Katie & James in Latin America: Isla Omnetepe

22nd - 27th Nov

We left perhaps the worst night´s sleep of our trip so far in Maderas and headed back to Rivas and San Jorge for the ferry to Isla Ometepe. A really bumpy taxi ride along a really crap dusty road - the bags looked liked they left in the Sahara for a week. Next the ferry, which was more like an hour long rollercoaster ride. Isla Ometepe is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake island in the world, and so the wind gets a good go at whipping up the water into big waves. We really thought the crappy little boat was going to sink a couple of times as water was pouring onto our deck, all the while people around us were puking - see its not all fun!!

We stayed in Charco Verde in the south of the island for a night to recooperate after Crazy Dave's. We went for a walk next morning around the green lagoon with cool views of Volcan Conception, easily the coolest looking volcano yet being a perfect cone shape.

Next we headed over to the second half of the island around Volcan Maderas to stay at Finca Magdelena, a beautiful organic farm with lovely food and coffee. $4 a night too so we were very happy. We were told before we got to Omnetepe that it takes ages to get anywhere on the island and they weren't wrong! The roads are absolutely 4WD territory and this is how we got round:

It took 2 hours to do 8km!!!

We met some funny Canadians on the bus ride and went on a petrogyph walk through the forest next to the finca with them. We only managed to find one petrogylph, but saw lots of howler monkeys and butterflies.

To celebrate we ended up having way too many beers with the Candians afterwards. Well, it was only 45p a pint. Jody, Dan and Cheryl - see you in Bocas for new year??

Next morning was the climb up Volcan Maderas, about a 1300m vertical climb through spectacular cloud forest.

After about 2km of the 5km James´s hangover really kicked in and he had to turn back after being sick (!) but tough northern bird Katie made it all the way to the mirador (viewpoint) and to the crater lake at the top as the picture shows.

It was on that trip where we met the funniest bloke of the trip so far, Michael from Germany. Next day we walked to Finca Zopolote with Michael and Cady which is another organic farm which makes delicious organic chocolate. It is so good you just can't describe it - pure cocoa ground down and mixed with fresh orange, chillis or peanuts. Katie ate soooo much...

Cady, Michael and Katie, Finca Zopilote

Michael had us in stitches most of the day (not necessarily always on purpose!). It's hard to describe why he's so funny, he's completely nuts but the nicest bloke at the same time. He was crying with laughter as his favourite english word: tracksuit bottoms??!!

The next day, with Katie's legs and bum still aching from the 7 hour volcano round-trip, she made perhaps her worst decision of the trip so far - agreeing to go on a 'little' bike ride around the island. As you can see from the pictures the road wasn't exactly smooth, and bikes were made when A-Team was still being shown on television. The whole route is 35km which James thought would take about a steady 4hrs. After about 6hrs Katie was close to tears and James had to push both bikes up the hills. 30mins later we finished the lap barely able to stand - don't think James will be convincing Katie back onto a bike for the rest of the trip!!