we got ometeped

Ometepe is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua home to a duet of volcanoes, Maderas (1300M) and Concepcion (1600M). To get to Ometepe is not an easy task. From Granada we took a chicken bus ride to Rivas, taxied from Rivas to San Jorge, ferried from San Jorge to Ometepe and then split a cab with team Germany to our hostel, Zapilote. Zapilote is a self-sustaining hippy farm that is situated on the Maderas volcano right smack in the middle of the jungle. Zapilote was a spitting image of Shakedown Street after a Grateful Dead Concert. An old yellow school bus that had been transformed into a library, free yoga classes, farm to table organic eats and a flame throwing juggler during pizza night were all great things about this place. Another fun fact about Ometepe is that there are still evacuation route signs up just in case one of the volcanoes decides to act a fool again and start spitting out some lava.

The two full days that we were in Ometepe we Carpe Diem’ed the hell out of the dias. The first day we decided to rent a scooter and boogie all over the island. After a two-minute lesson on the workings of the scooter, we were off. Since the lesson was done in Spanish, of which I got 25% of, I let Meg give it a go at first. Meg driving a scooter was similar to Jeff Gordon’s final lap at the Indy 500, no fear. Holding on and feeling helpless, I served as the backseat reminder that we needed to slow down when we were approaching speed bumps and wild pigs hanging out in the middle of the street. On the scooter we stopped at an Ojo de agua (fresh water spring) and did the tarzan rope swing into the deep end (5 feet of water which really was not safe at all). Then it was my turn to drive. I lasted about 5 minutes. Went up a hill at 20 mph and came down the other side at 10. Maybe it was the cobblestone streets or the precious cargo behind me, but I couldn’t get comfortable on the bike. Just wasn’t my thing and I had to turn it back to the pro.

On day 2 we went on an 8 hour hike up the Maderas Volcano. The Maderas summit was guarded by a fortress of rain clouds, steep jagged rock, muddied waters and humidity that would even give New York City a run for its money on a 95 degree day. The muddied water cannot be overlooked. Imagine a chocolate milk made with Hershey syrup…

[Meg’s corner here – So they tell us, it’s an 8 hour hike. I figure I hiked Mt. Whitney when I was twelve, ran a couple miles once or twice on the Chicago boardwalk last year, I got this. Wrong, so wrong. It was like being on an 8-hour stairmaster. Now this was no regular stairmaster – this one was full of unsteady rocks, the slickest mud you’ve felt, and mud puddles of undisclosed depths. All the while it’s absolutely POURING. All that said, it was pretty spectacular to be up in the rainforest with monkeys, birds, and an eerie layer of clouds. Would I do it again? No. Am I so happy we did it? Absolutely.]

When we did reach the summit there was a visibility of about 5 feet. Our guide was there to greet us with a high five and then we moved down to the crater of the volcano to eat lunch. Our mud-filled shorts may never truly come clean but I’m sure there’s some couples bonding lesson to be learned here.