By Caitlin
Sometimes you just don't click with a place. Your fellow travelers, the Internet, and the guide book seduce you into believing a certain place is worth the effort but when you get there it's disappointing. This is how we felt when we ventured to la Isla de Ometepe, a huge island in the vast Lago de Nicaragua (Nicaragua Lake). There were some missteps we took that could have changed our opinion and therefore this post is meant to give back what we taketh from the World Wide Web.
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.
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 uno: To get to the island requires a ferry ride on a pretty dinky ferry. It was a very windy day and as I stood on the mainland watching another boat bobbing right, left, up and down as if it were a booey, it was enough to make me queasy. Sure it's cheap, but the odds of capsizing and my ensuing nausea was reason enough to rethink the whole journey.
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.
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.
Problemo número tres: transportation on the island is very difficult. Only about one slow and bumpy chicken bus leaves each day to each of the other towns. The schedule isn't easy to find and isn't necessarily reliable, as we found out.
 One of the many not-so-exciting petroglyphs (don't have pictures of the worse ones) What we ended up doing: I was intrigued by the descriptions of some petroglyphs, old rock carvings, roughly in the middle of the island. It was easy enough to get there via chicken bus but it took about 2 hours. A short hike to a farm and the petroglyphs were easy to find. However, they were pretty disappointing, to say the least. Only one was remotely impressive, while the 3 others were tiny, significantly eroded and not intricate or interesting. |  The one pretty good petroglyph |
We stopped by the Santo Domingo beach on the northern part of the island for some snacks. After visiting the other beaches of Nicaragua, this paled in comparison. Lake beaches are usually kind of gross in my opinion anyways.
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.
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.
Staying somewhere different and having a vehicle would have made things easier on Ometepe. We considered renting a motorbike, but in our short time in Nicaragua had already encountered multiple people with serious wounds resulting from Ometepe motorbike crashes. Unless you are really hyped up to scale a volcano, which can be done much more easily in the northern part of Nicaragua, leave your Ometepe experience to the shores of the mainland. This was definitely the most stunning view and would save you the seasickness inducing ferry ride, among other travel pains and disappointments.
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