Ometempe, Nicaragua

As usual, pics of Ometempe can be found here:

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OMETEMPE

Firstly, I’m writing this from a rocking chair on my deck over looking Lake Nicaragua from a beautiful manicured yard on the illustrious island named Ometempe.  We have been hotel hopping (because finding one room in one place was difficult during the time surrounding New Years) around a beautiful Biosphere Reserve called Chaco Verde.

The day before we left San Juan Del Sur I came down with a temperature and thought I had a touch of the flu.  It came complete with non-stop pounding headaches and body chills.  This went on for four days, and I’m just now starting to feel better.  Yuck!  I got tired of laying around sick so Erin and I celebrated my fourth day of illness by renting a motorcycle and heading 90 minutes around the island to the Southern volcano, Maderas.  When you picture us riding a motorcycle around an island in Nicaragua you should think of the Motorcycle Diaries.  We had the oldest, smallest, most beat-up, partially broken bucket-of-bolts Honda dirt bike I have ever seen, and it was SO much fun.  The bike had no mirrors and the odometer and the speedometer were both broken.  The scariest part with the front brake hardly worked.  The bike’s engine was only 125 so riding it up hills sounded like I was horribly punishing it.  We put on our dated and crappy helmets and were off, swerving around farm animals in the road and dodging bicycles, some with up to 3 or 4 people.  We eventually turned onto a dirt road, which at this point in time I was very thankful for the shock absorbers.  Seeing Ometempe by motorcycle was seeing into this country through a wide open window, showing us all the locals, festivities and traffic.  It was truly beautiful.  Erin’s eagle eyes spotted the semi-allusive white faced monkeys.  We arrived at the entrance another biosphere reserve, safe and sound (although there was one close call – ask me and I’ll tell you about it – I don’t dare write about it with parents reading J).  I wasn’t feeling so well because the bumpy road was jostling my head and stomach around.  We got some sandwiches and heading up a steep 3k path in the hot sun to a glorious 150 foot waterfall.  I couldn’t tell if it was because I was out of shape or because I was sick, but hiking up the steep parts of the path nearly killed me.  How frustrating is it that you can be totally in shape one day(Erin and I were just back packing the Pacific North West 3 months ago) and totally pathetic the next.  The top of the trail led to an awe inspiring view of the falls, where we changed into bathing suits and jumped in.  The view looking up from the bottom was truly impressive, similar to a time lapse photo of water.

The ride home on the motorcycle was interesting.  It was dusk and there were so many little bugs in the air hitting me in the face and getting in my eyes that I needed to wear Erin’s sunglasses.  Since I couldn’t see as well with the sunglasses Erin was looking over my shoulder to call out when speed bumps where coming because I couldn’t really see them.  We stopped at a great swimming natural springs swimming hole, named Ojos De Agua, where tons of Nicaraguans were hanging out.  Interesting to note, most people in Central America can not swim. Seriously, people wear life jackets to go swimming in 4 feet of water.  I was shocked to find this out.  So that left Erin and I the entire the deep end of the swimming hole.  It was so refreshing and fun to swim in mineral rich water.  We hopped out to take some pics of the sunset on the major volcano in the north of the island, Concepcion.  We rode off into the sunset and made it home just as the last rays of light faded from the horizon.

 

New Years Eve was uneventful.  We had a nice meal at our hotel, roamed around a bit, mooched internet off the hotel down the beach, and had trouble staying awake till midnight, where we promptly fell asleep.  New Years day was spent cursing and struggling up the road to get back to Ojos de Agua on crappy bicycles.  Mine was especially crappy.  And apparently there was a very large hill the whole way there, which I didn’t recall when we were on the motorcycle.  So I hunched over my small bike and called after Erin to wait up for me.  I was blessed to get a flat.  No, seriously.  What an experience!  Some locals were more than happy to help out.

 

When they pulled out the inner tube it was riddled with over 10 patches.  So they just slapped on another and away we went.  We bought them some coke from the pulperia, since they wouldn’t accept our money.  We made it to the swimming hole and had a glorious last day in Ometempe. 

 

Reflecting on Ometempe, we were mesmerized by the friendliness of the people.  We were told the amicability has something to do with the fact that there was peace on Ometempe when the Sandanistas and Contras were fighting in the rest of the country.   The fact the population here is on an island secludes them from the rest of the country, and people are just plan nicer here, although just as impoverished (animals too).  It was a little bizarre seeing pigs, geese, chickens, horses and cattle in the road.  Most of the dogs had been pregnant so many times that they had udders.  On our walks between hotels on the beach we saw groups of women and children doing their laundry on special washing stations in the lake.

 

People work hard here.  We made friends with some hotel workers and found out that they work about 13-14 hours a day and only make $5 for it.  That must be hard when they’re serving $3 drinks to tourists and the Nicaraguan upper class.  It’s worth noting the apparent classism here.  The lighter your skin the more affluent you are (yeah, I guess it works like that in the US too).  Except here, the wealthy really enjoy flaunting it and being horribly disrespectful to the poor people.  We saw this in San Juan Del Sur as well.  I’m shocked people treat us so well, given the US’s history in Nicaragua.

 

The next day we take a 5am taxi to the ferry, the ferry to the port in San Jorge, a taxi to a bus, a not-so-direct 3 hour bus to Managua (packed full of people and a mounted TV playing horrible romance music videos).  We were let off at a gas station in Managua and took another taxi to the local mall to meet the woman in charge of the orphanage/school we were about to volunteer at in Camoapa (Hogar Luceros Del Amanacer).