As the taxi pulled off from the border,
I was aware that we'd left the dense, green, jungle landscape of
Costa Rica behind us. Nicaragua appeared flat and very dry. It wasn't
long, however, until the landscape changed. Lake Nicaragua is Central
America's largest lake and I'm sure that anyone's first sight of
Concepcion and Maderas (the two volcanoes which form Isla Ometepe)
protruding from it is unforgettable. Just when I was beginning to get
annoyed at myself for not appreciating waterfalls, jungles and
beautiful beaches quite as I much as I should be doing, it was
extremely comforting to experience my breath being taken away once
again.
As it turned out, the last ferry from San Juan to Isla Ometepe wasn't
at 15:30. In fact, we had a good hour to kill before a ferry was to
depart over to Isla Ometepe so we tucked into some “tacones de
cerdo” (I'm not sure if that is what they were called as that would
translate to “high heels of pork” but it was something similar). The slices of crispy, fried bananas piled in a heap with pork and salad on top was very good although our empy stomachs were probably biased
judges. When it was time to sail across Lake Nicaragua, sat next to
boxes and bags of onions, tomatoes, corn and the like, the volcanoes
never seemed to get any closer. Either the lake, the volcanoes or
both were bigger than they seemed or my sense of perspective had been
distorted by a long journey.
As usual, I didn't really have much of
an idea about where I was going to stay on the island but things were
soon arranged for me when a local on the ferry, Alvaro, offered to
bring our wee backpacking group (the couple I was with, another
Italian girl/Swiss guy couple and myself) to Merida, a village about
one and a half hours from the port on the more remote side of the
island. It was no coincidence that he had a hotel there but it was a
free lift and the hotel turned out to be a real winner (former Somoza
farm) so we were delighted. The ride in Alvaro's pick up truck around
the island was a joy in itself as we caught the final rays of
daylight bouncing off rustic island scenes. How nice it was to see
cows, pigs, chickens and dogs all share the same road again after a
somewhat sterile Costa Rica! I also saw hundreds of wooden huts with
thatched roofs and thought about how crazy it was that people live so
close to an active volcano. In fact, if you have to sum up the
difference between Costa Rica and Nicaragua in one sentence, you
might just leave it at this: in La Fortuna, Costa Rica, there is a
huge sign near the base of the volcano telling tourists it is an
extremely dangerous area and no trespassing is allowed; on Isla
Ometepe, in Nicaragua, they advertise guided tours up the active
volcano for $10. (After the disappearance and deaths of two tourists
in 2004, a guide is now compulsory for climbing the volcanoes, before that you could just wander on up).
I managed to get a 4 bedded room for $8
and none of the other beds were occupied so it was even more of a
bargain. That's not to say I had the room to myself. When I entered
my digs, I was met with a cricket on the wall, 2 worms crawling
across the floor, 2 large beetles in the bathroom, large moths and a
couple of gekos. Outside I could hear mosquitoes screeching and frogs
croaking. When I returned to my room after dinner, a huge spider had
also moved in. I was back on the backpacking track after my bout of
American tourism in Costa Rica.
