Ometepe (again)

The first night on Ometepe, it rained with a vengeance and the wind was howling. The cob houses have tin roofs so it sounded a bit like a freight train but my biggest worry was that all my clothes hanging on the line would blow away by morning. To assuage your concerns, nothing blew away and it was surprisingly dry in the morning. Breakfast was french toast with fruit and real syrup (!) and underwhelming tea. (Do you think if I opened a tea shop in Nica it would make money? It could be like my pizza, pancake and pastrami themed restaurant slated to open in Bolivia when I ever get back there.)

I am not at my brightest or bestest in the mornings so I ignored MK and read while chewing. He had requested that we speak only in Spanish and for some reason that always annoys me. What can I say? I'm a grinch. Despite my best efforts MK still learned some by peppering me with grammar and vocabulary questions. Persistent kid and maybe easier than talking in Spanish because he said when I got going I spoke with a funny accent that was demonstrably not American. (possible example: Este tipito en allips esta con ch'aki nomasps.) Later, I apologized to MK for ignoring him but he pointed out that I ignored him every morning. Too true, young grasshopper.

Anyhoo MK and I had considered several options for Day 2: climb Maderas, hike to the San Ramon waterfall, kayak the River Istian, swim in the lake. It was too late to climb the volcano so we decided on the waterfall. We were told that if we drove it we could do the waterfall in the morning and I could kayak in the afternoon. Off we went. The waterfall is located above the San Ramon research station, which you can drive through. I, the nerd, wanted to walk through the station on the chance of seeing what sort of stuff they were up to. Also, the ticket seller said it was 3k, about an hour walk, and $1 versus 1k, 20 minutes, and $6.

The view from one-third of the way up.

I am the slowest hiker ever and I am still trying not to re-break myself but I think our pace was pretty standard. (A couple from the hostel that I affectionately referred to as "legs" hiked way faster. That can happen when just your legs are 1m long) The first two kilometers are up a steep road. At the top I stopped and ate some snacks. (My boss once commented that I would be a good mother because I always carry food. I suppose she could be right, but the snacks are for ME.) The last "kilometer", which is where the hike starts if you drive, is a mostly uphill walk with some riverbed scrambling. Nothing technical. Some long, steep, very sweaty hours post-arrival we arrived at the waterfall. And it was almost too cold up there to dip in!



The freezing cold Cascada San Ramon.



I think it might look colder in this pic.

On the way back down we ran into tons of people who all asked how much further it was. Somewhat perversely, MK told everyone "20 minutes." One small child (aged six, tops) took this very poorly and went on a prolonged rant about how awful MK was in particular "Que bruto ese gringo!", and how horrible gringos were in general. Complaints that were fairly political and specific to Nicaragua. His parents looked mortified and tried to shush him because it was obvious that I understood and was shocked (yet a little amused).

We were going to eat at the Biological Station but MK wanted the apparently phenomenal coffee at the Finca so we went back there. In total, the trip took 5 hours. Back at the ranch I ate a late lunch and just conked out. I know, I wasted my vacation with napping and reading. But it was too windy to kayak and my ankle was a teeny bit sore *whine*.

The next day, both MK and I had chocolate for breakfast and then headed back to Charco Verde to chill at the beach before our 2pm ferry. Once again I stayed in the water while MK bronzed himself. I would have read, I suppose, but my Kindle was dead so swimming "laps" it was. We had some lunch and I availed myself of the bathroom about three times before finally taking an Immodium and setting off for the ferry.


The second-best beach at Charco Verde

More trees. Sorry.

On the ferry back, I bonded with a woman over a dog chained up in the back of a pickup. She was telling her daughters that the dog was fine which I objected to. She explained that she recognized that the dog was patently not fine (the poor thing was shivering in a puddle) but that she didn't want her daughters to get worried. I dunno, I'd rather the girls be crusaders for the abused. Then the conversation veered to the windmill farm I saw, the high costs of energy in Nicaragua, and the fact that the first lady has erected several lit-up "trees of life" all over Managua. For a poorly translated article on the topic, see here.

Just for reference: the lit tree of which we spoke.

Once we arrived in San Jorge, MK congratulated me for a good road trip. Of course we had another two hours of driving to do. Returning to the city. At the end of a holiday weekend. In the dark. It was a little hairy. Especially the hilly part behind the trucks going 30kph. And somehow we went a different way than we had come. But we did discover a whole kilometer-stretch of garden stores! And the next day MK moved out*.

Hasta luegito Ometepe!

Stay tuned for my adventures at the Managua zoo!

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*It was his last weekend in Nicaragua. I'm not THAT horrible. He also apologized for pre-emptively congratulating me because that last stretch was probably the most stressful part for everyone involved. There was a considerable amount of yelling at traffic.