| Central America - The Journal |
Living on the Beach...
Day 12 (Part 2) - Penas Blancas to Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua
After an easy journey through the colourful and friendly looking town of Rivas, we soon pulled up to the ferry terminal in San Jorge and our driver directed us to the ticket office. Luckily, the next ferry was due to leave in only 20 minutes, so we quickly got tickets and got onto the simple, wooden but well equipped ferry, stopping briefly to pick up an ice cream to try to combat the intense heat of the midday sun.
As we sat on the ferry, I looked at the body of water we were about to cross. Our destination was Isla de Ometepe, the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world. The lake in front of us was huge enough, but the vast island in the middle of the lake, with a population of some 30,000, sat proudly in the distance, looking deceptively small. The island is roughly shaped like a giant "8", with a narrow isthmus at the centre and 2 huge volcanoes at the centre of each "loop" of the "8". The volcanoes are long since dormant but are nevertheless impressive to look at and give the island a distinctive shape.
The journey to the island actually takes quite a long time, nearly 2 hours, not just because of the size of the lake, but also due to the special nature of the lake. The water of the lake suffers from an effect known as "short wave phenomenon" which effectively means that the surface of the water is extremely rough and is subject to huge waves. This makes a direct crossing impossible (without capsizing or, at least, extreme sea sickness) and the ferries must approach the island gradually in a zig zag direction.
The crossing was a little rough, but it went without problem and we were soon berthing in the main town. I'd read that the island transport is fairly basic with a handful of buses taking a number of loops a day around it. As the island would take more than a few hours to circumnavigate, it can make it a bit awkward to get places if your timing is off. Of course, we were immediately attacked by a mob of taxi drivers and given the fact we wanted to go to the other side of the island and had no idea how the bus routes worked here, we decided to grab a taxi. He suggested $25 to get to Playa Santo Domingo, the area where we were staying, but we eventually settled on the more reasonable $15 (which equated to about £3.75 each) for the 30 minute drive (the taxi can take a more direct route than the buses).
We got to the hotel without problem, an attractive chalet style hotel sat right on the island's best beach with peaceful wooden verandas looking over the lake and a cool breeze blowing in. Even better, an en-suite room only cost $9 (£4.50) each!
After a long day of travelling, we unpacked a few things then spent the evening eating, drinking and playing cards on the wooden decks. With no nightlife (or anything other than the three hotels) in this area, evening activities are very limited. But with tasty steaks for less than £2, beers for 50p and cocktails for £1, there was more than enough to keep us occupied!
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