Isla de Ometepe

Yesterday I arrived in Isla de Ometepe, an island in Lago Nicaragua that was created by the two resident volcanoes, Maderas and Concepcion. The boat ride over here from San Jorge was quite an experience. The boat would definitely not be allowed in Sydney Harbour, that's for sure. We were on the top deck which barely had a bar around part of it to protect us. Add to that the water in the lake gets very choppy and yesterday the boat was rocking and rolling across. Thinking I might get a bit burnt I put my hat on before we took off but no longer had we pulled out of the port and the heavens opened. With no respite we just had to sit there and get wet, with the rain hitting like shards of glass in my eyes. It didn't last long and the strong wind partly dried me before another good soaking just before we docked - all that in a one hour boat ride.

The rest of the afternoon in the town of Moyogalpa was similar, intermittent rain and quite cool. As I sat in the hotel bar at night getting some internet time I was approached by a local who offered to guide me tomorrow. Initially offering his services as a guide for climbing Concepcion - I was not so keen - I said I would make up my mind in the morning once I knew what the weather would be like.

Sure as eggs he was here at 8 o'clock this morning and the sun was shining brightly. I hadn't changed my mind about Concepcion, a 10 hour hike and I'd already heard the trail was getting pretty bad in the rainy season. I opted for a motorbike tour of the island visiting a few sites and hiking to a waterfall. So I climbed on the back of Elmer's trailbike (barely room for me on the seat), he put on the one helmet he had, we stopped to get one litre of petrol (serious!), and we were off.

The island is bigger than you would expect and to get from Moyogalpa down to the waterfall on Maderas was 40km - half of that distance with shocking roads. The scenery once you got off the paved road was quite beautiful and we shared the road with horses, chickens, pigs, ducks, cows, a few people and a million butterflies, winding through different towns.

After a nice 3 hour hike through jungle up the side Maderas we reached an impressive waterfall - 56 metres tall. The rest of the day was lovely, we stopped at Merida for lunch, stopped at Playa Santo Domingo on the isthmus but it was raining, visited Ojo del Agua - a crystal clear swimming hole created by damming the river, Charco Verde - a beautiful lagoon in a national park with a story about a witch who lives in the water. Finally we stopped at Punta Jesus Maria which is a sandy spit reaching into the Lake which offers a beautiful vista of both Concepcion and Maderas. At that point it was nearly 5pm and I was buggered after about 4 hours of walking and over 80kms on the back of this dodgy bike. Relieved it was only about 15 minutes until we were back in town and typically, 3kms from town we get a flat tyre.

Elmer was completely deflated and true to the machismo attitude of the latinos, many preferred to point and laugh at him pushing his bike along the road with me trailing a few metres behind. Eventually we made it back here, covered in mud and sweat and rain. The cold shower was definitely a relief and the beer I'm drinking now an absolute necessity. Fun day!