Ometepe
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
21
93
Trip End
Jun 20, 2009
Ometepe Island,
Nicaragua
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
We met the Lads on the Chicken bus that would bring us to Rivas where we could catch a boat over to the island of Ometepe.
Ometepe is an island in the massive Lake Nicaragua. It's essentially two huge volcanoes which connect in the middle. It took ages to get over on the worlds slowest boat and the hangover was kicking in. On the island we grabbed a taxi that would bring us to our place of residence ( a hostel on an ecological farm recomended to one of the lads by a German no less, and we know no German could ever be evil don't we?)
Boat over to the island
. The problem was that this island is huge, much bigger than we thought and by the time we reached the destination, over an hour later, darkness had fallen and the farm was in the middle of nowhere up a bloody hill. Dave went on reconnaissance to see if they had rooms while the rest of us waited at the foot of the hill for what seemed like forever. We feared he may have fallen of a cliff or been left for dead in a ditch. But alas he returned with the news that there was indeed room at the in. Now the fun began as we loaded up our backpacks and began the epic treck up the mountain in search of the hostel. We had two head torches between the six of us so it was no real surprise that we got lost on several equally enjoyable occasions. Eventually we ran into someone deep in the mountainous jungle who set us on the right track. Ah sure it was only another 40 minutes of hell and sure enough we were there at Hostel Zipolote. Ah but the fun did'nt end there, as Zipolote was full of wonderous surprises and fun. These mainly consisted of , in no order of preference, creepy crawleys by the bucket load, lack of privacy like it was going out of fashion, massive difficulties in even finding your feckin room in the dense jungle, staff that were too busy looking bored to help you in anyway and other such merriement. Myself and Murph got a "private room". When we asked how to lock the door the lovely staffer told us that that was impossible, sure how could the others staying in the mezzanine above your bed get in and out? Umm I suppose thats a good point
Down and out
. Anyway we did manage to have some good craic that night in the communal kitchen area as I got my hands on a guitar, Murph got her hands on some grub and the lads got their hands on some Rum.
The next day was rough. Two days of tipples led to what was defined as a "roll-over jack-pot bonus hang-over" and sure I'd only myself to blame. Myself, Murph and Martin decided on a healthy day of exploring island and games of cards.
The exploring bit was harder than we imagined though as a simple 3k hike to the beach ended in us getting lost (again) in some rice fields and chased by wild dogs. Well at least we had the sustance of a half eaten soaking wet sambo served to us in the nearest restaurant to the hostel, in Little Morgans, to keep us going. We finally made it to the beach which in a word is em... brown.
Anyway again back at the hostel after vowing to get of the island first thing in the morning we had great fun playing the card game " shit-head". After successfully finding our room ( at the first attempt this time) we spent a restless night in our creepy crawly magnet, being woken up in the middle of the night by our equally creepy Charles Manson lookalike room buddy who needed to plod through our room to go out to use the loo.
Ah finally the morning came and it was time to high-tale it off Ometepe for once and for all. Although the island is definitely beautiful it was certainly not one of our greatest times on this journey so far and we were glad to be back on the mainland again.
