Isla de Ometepe
Trip Start
Nov 20, 2006
1
3
9
Trip End
Jan 22, 2007
5 days in,
Nicaragua
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
When it was time for bed, Dee went to the bathroom and Pete climbed the ladder to the loft room. Unfortunately as Pete got to the top of the ladder, the base of the ladder slid out on the slippery tiles and as Newton says, 'what goes up ..
01 The infamous ladder leading to the loft bedroom
. must come down' ... and down it was ... with a giant thud!!! Pete fell about 3m and landed badly on his hip, ribs and shoulder on the very hard tiles. After about 15 minutes of screaming, hyperventilating and unbelievable pain we decided to call the ambulance. Pete could barley breathe and was in a bad way, but the people at the hostel were great and everyone tried to help Pete out. The dodgy ambulance showed up with some paramedics but after nearly dropping the stretcher, almost rolling Pete off the stretcher and having about twenty unsuccessful attempts to ram the stretcher into the back of the ambulance, we were beginning to think that we were in a bad comedy show. Needless to say, there were lots more agonizing groans. Thankfully we arrived at the hospital OK, but as our Spanish was very limited and Pete couldn't talk at all, Dee had to draw several diagrams and make hang signals to communicate to the doctors that Pete had fallen off a ladder and smashed himself to bits.
Things improved a little when Pete was given some oxygen and pain killing injections, although Dee was a little worried about the health and safety standards of the hospital. Three X-rays later they confirmed at least one cracked rib, but Pete also thinks that he damaged something near the base of his right shoulder too. Dee however still thinks that there was just hair on their X-ray machine! The hospital was a fairly dodgy place with antiquated equipment and dirty sheets so Pete decided to head back to the hostel and stayed in a single room with no ladders to negotiate
02 Pete goes up the ladder
. Cracked ribs are unbelievably painful, the only respite you get from the pain is when you don't move or breathe: a real challenge if you want to stay alive. In the morning Dee went off to get the painkillers from the chemist with the script we received at the hospital. We didn't realise that the script was actually for an injection and it took a lot of sign language to try and communicate that we needed to buy a needle as well. The pharmacist eventually supplied the needle too but then thought that the injection was meant for Dee and was more then willing to help with this procedure! Luckily Dee communicated that it was for her amigo and survived the experience with her butt still in tact. Speaking of needles, Dee is not very good with needles and feels queasy at the sight of them. It was a very big step for Dee to give Pete and injection in the bum (not a pretty image ... how far has this relationship stooped?). So, battered and bruised from hip to shoulder Pete decided to walk very slowly around the central plaza in Granada for a bit then move onto the next town.
For the next few days (more like weeks, Dee says!!) Dee had to pack both large backpacks and then carry them everywhere as Pete was completely useless and could barely walk let alone carry 30kg of gear.
A taxi, bus and another taxi later we arrived on the Pacific coast at a beach town called San Juan del Sur. We wanted to chill out here in the sun, let Pete recover somewhat and also go to the nearby turtle breeding beach
03 Aaaaah!!!
. We signed up for the turtle tour but it didn't go ahead the first night as there were not enough interested people so Pete went to bed early to rest his battered body. We spent a few hours the next day at the beach and signed up for the turtle tour again. Unfortunately again there were not enough people so we watched 'Paycheck' on DVD instead.We were a little disappointed about missing out on the turtles so we decided to move on the next day and caught a taxi via Rivas to San Jorge and bought tickets for the ferry to Isla de Ometepe. Isla de Ometepe is an island in the middle of Lago de Nicaragua, the largest freshwater lake in the world. The island was formed by two volcanoes, Volcan Concepcion and Volcan Maderas. The ferry ride was very rough and we were grateful to get off in the port town of Moyogalpa. We stayed in the closest hotel to the ferry terminal to save Dee having to lug both backpacks all over the island.
Due to Pete's injuries, we were unable to climb either volcano, hire mountain bikes or do anything overly exerting. After discussions with a very helpful tour operator, we decided to do an all day tour of the island instead. We met our driver at 8am and visited a co-operative coffee farm at Finca Magdalena to see the ancient petroglyphs, then had lunch at Santo Domingo. It was then off to Altogracia to see the petroglyph statues, then the beach, Playa Venecia, at Laguna Charco Verde where we went for a walk near the lagoon and enjoyed the stunning view of Volcan Maderas. To finish off our day we watched the sunset on Lago de Nicaragua at Punta Jesus Maria. A fabulous day out!
We were up early the next day to catch the ferry back to San Jorge and a taxi to the Costa Rican border.
