Ometepe Island

We got a chicken bus down to Rivas so that Mark could experience the local buses and then a taxi to san Jorge for the ferry to Ometepe Island. I had read a lot about Ometepe and its two towering volcanoes, but still wasn't sure what to expect at all. Ometepe sits in lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in central america and proudly displays its twin peaks for miles around. We got a lancha boat over and were happily basking in the sun on deck when a storm came in from nowhere and nearly blew us overboard! I've never seen such a quick transition from sun to rain nor have i seen so many people hot foot it under cover so fast! It made the hours ride quite bumpy so we were relieved to arrive and be able to jump in a cab to the hotel my german friends had recommended. We arrived at a charming hotel where we were shown to our own little cabin which was pretty darned nice. The hotel had a little beach and faced the lake with plenty of hammocks and sunloungers to relax in. The peace of the place was amazing and it was hard to do anything other than chill out and look in wonder at the beauty and calm of the vast lake in front of us and the soaring serenity of the volcano behind us. (and wonder how it could be the same lake we saw in Granda- it looked SO much nicer here!)

On the second day we did venture out and deciuded to hire bikes as the island had looked pretty flat from the cab ride. WRONG!!! the island was one big steep hill and, after 4km of cycling up it in the searing heat we were both sweating like pigs and threatening to collapse so we gave up on plan b (do stuff) and reverted straight back to plan a (do nothing!) with great ease!

I really enjoyed my time on Ometepe due to to pure chill factor but wished we could have afforded to hire a car (v expensive) to see more of the island as it was pretty much inacessible any other way unless you happened to be Lance Armstrong! It seemed to be a beautiful place where traditions of old were still firmly adhered to and life moved at a slower pace than on the mainland. It amy not have quite been the fairytale island described in the lonely planet but i certainly left it feeling the magic of a truly relaxed 2 days!