We left with all our bags strapped to us and weighing us down almost beyond being able to go up and down stairs. The taxi we caught to San Jorge, the ferry dock for Ometepe, had tires that probably should have been changed 100 years ago. Right around the time the car was probably made. So the whole ride to the ferry was full of suspense, "Will we spin uncontrollably across the highway, or won't we????" "Will the tires explode, or not?!??"
This, after being told to be sure to get a ferry and not a smaller lancha because it's been so windy and the lanchas are more prone to CAPSIZING or SINKING. This was funny because the only boats we could get that day were, in fact, lanchas.
"WILL we sink and lose all our belongings to the Lago Cocibolca or won't we???"
It was a very suspenseful trip. I felt like Tom Cruise but less Scientologisty.
The lancha was an old wooden boat that was loaded way past whatever "maximum capacity" would be if that kind of thing existed here. They piled our bags on top of the boat, and half of me was wondering if it would rock and they would just slide off the side. More suspense. We sat at the back on the lower, inside part of the boat near what would turn out to be the bathroom. The boat started up and immediately, a fountain of water came spurting up between two of the floor boards. This continued for the entire trip.
(Loading up the lancha...)Needless to say, we didn't explode OR sink.
We landed on the island and saw a sign almost right off the ferry for a hotel I'd read about and recognized the name of so we stopped there, booked a room, and dropped our bags. It was evening and we didn't venture out that day, but we could see Volcan Conception from the room and it was breathtaking.
A little info on Ometepe:
The island is made up of two volcanoes, one active (Conception) and one dormant (Maderas). They are connected by a small piece of land, and the whole island sits in Lake Nicaragua or "Cocibolca" which is another name for it. Its incredibly beautiful.
(Volcan Concepcion in a flashing moment of a clear view of the top before the clouds formed again.)We rented a scooter and explored the island as much as we could on a scooter. Only about half of it is paved. The first scooter we rented was a piece of work. When the guy finally got it started, a bunch of liquid fell out the bottom, and soon after, the ignition fell into the machine. They found it and put it back, but it was exciting... We checked out a place called "Ojo de Agua" or "Eye of the Water" which has also been called the "fountain of youth". It's an underground volcanic spring full of minerals which are supposed to have "medicinal properties". Whether they really do rejuvenate, relax, and heal your skin or not... It is a great place to swim and a beautiful spot. They also serve some pretty killer tacos.
(Ojo De Agua, the fountain of youth. Aaahhh.)Also on the agenda was Charco Verde, the green lagoon. This turned out to be...not as green as I'd expected. It was pretty much just a smaller lake attached to a big lake and separated by some land. There was a really nice walk around it though, full of monkeys, lizards, birds, and some random horses. We hiked up to a lookout and found out that, from up high, it actually is pretty gorgeous.
(Monkeys in the trees above our heads at Charco Verde)The locals have a legend about "Chico Largo" who watches over and guards the magic of Charco Verde.
In addition to being a sanctuary for wildlife, the Charco Verde Ecological Reserve is famous for the local tale of Chico Largo. As legend has it, in the 1800s a character from the community of San José del Sur, Francisco Rodríguez, also known as Chico Largo, took up certain occult customs of his indigenous ancestors, practicing witchcraft, healing and the reincarnation of people by turning them into animals.
Chico Largo practiced his craft around the lagoon, calling upon the gods or demons to change himself into a deer and thus to travel easily through the forest and eat without paying a cent.
During one of his adventures as a deer, Chico Largo forayed into an adjacent region known as El Mirador del Diablo (the Devil’s Lookout), where he was gravely wounded by hunters. Following the trail of blood, the hunters chased the deer along the path through El Mirador del Diablo to the lagoon where Chico Largo carried out his dark arts.
By morning, however, Chico Largo had reached his home. Mortally wounded, he was unable to return to his original human state. His mother Bucha, herself an expert witch and healer, could not resolve the case with all of her potions and incantations and, still half human and half deer, Chico Largo died.
Mamá Bucha kept the event a secret. Taking her son’s lifeless body in her arms, she buried him along the banks of the lagoon at the site of his rituals. Eventually, neighbors realized what had occurred, relating the hunters’ story to Chico Largo’s sudden absence.
Mamá Bucha was forced to tell the truth and, with the neighbors, decided to exhume her son’s body and give him a Christian burial. To her surprise, at the gravesite she finds only Chico Largo’s blood-stained clothes and the sheets in which he was wrapped.
To this day, the people of San José del Sur swear that the spirit of Chico Largo remains as guardian and protector over the magic place of Charco Verde.(Cruisin)
Our trip consisted mostly of exploring, eating great food, and gazing at the volcanoes like the total tourists that we are. Maybe if we'd had some more time we would have mustered the courage to try out one of the hikes up the volcanoes. Conception requires quite a bit of skill, like mountaineering skill, or you can take the 5 hour version to 1000m to the lookout. Maderas is a muddy slippery and steep 8 hour hike which sometimes ends in a cloud of rain and fog making it hard to see anything. Knowing that, people say that its pretty cool once you get past that. Ryan and I, however, are somewhat lacking in endurance these days after so much beach time. Hopefully soon we will be back in action though, and trekking through all kinds of jungles.
On our last day, we met up with Rosa and Lisa for breakfast (we found a great spot) and caught the ferry this time (much better)
Although loading the ferry up is nothing like BC Ferries. BC Ferries would pee themselves. This was like "anything goes" as long as the cars fit somehow. One truck comes on, the whole boat tilts... Then again pretty much every day in Central America is like that. Anything goes. No handrails, no "do not enter" sings. Everything is just more like, "use your eyes and dont fall off".
We left Ometepe partially wanting to stay much longer, but also glad that we went and still excited by it. I still can't believe how beautiful it was. Traveling through all these countries you see a lot of jungle, a lot of flowers, monkeys, ocean, etc... So it was even more impressive that after so many volcanoes and beautiful places, Ometepe was still breath taking.
(Volcan Concepcion again...)
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