Friday April 27th to Monday April 30th
The middle of the universe, really! In the middle of the Western Hemisphere lies Central America. In the middle of Central America lies Nicaragua. In the middle of Nicaragua lies Lake Cocibolca (aka Lake Nicaragua). In the middle of Lake Cocibolca lies Isla Ometepe. So our next adventure finally took us to the middle of the universe!
Lake Cocibolca is a huge lake in the middle of Nicaragua (we covered that already, right?). Also referred to as Lake Nicaragua, it contains several islands, including the large Isla Ometepe. Isla Ometepe is formed by two neighboring volcanoes, one dormant and one quite active and forms a shape quite similar to Maui, Hawaii. Though not as green. And no hula-skirt girls and torch lit luaus. This area is also known for being the home of the world´s ONLY FRESHWATER SHARKS. Scientists theorize that the bull sharks wandered up the Rio San Juan from the Carribean Sea and landed in Lake Cocibolca. Bull sharks can be very large and aggressive. The lake once had a very healthy (and scary!) population of these freshwater bull sharks. Unfortunately, during the Samosa years of the 60´s, many of them were killed and shipped off to Asia for the popular (but very unethical and inhumane) Shark Fin Soup. A processing plant nearby in Granada slaughtered up to 20,000 of these sharks in a single year. Sadly these days, the sharks are rarely seen - very few exist in the lake anymore.
When we arrived at the port town of Moyogolpa, we spent 30 seconds too long trying to figure out the transportation options amidst the frenzy of taxis, vans, and a single bus. By the time we figured out that the one and only bus was the one and only bus that we needed to take to get to the other side of the island, it had pulled away. We planned on going to the Finca Magdelena, a popular backpacker´s lodge on the base of Volcano Maderas. The overpriced ($35 US!) taxis tried to convince us that the next bus was not going to come for 2 hours. Not believing them, we headed up the hill in the same direction the last bus sped away. We ended up at an intersection leading out of town. So we decided just to take a seat on the curb and wait and see what would happen. We tried hitchiking, but every driver that passed us just shook their finger. More taxis passed wanting $30. I spotted an ice cream store across the street and grabbed a double scoop of chocolate and coffee helado (ice cream). Chilling on the curbside with an ice cream in hand, we waited and chatted with some locals. Lucky for us, within a few minutes a minivan taxi stopped by and offered us a ride for $5 to Charco Verde. The location sounded familiar, so we quickly bagged our plans for Finca Magdelena and instead went to Charco Verde with the other 2 backpackers in the van.
We scored a great private cabin by the lake for only $12 US per night. A large clean private room with 2 large beds, fan, and private bathroom at the Hotel Finca Venecia. (other travellers - we highly recommend this hotel). The hotel is set right on the lake, complete with a huge hammock pavilion for relaxing in the windy breezes.
Close to the hotel is the Reserva Charco Verde, a small nature preserve that is home to several types of beautiful birds and families of loud howler monkeys. This area is a great place to hike around, offering nice panormaic views of the island from the top of a penninsula. There is also a pretty black sand beach and a small green lake teaming with bird life.
We originally planned on hiking up Volcano Maderas - an 8 hour gruelingly muddy and steep hike. But, after noticing the constant cloud cover of the top of the volcano, we decided that our energy was better spent relaxing in the hammock pavilion with a good book! What can I say, we´re getting lazy!
On our 2nd day there, I was relaxing in the restaurant and heard a familiar voice. I turned around and saw Jessie - a girl that we had met in Belize a few months ago! We met Jessie and Mark (both from Toronto Canada) in the tourist office in Placencia, Belize and spoke with them for about 10 minutes then, exchanging tourist advice. And now, randomly, we were at the same place in Nicaragua. So typical for the Gringo Trail of Central America!
After catching up with them, we decided to stay another night and head out the next day with them to San Juan del Sur, a surfing town on the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua.
More details later!
Cheers,
Kay
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