On Saturday we got the boat over to Isla de Ometepe, in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.
We got a taxi from Granada down to the docks near Rivas, and caught the ferry over - which took about an hour and a half (we also had to wait for two and a half hours for the ferry to actually leave).
The island is very different from the mainland - there are beautiful birds here and HEAPS of bugs (tonight we saw GLOW bugs in the grass). The people also seem more relaxed.
Yesterday afternoon we even saw a mother spider monkey with a baby on her back. She came right up to the entrance of our hotel, and one of the men who works there, gave her a few bananas which she snatched and ate in a nearby tree.
I'll have to post the photos up when I get a chance. There isn't much much internet access AT ALL on this island and at the moment I'm sitting in a hotel down the road from our hotel, and the computer screen is COVERED in bugs.
Anyway, our first night on the island we went to the fiesta they were having here!! I think it was a day in celebration of a saint...although, I can't be sure.
We saw young women dancing in colourful traditional dresses and people playing trumpets and drums. In the evening there was bull riding (it was too crowded, so we didn't get to see it...I doubt it would've been very interesting though) and loud music played long into the night.
On Sunday we pretty much spent most of the day waiting for the bus up to the beach. We got told different times, but the bus never came. In the end, we split a mini-bus with another group of tourists ($3US each). It was a very good deal, we were quite lucky. I talked to a very nice woman on the bus who had been to China. She also told me she had been volunteering down in Costa Rica, at a turtle breading beach.
We checked into a cheap enough hotel ($6 each, for a triple room) and we're right near the beach, which is lovely. I love hearing the waves at night time. :)
Today we explored some of the island, went to some vocanic water pools that are supose to have healing properties and in the afternoon went for a bike ride on the rocky, bumpy road.
I'm going to go now, these bugs are driving me crazy. I'll write again soon. :)
