, both with and without riders. Also carts pulled by oxen.
We watched a group of active and funny group of white faced capuchin monkeys on our drive around the island.
Piper was very excited to see these guys jumping from tree to tree and running across the road in front of our truck.
We had been pretty excited to go to Ometepe, and we are glad we did, even if we didn’t take advantage of all the adventures that are available on the island. An uneventful ferry ride (as we like them to be!) returned us to the mainland where we headed back to the beautiful Pacific beaches of Nicaragua!
Nicaraguan version of the blue jay.
Another shot that better shows his quail-like crest.