We couldn't stay long in San Juan del Sur, as it was a little pricey (our room cost about $400 cordobas, or $20 a night, opposed to $10-15 USD elsewhere), so we headed inland taking two buses, a taxi, and a ferry to the lovely Isla de Ometepe the next morning.
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
The ferry gave us a great view of the island - a green gem in the middle of the huge Lago Nicaragua. The island is flanked by two large volcanoes, one active, one inactive with a crater lake, and fringed with gray sand beaches. Quite a unique place. The people are so tranquilo y simpatico! Some say that if Nicaragua were to have a "wonder of the world" it would be this island, and I agree. After landing, we took the only bus we encountered and jumped on with a bunch of Nicaraguans and somehow got the last seat (which we ended up later giving to a mother with children). Our destination was the teeny town of Balgue at the base of Volcan Maderas (opposite side of the island from the ferry). I made friends with a woman named Lisba on the bus, and she recommended we stay at Finca Magdalena, a cooperative farm owned by 25 community members in Balgue.
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
The bus didn't arrive in Balgue until after dark, so we found ourselves hiking by the light of fireflies for about one kilometer up to the farm. There weren't any beds available, so we opted for a couple of hammocks hung up on the porch outside. The night watchman, an old man named Jose, gave us a quick tour of the place and assured me we would have no worries for mosquitos or safety and that he'd look out for us since we had been so simpatica y amable with him - a very sweet man.
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
The next morning, we hired a guide to take us hiking up the volcano. It was a beautiful hike with the sounds of singing cicadas and howling monkeys permeating the air. We passed fields of beans, rice, and coffee in the lower areas, and a verdant tropical rainforest at the higher up. The hike was tough on Aimee as it was very hot and humid, and very steep, but we made it to El Mirador - a great lookout point on the volcano where we could see the lake and Volcan Concepcion. I found a beautiful coral snake slithering across the trail, Fidel (our guide) was going to kill it, so I was glad it slithered away before he could chop it with his machete. The trail was extremely muddy, and despite my best efforts, toward the end I slipped and found myself doing the splits down a slippery slope. Our guide, Fidel, turned out to be the brother of my bus-friend, Lisba. Small world! He was patient and nice, but a little shy. Quite the opposite of Fidel, another guide, Francisco, was extremely friendly and outgoing and when he encountered us on the trail and saw Aimee having a hot, tough time, he cut and carved her a walking stick.
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
After the hike, I taught Aimee how to hand-wash clothes (half of iour clothing was super muddy) and she got a taste of what Bryan and I had to do while in Jamaica and Africa. Once our clothing was on the line drying, Francisco the friendly guide came up to talk to us and bought a big bottle of cerveza for the three of us to share. We decided to walk down to town to get dinner (cheaper than at the restaurant), so I invited a couple of solo British female travelers to join us. Francisco brought us to his parents' home, a humble farm, so he could change out of his muddy trail clothes. His parents were very old (Franciso is 26 and the youngest of 8 children), but they immmediately stood up, and offered us their seats, as a few other family members scrambled to grab whatever would suffice as a seat for their visitors - buckets, stools, and rickety chairs appeared. It was very similar to Giriama culture in Kenya, where the poorest families would greatly value a visitor and would go above and beyond to find a seat for them. They also gave us each a little fruit to eat, it was green and sour (not the greatest) but we ate the "Cocote" fruit and thanked them profusely. From there, we headed to the only restaurant in town and had a tasty dinner of marinated chicken, rice and beans, and fried plantain (the 'Tipica Nicarageuse' dish). Francisco made plans to meet us at the bus at 7:30 the next morning, and we would travel to the beach of Santo Domingo together where he was going to take Aimee horseback riding in the afternoon.
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
After arriving in Santo Domingo, we hiked to the pretty spring water swimming hole of Ojo de Agua and enjoyed a few hours of swimming. We had some great conversations with Francisco and he quickly became a good friend of ours. He attends the University in Rivas on a scholarship (first university student in his family) and confided that he has plans to open a language school and restaurant in Balgue one day and wanted to know our opinions. (During all this, I'm the interpreter for Aimee in English). Most impressive though is Francisco's outlook on life. Although his family is very poor (packed dirt floors, etc.) and he has had many hardships, he is an extremely happy, positive person just grateful for life and especially to be living on Isla de Ometepe. Anytime Aimee or I were worried about something or there seemed to be a problem, Francisco would say, "When you're on the most beautiful island of Ometepe, surrounded by a lake and volcanoes, there are no problems! Life is good!" He wants to live on the island forever, and I can see why. After they went horesback riding, I worked with Francisco on his English, for which he was very appreciative (he's been taking classes for 6 months). Franciso is respectful and very good friend to us, he even bought us (I feel bad since he is so poor!) each a pair of earrings as a surprise when we left. He also expressed such thoughtful, nice sentiments to us, and when I thanked him and told him what a nice outlook and positive sentiments he has, he said, "You have beautiful sentiments too, especially when you talk about your husband." Aw! We've made plans to meet up with him again on Friday in Masaya during a holiday/fiesta.
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
Today we left the island and traveled via 2 buses, 1 ferry, 1 taxi, and in the back of 1 truck to the colonial city of Granada on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. Very different than the sleepy, tranquilo Ometepe, but beautiful in its own right. Although I really miss my traveling with my husband, in traveling with my sister and being together 24/7 we are learning a lot about one another and haven't been this close for a decade! New dimension to traveling this time! Tomorrow we are going kayaking and birdwatching with a guide, so I need to wake up early and wrap this up now...
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
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| From Nicaragua Sisters Trip August 2008 |
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