Fed by over 40 rivers and streams, Lago de Nicaragua is the 10th largest fresh water body in the world. 430 islands dot the lake´s surface, notable for everythig from wildlife to pre columbian petroglyphs. It is also home to the bull shark, the only fresh water shark in the world.
We are on Isla de Omepete...also known by it´s indigenous name, Colcibolca, or sweet sea. It is largely undeveloped for tourism so it is a great place to explore but it took a bit of effort to get to.
We took buses south to Rivas where we took a cheap taxi to the port of San Jorge (complete with statue of George and the dragon). Here we got our first view of Isla de Ometepe.. this is an island which is framed by two huge volcanoes at either end. The island was created a couple of hundred years ago when the larger one, Concepcion erupted (it is still active now) and the ensuing lava cooled in the lake and created one island about 30km across. The view from the harbour was pretty spectacular as we took the boat across, sitting on the roof with the luggage due to a lack of seats inside. Furthermore, the trip across was actually scary and there was uch concern for the cargo as the boat listed from side to side. I never could have imagined that a fresh water lake could be so rough and have such enormous waves. I mean we know about the Edmund Fitzgerald and all, but we had never seen waves like that in any lake!
After a bumpy, roller coater bus ride across the island we were dropped off by the bus and then had to walk for a while to reach where we were going to stay, at Charco Verde.
Charco Verde is on the lush part of the island and is largely undeveloped. The beach, although small, is black sand and it's beautiful. The best part of all was the monkeys very near to our room. They made it difficult to sleep with all their noise, but it was awesome to see: three kinds...spider, cappuccin and howler. It is the howlers that make all the noise, along with the the urracas...a jay-type bird that is very loud...a white throated magpie jay. We alsosaw lots of flocks of green parrots and parakeets, scarlet macaws and the national bird, the guarda barranco, a blue crowned motmot. The sounds of the bosque are interesting to say the least. And then there are the iguanas the caiman and the armadillos!
We also visited the town of Altagracia, the volcanos, the beaches at Santo Domingo, the petroglyphs and a water hole called Ojo de Aqua.
After a few days, we made the same journey all over again to get back to Rivas where we caught a ride to San Juan del Sur, a big surf town which is only about an hour away.
We are in San Juan now for a couple of days and then our next stop in Central America will be the Costa Rican border and then the cloud forest and Monteverde-Santa Elena.
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