The Island of Ometepe

Having spent the majority of the last few days being based in towns or cities our next location was a little more remote, a little beach hotel on the Isle of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua.

The hotel


The beach



Ometepe's landscape is dominated by two volcano's. Madera Volcano stands at 1340m whereas it's larger sister, Concepcion, is 1640m. Me, Nick and Eric quickly formed a plan to hike Concepcion, and as a 10 to 12 hr hike it wasn't going to be easy. As you can see from the photo's below it's a very arid landscape once you get up past the mid point. The final leg of the hike has to be undertaken by crawling on your chest in order to get to the crater's edge and see in. The actual edge of the crater is apparently quite delicate and has been known to crumble and fall in.

Concepcion and Madera


Concepcion

Unfortunately due to recent flash floods on the island the hike up Concepcion was deemed too dangerous to undertake by our local guide. As such a few people decided to hike the smaller Madera. I however took my bat and ball home and decided if I couldn't hike Concepcion I didn't want to hike anything. haha. So instead I spent the day on the beach and did absolutely nothing. And what a decision it was, the hiking group returned, with the majority verdict being that it had turned out to be a lot of effort for nothing too special.

Michael following his return from the hike

Passing traffic on the beach

We only really had two nights on Ometepe (this is a GAP tour afterall, no time for resting!!) and on the second night it was Rosie's birthday. As such we all went out for a meal together to a new little restaurant just round the corner from our hotel.

Now one thing I've quickly learnt about Central America from our GAP trip is alot of the restaurant's don't really know how to cope with more than about six people... and with sixteen people in our group this has caused some interesting results. However this restaurant took the biscuit, from entering the restaurant it was four hrs before we got our food. And in fairness the only reason we got our food then was becuase our guide, Maria, had gone into the kitchen and taken charge. During this time we had an electrical storm which had caused a powercut and the big Swede had marched out (mental note - never deprive a large Swede of food after he's been on an 8hr trek haha).

Rosie's birthday cake

In the end it got so ridculous the only thing to do was laugh about it, and as I reminded people we were on a tiny island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua... things just don't work the same as back home.

Our next destination however would be a marked contrast to Ometepe and the rest of Central America, as it was onwards to Costa Rica.