By Caitlin

From the bus window, I was entranced. Isla de Ometepe is dominated by two volcanoes on either side of the island, the active La Concepcion, a perfect cone, and Maderas, which is extinct. Concepcion is nearly always ringed by clouds at the top, which looks super cool from a distance.

Problemo número Dos: The few small towns on the island are very spread out (an hour or two bus ride) and so it's important to stay in the one that's closest to the activities you want to do on the island. We weren't really sure what we wanted to do and ended up staying in Moyogalpa, the town where the ferry drops you off. There's not a lot to Moyogalpa. The only reason you should stay here is if you plan on hiking Concepcion, which is a grueling 8-10 hours, mostly in the exposed heat, and when you get to the top it's more likely than not that it's too cloudy to see beyond a few feet in front of yourself.


When we wanted to head back to Moyogalpa we really encountered some difficulties. The posted time for the next bus was 4. So we set off for a long walk to the bus stop. When we finally arrived, some friendly locals communicated that the 4 pm bus wouldn't be coming today and that was supposedly the last bus! In broken Spanglish a tiny old lady told us a detour, not on the map, to another major road with a 5 pm bus to Moyogalpa. So off we went, as did my imagination. What if no other buses or cars passed us?? What if we were stranded at night walking down this sparsely populated road many miles from Moyogalpa? After another long walk, we fortunately reached the main road. A pair of canoodling teens confirmed they were also waiting for a 5 pm bus. Hooray! We were saved! Just had to wait 30 min for the bus. When the teens then randomly jumped in a passing car instead of waiting for the bus, I got nervous. The sun was setting. Soon it would be dark. What if the bus never comes? Jed didn't seem too concerned, but I was very anxious. When that old American school bus finally rounded the corner, I was quite relieved. The route drove around the eastern side of the island right as the sun was going down and giving us our best view of Concepcion from the island yet. We decided to leave the next day, a day early, and go back to San Juan del Sur.
