From Grenada we went to Isla Ometepe, an island in the middle of Lake
Nicaragua. The lake is very big, (biggest freshwaterlake in the world)
and even contains freshwater-sharks. Isla Ometepe is made out of two
volcanos, one of them is perfectly symetrical. From our crowded boat we
had a good view of it, it looked stunning.
The island seemed to be a habitat for blue magpies with a crown on
their head, who had the tendency to whistle very loud at 4 o’clock in
the morning..
Our hotel in Santa Domingo was a bit out of the way of
everything. We walked around and bumped into a place run by a Swiss ex-
sailor who had traveled the seven seas quit a bit. He was happy to see
people again, and we spent the late afternoon listening to his
(extreme) adventures.
We went out for a mountain-bike ride at sunrise, because it would get
very hot later on. Kids going to school found big pleasure in pussing
us uphill, which was not bad, because they where steep and the bicycles
were not very good. Soon it became too hot already. There were pre-
Colombian rock-carvings around, and we were trying to find them. A 5
year old little boy (Jose) came cycling next to us, and he guided us to
some carvings, which we suspected were not only pre-Colombian carvings,
but also 21-century teenage-made imitations...At a little road a guy
stopped us, and he was looking for toll, for the use of this dirt
track.
One of the vulcanos (Volcan Madeira) has a lagoon in it’s crater, and
you can climb up there. The last bit of the climb is going down from
the edge of the crater to the lagoon on a steep drop, where a rope is
needed. When we started the hike at the foot of the volcano, a guy give
us the rope, which we had to carry all the way up as well. The hike
went through nice cloud-forest, it was only very humid. It even started
raining, so the track changed into a mud-stream. The closer we got to
the top, the muddier it became, and we were just sucked in the mud till
halfway our knees. The last stretch was very, but we didn’t want to
give up. We did some abseiling with the rope, but then there was a
second rope going down an even steeper drop. The rope was muddy, we
could alreay see the lagoon, so we decided that we better head back
from there. When we struggled down the muddy path on tree-roots and
slippery stones, we landed with our buts in the mud several times, we
really looked like piggies. We had missed the last bus back to our
hotel, so after 12 hours of climbing and falling, we had to walk the 8
km. extra to our hotel. People were laughing and pointing at us, we
were so dirty. At one place they sold chocobananas, which was exactly
what we needed then, a great invention! Bananas totally dipped in
melted chocolate and put in a freezer. We’re gonna try that at home!
The day after this trekking, we had such musclepain that we didn’t move
further then 50 meter from our bed...
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