Ometepe

A ferry across to the island of Ometepe, an island in the centre of Lake Nicaragua formed by two adjoining active volcanoes  (Volcano Maderas and Concepción) at either end. An hour long ferry journey took us towards the huge and perfectly shaped Volcano Concepción rising ~1600m above the lake. 


We stayed in a remote part of the island, in an absolute oasis of a hostel, that also had a pool, a pool table, a darts board, a trampoline and any game the boys could wish for, home from home for a few days (a few mates would have made it mucho perfecto). Howler monkeys resided in the local woods, we found the odd scorpion in our room and the biggest toads you have ever seen in your life (luckily not in our room). The remoteness of the hostel made it quite tricky to get around, so we reluctantly hired scooters, which of course the boys were all-over!  This filled me with utter dread after travellers tales of terrible roads and animals darting-out in front of them, but needless to say we were persuaded, and thankfully we all lived to tell the tale without any damage! It was actually great fun and allowed us to explore this beautiful island.  


In the centre of the island is the little town of Santa Cruz, a wannabee-hippy area, filled with ex-pats and kite-surfers. It is a beautiful little spot overlooked by the magnificent Volcán Concepcion,  and a beach lined with an abundance of fruit trees, with ripe bananas, mangoes and passion fruits falling at your feet, or if you’re not careful, on your head from a great height 😳. 


The whole island is a flora paradise, with endless permaculture farms (the new buzz-word!) as far as the eye can see. The island is a wonderful little hideaway from the mainland, but you can see that there is a big influx of tourists reshaping the island, and I’m pretty sure that if the boys return in 10 years time, it will be a very different place. 


Just a few miles away from this touristiy spot, we find a lovely little freshwater spring where we can swim and muck-around in the pristine water whilst the locals wash in between their toes and their socks! Not quite so pristine now 😂. 


We climbed Volcano Madera which was another seriously long, hot walk up through the jungle with the sound and sights of white faced and howler monkeys. We reached a lovely little waterfall where we were able to have a quick freshen-up, in a pool that resembled a muddy puddle! It was worth it really 🤔 . 


After a long climb down, we stopped at a little wooden platform of a restaurant, with stunning views of Volcán Concepcion. We drank beer, played cards and watched the sunset, whilst being served our slap-up tomato pasta from a little family, with 2 boys no older than ours as the chefs and waiters! 


Now off for a change of scenery….to the beach we go spend Easter and get some surfing in 🏄!





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baggots on Tour 2025

Image
Final preparations just taking place for our big trip. The house is looking, er like our usual house! Lots of work for us tomorrow, and the next day and probably even the morning of the 2nd January. Oh geez we really do have so much stuff 😖. I’m sure an awful lot of stuff we are packing up will go straight in the bin on our return 😂. So how are we feeling: sad to be saying goodbye for now to everyone that we love to be with ❤️, and also excited / apprehensive about what is to come. We don’t quite know what to expect or even where we are going, but we are very much looking forward to the adventure that lays ahead….  What an absolute miracle that this technophobe has worked out how to set this up 😂 
Read more

Antigua and Volcan Acetenango

Image
The dreaded night bus from Flores to Antigua and I must admit, it was worse than normal. So what’s the worst thing that could happen on a long bus journey (apart from it crashing)? travel sickness, and poor Tristan was, but thankfully after a frantic search for a barf bag, he very daintily caught it all in a zip-loc plastic bag 🤢. The roads were incredibly windy and we were at the top of the bus which seemed to rock like a boat, so we braced for a 10hr fun fair ride! We arrive in Antigua at about 6am and spend the day mooching around the town which is surrounded, and I mean surrounded, by volcanoes one of which is very active. The town resembles the Mexican mountain town of San Cristóbal with beautiful low level colonial buildings and quirky restaurants and bars. The town is beautiful to walk around however there is an almost unbearable level of pollution from traffic fumes making you nervous to take your next breath. The famous ‘Chicken buses’ are partly to do with this as despite be...
Read more

El Remate and Tikal

Image
We’ve changed our plans quite a bit on this journey, and making a trip to Tikal was definitely not in our plans. We heard from so many other travellers that Tikal was not to be missed, so we decided to take the long journey up to Flores to see what we were missing.  We stayed in a beautiful place called El Remate, right on the edge of Lake Itza and the jungle and again, we were treated to the sounds of howler monkeys from our hotel (Apparently, the howler monkey noise  was used for the brachiosaurus noise in Jurassic Park, a very eery sound!). The lake was beautifully clear, and fine to swim in despite the many crocodiles! I can’t say we felt comfortable swimming but bearing in mind the locals collected their water and washed in the lake everyday, we felt it safe for a quick toe dip but I swear I saw a croc! El Remate was one of the nicest places we have stayed, with a tranquil and community feel about it and we’re all feeling very at ease in Guatemala so far. The people ...
Read more