ISLA OMETEPE - Wow, this place is unbelivable. Picture an inland freshwater lake, which is stamped in the middle with an island that consists of two volcanos. The waters around are inhabited by freshwater bullsharks, and the island is filled with tarantulas, massive toads, and howler monkeys. We had the best time!

These petroglyphs are estimated to be between 1,500 and 3,000 years old (they dont really know).




We watched Volcan Concepcion fume throughout our stay, and a couple of times it burped a huge grey cloud! This is the view from our hotel´s balcony. Just imagine a huge garden in front and clucking chickens, and you can start to understand the allure!



We hiked 8 hours (ow) to the top of the smaller, non active Volcan Maderas, which had a lake in the crater filled with pollywogs. 



These came out at night... this one was maybe a foot long?



And the BEST part! Tarantulas roamed about at night. I even found one in our room. Luckily we had seen about six of them in the previous evenings (we averaged 2 tarantulas a night) so it didnt feel like such a big deal to shoo it out into the hallway. 



Another interesting development on the island was the roadblocks. Apparently, the local mayor wanted the ferry to the mainland to adopt another port closer to their town, and organized roadblocks to hurt the ferry´s business in Moyogalpa. Im still not entirely clear about the logic behind this, but politics work differently in Nicaragua.

This is a picture of where we stayed on Isla Ometepe. Our hotel was called Finca Magdalena. Its a working coffee farm, and at the time of our visit they were drying coffee beans on cement slabs behind our building. All this for only 7 bucks a night!



And one last view of V. Concepcion from Finca Magdalena... we loved this place!

 

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