La Isla de Ometepe

Last weekend we had a three day weekend and a couple of other volunteers and I decided to take a trip to La Isla de Ometepe. It is known to be a very pretty and relaxing island and  host to two large volcanoes and great beaches. Unfortunately, Ometepe is also know for a serious lack of transportation (although this is true throughout Nicaragua) and I got a crash course on the insane bus "system". From Granada, our plan was to take a bus to Rivas, the closest port city. When we got on the bus, they pretty much said they would take us half way there and then we would have to take another bus the second half of the way. Little did we know this meant them pulling over on the side of the road only when they saw another bus stopped at the exact same time. So they just started yelling at us to get off and we scrambled off and out the back and ran right on into the other bus which was waiting for us. Once we got to Rivas, we took a quick 10 minute cab ride to San Jorge and boarded the ferry, El Che Guevara, there. The waters were rippin' that day and it was all I could do to keep my eyes on the horizon and not toss my cookies.

El Che Guevara

View from the ferry.

We arrived in Mayogalpa, the biggest port city on the island, around 5:00pm and spent the night there. We found a really nice hostel (and for my standards, very clean) for $10 a night which included a great, filling breakfast the next morning. That morning, we took a very scenic bus ride from Mayogalpa to Altogracia in a sort of large mini van on the worst "road" I've ever been on. Most of the hour ride was on unpaved roads full of huge rocks and divots. We made probably 30 stops along the way and had to wait for herds of cows to cross the road multiple times. From Altagracia, we took another 30ish minute bus ride to just past Santa Cruz to the entrance of the hostel we were planning on staying at, El Zopilote. (This hostel had been recommended to us by numerous volunteers as the place we HAD to stay at.) This place is virtually in the middle of a jungle, at least it feels like it. It's a 10-15 minute walk up to reception through lush vegetation. The hostel itself is on an organic farm and the food was really good as the majority of their ingredients came from right there on the farm. (They also had their own outdoor brick oven for pizzas which were mouthwateringly amazing .) Cut to the part where we find out we're sleeping in hammocks in the great outdoors. I suppose for $3 a night you can't really beat it but it was a minor adjustment to say the least. Luckily the bugs/mosquitoes weren't bad at all; although I did spray down both myself and my hammock thoroughly. I found them extremely hard to get comfortable in. After the first night I even found what I assume to be a "regular" that stays there give me a lesson on how to sleep and get comfortable in a hammock. I failed. The hostel also offered free yoga classes in the morning. I went to one while I was there and it was probably one of the best yoga experiences I've ever had. I mean you really can't beat a yoga class in the middle of a jungle; all nature and absolutely no distractions.

The hostel we stayed at the first night.

The walk into Zopilote.

Pizza oven.

More of Zopilote.

Best yoga session.

Most of our first day was spent walking around exploring and going to the beach. We decided to eat lunch at this authentic, local, small restaurant near the beach and I was unfortunately scarred by my lunch. I decided to go with something super local and ordered the fish but was a bit caught off guard when my lunch arrived with a face. The entire fish was plopped down on my plate with it's rough eyes and teeth and everything glaring at me. I guess I should have known better when I asked the guy what type of fish it was and all he said was "the fish of the lake.' I managed to eat a few bites but that was all I could do.

You can't really come back from that.

Saturday, we rented bikes for the day and biked to the El Ojo de Agua. It's this really pretty natural spring about 35 minutes away from our hostel. Very relaxing and refreshing as it was actually a little bit cooler than the lake but felt great since it was about 97 degrees.

Sunday was pretty much just a travel day as the transportation is even more sparse on Sunday's so we wanted to make sure we would be able to make it back that day. Lots of mismatched bus routes later, we were dropped off about 25 minutes outside of Granada. We walked a couple minutes down the road and ran into a group of 5 people from Spain (a group of other volunteers here to build houses) who were attempting to hitch a ride back into town. We eventually saw a pickup truck stop for them and we yelled to them if there was room for us and so the 8 of us somehow managed to all fit in the bed of the truck. Pretty tame first hitch hiking experience.

All in all I spent less than $100. The vast majority of it was on food and drinks because thankfully the bus system here is dirt cheap. I think I figured I spent about $7 on bus fares total. Pretty great for a fun, relaxing long weekend away!

At lookout point from Zopilote right before sunset.