Got up this morning a felt I needed to something else than chill inn a hammock again. So looked at the map of the island and saw there was (kind of) a road curling all the way around the volcano Maderas. I hopped on the KTM and started riding. Soon I relized that it would be highly unlikely that I would be doing this ever again: what a ride!!! Some background info: the Island of Ometepe consists of two islands with big volcanos in the centre, conneted by a small peice of land creating am '8' shaped island.
The road begain as a fairly good dirt road but soon started to get worse, the challange increased and the smile on my face got bigger and bigger... On the right side of the bike there was jungle and cliffs leading to the immense Lake of Nicaragua (8.200 square km!) in front of me a swerving road curling around the Vulcano on the left of me. Along the road I saw very few people and the ones I saw where happy and friendly, often riding on a mountainbike. At a certain point a very young girl, around 7 years, riding her horse with an even younger brother sitting behind her and just holding on. Both the biggest smile you could immagine. Living in a third world country isn't as bad as we think it is.
The road kept going and going and the shoreline of the Lake came closer and disclosed some of the most gorgious beaches. Tempted to stop and dive in, but riding was just too much fun, so I kept going... Sometimes crossing a river or driving on a wobly concrete bridge and her and there had to swerve around some horses and cows. Just spectacular! I was able to see the volcano from every angle possible and a little over the half way point I stopped at a small town to get a cold coke. Just sitting there and looking a the lake and the volcano made me realize that this would probably be a once inn a lifetime experience. No tourguides, no people, just me and my bike going around a volcano.
Time to move on and after a while I reached the point where the two islands met each other and looking to my right I saw the almost perfect shaped Volcano Conceptíon en to my left there was the Volcano Maderas showing me her last of the full 360 degrees view and both volcanos surrounded by the Lake of Nicaragua. Just very very impressive and happy to be enjoying these kind of rides. Can't wait for the next one!
