Ometepe

Today we got to see the Nicaragua as I'd imagined: less shiny, more rough. After breakfast and caffeination, we left the hostel at 10:30am in search of the bus stop only to run into a bus coming around the corner. At last, our first proper chicken bus - the old American yellow school buses that are brightly painted. There were plenty of seats and no chickens so not the full experience but it did play some cool music. We crawled along a dirt track through fields dotted with houses. Stopping frequently, it took over an hour to reach Rivas which is only 15 miles away (25C). Once in Rivas we were accosted by the usual suspects and got a taxi to the port, San Jorge (200C - we paid extra to stop at an ATM and not pick up any other passengers as we'd heard of a few horror stories). We boarded a big boat and waited 45 mins before setting off on the hour long crossing to Ometepe (35C). Ometepe is the largest island in Lake Nicaragua made up of two volcanoes which have joined. One volcano is active, the other is dormant. The last serious eruption was in 2010.

My seat on the boat was partly in the sun with no breeze and I was roasting! It was a pleasant relief to arrive and get on another chicken bus despite it being rammed full - ahh, the proper experience, but still no chickens! Our luggage was lobbed onto the roof and we were crammed inside, standing room only, and then a rather large lady came aboard to sell her wares. I thought surely she's not going to try to go down the aisle but yes she shoved her way down and made a killing in sales of her bags of drinks. We set off but kept stopping to squeeze in more people. Luckily the windows let in a cool breeze once we were moving. After an hour the bus emptied out and we got a seat for the last quarter of an hour. It started to rain but luckily for our luggage, not too hard or long.

We got to Santo Domingo at about 4:30pm (27C) and checked into Hotel Finca SD (23$) which had a cute port-hole type window. We went for a wander down the beach. It is supposed to be the nicest beach on the island - it's striking in a rough and raw way but the water didn't look very tempting and there were tiny flies everywhere! We saw a strange, natural-looking light emanating from the horizon upwards which we couldn't explain.

We had an early dinner at a veggie restaurant at the top of the beach. I had lentil & veg stew, Anna had humus, both with rice, salad and freshly-baked bread. Anna had another cheap beer and we had a really, really rich brownie each (440C).

The island had been suffering from a power cut since our arrival and we sat at the restaurant in candle-light. We got back to our room at 6pm and were wondering what we'd do all evening when the power came back on - great timing!

So far we are loving Nicaragua for it's cheapness and friendly people. Anna says it might be one of her favourite countries but I think that might be the cheap beer talking!Read more