Following a long, exhausting travel day we spent the morning enjoying our breezy balcony, working out how best to get the most out of our brief stint in Central America. Our room at Hospedaje Soma was very spacious and along with table and chairs outside you could relax swing seat. Following a picnic lunch we went to inspect town. There’s not a huge amount to report but there are enough places to stay and eat to cater for a range of budgets and tastes. Pizza seems to be on everyone’s menu and a couple of places over it as their speciality. The one that all the loud Americans had flocked to while we were there is presumably in all the guidebooks. However, we found a nice, quiet locals’ place called Chidos Pizza where we had a large, very tasty pizza plus 1l beer for $15.
It was very tempting to carry on doing nothing much but the island has lots to offer so we decided on the least strenuous activity for that afternoon. A 4km stroll down the main, but decidedly traffic free, road brought us to Punta Jesus Maria. This is a spit of sand jutting out into the lake and as you walk along it looks like you’re walking on water – kind of. Isle de Omepete was formed upon the eruption of the two volcanoes that make up the majority of its landmass. I believe the same ancient seismic activity also resulted in the strip of land that connects Central and South America. This island is located in the enormous Lago de Nicaragu, or as the locals call it Cocicolba. Apparently this is the largest lake in Central America and within the top 10 for largest bodies of freshwater in the world. As you’re sitting on a beach you have to keep reminding yourself the waves are lapping the lakeshore; you’re not at the seaside.
The following day we thought we ought to be more ambitious so hired bikes ($5) and set off to circumnavigate Volcan Concepcion. The road is paved for the 24kms to the next major town but after that things deteriorate. The bikes weren’t the best you’ve ever seen so even slight gradients had us pushing the pedals with excess force. Any real hills made us realise once again just how unfit we’ve become since leaving The Andes behind. The 14kms rough road on the northern side of the island was too rugged to be able to pedal along in places. Plus my bike liked to change gear when it felt like it and I feared the chain would jump off if I wasn’t careful. In the end there was only about 2kms where we had to push the bikes and a further 8kms of juddering in our seats. It turned out to be much more of a work out than we’d thought though of course that was a good thing. Plus we got to see just how undeveloped the island is and how little they depend on tourism to make a living.
We thought it would be good to get to the top of one of the volcanoes; Concepcion at 1600m is still active and Volcan Mederas 1300m is long extinct and covered in cloud forest. The larger one involves and few hundred meters of slipping and sliding your way up scree and the latter is muddy but home to wildlife. We’d finally decided to have a go at the muddy option and asked if we could speak to the hostel’s guide but were gazumped. The others wanted to do the nearby Concepcion but then only wanted to go to the lookout point at 1000m. A private trip to the other volcano would set us back almost $100 so we decided to give it a miss and move on the morning. It would have been nice to have explored more but there’s always more to do and see.
