We enjoyed our last vistas from Habitación Cinco after having our breakfast and trying to catch a glimpse of a sloth. They were not active enough for us to spot them — apparently masters of camouflage and masters of sleep. Also as an aside, I counted the steps today. And I grossly underestimated the amount of climbing one has to do. It was 140 steps down to the beach from our room. If we had to go up to room 13 (the upgraded room), it would have been at least 450.
After checking out, we embarked on a one hour road trip to Rivas and San Jorge to catch a ferry over to Ometepe island. If you recall from our last episode, our heroes didn’t have a reservation and were at the mercy of whatever happened next. I was asked when I pulled up if we had a reservation. I said we didn’t. And yet, another man inquired, “Nicola? Es usted?” Nicole’s reputation as half of Bricole preceded her apparently. It was almost a joke. He said he was expecting her despite zero prior contact with any ferry company. This man in the green polo then explained that there were no spaces for cars on the ferry, but we could go over as pedestrians and rent an ATV on the other side.
Presumably he gets kickbacks from the ATV rentals, but it did give him a bit of pause when I explained that “tenemos dos maletas.” Strapping two crew bags to the back of an ATV seemed a bit dubious despite being in Nicaragua where we’ve seen scooters carrying 12 foot sticks of bamboo. He eventually seemed to find another spot for a car on the ferry. We were shuffled around multiple kiosks and acquired no less than 8 documents granting us passage. Was it all an attempted scam? Maybe. Did the man also suggest to us at the end that we should tip him for his “muy bien trabajo”? Also yes. It was, however, worth it (and we did tip btw). I’m pretty sure we cut off about 100 people in line at one point. After arguing with the ferry guys who kept changing their mind where they wanted me to park and telling me conflicting instructions, we were on board…with the 100 people we had cut in line and maybe 100 more. There appears to be no limit on how many people the ferry will take.
I stood for the duration — trying to get some fresh air from the one open door toward the front. Such air was in short supply in the very hot confines of the lower deck. It was immediately a bit rocky. Nicole was nervous. Then she felt my arm which was caked in sweat and became more nervous about me than herself. I’m glad I was able to provide this distraction for her. All part of the plan obviously. It was rockier than we both expected. As it is a lake, I thought it would be fairly calm, but it is perhaps calm in the way Lake Michigan has claimed over 1000 ships. After a little over an hour, we docked at Moyogalpa on Ometepe. It was another hour drive before we would arrive at the Selvista guesthouses.
As is a theme for this trip, we had to carry our suitcases up a very extensive incline and some steps to get to our room. And of course there was no air conditioning. We are just perpetually overheated, sweaty, and dehydrated. The car ride was a brief respite from all that. We saw several howler monkeys while carrying our suitcases — making this area more abundant with wildlife than the actual nature reserve back at Morgan’s Rock. After getting settled in the stifling room, we ventured out to explore a little bit.
We didn’t have any specific destination in mind. I had initially wanted to kayak on the lake, but for reasons in previous paragraphs, this was not practical and we would have been flipped and attacked by a caiman. Kayaking seems to occur on rivers and inlets elsewhere. We stopped off by a couple mangroves and then drove off to see the sunset behind Concepción volcano. Ometepe is an island with two volcanoes — Maderas and Concepción. Maderas is dormant and Concepción hasn’t erupted since 2010.
What’s odd about this island is that there were lots of European backpackers on the ferry including a Frenchman from Corsica who was chatting to us during the first part of the voyage. No one seems to be American. The tourist infrastructure is here, but also a bit rough around the edges. Perhaps this contributes to part of the appeal. It’s like a more exotic Costa Rica, and yet it’s also Cuba with a slightly more reliable electrical grid.
During our dinner, the lights kept flickering on and off. Presumably the kitchen was okay — it seems to just struggle with any sort of surge. This is perhaps why we have no air conditioning or mini fridges anywhere. I messaged a small kayak tour company on WhatsApp to see if there was any availability early tomorrow morning. We had to book a 1230 return on the ferry, so we have to give ourselves enough time for that. I got a quick reply that this was possible and that the price would include an English guide. After messaging back in forth in Spanish, I can’t say that didn’t hurt a little bit. So, as always, another early morning, but as none of these rooms ever have proper shades, we would be up anyway. Buenas noches.
passports & pepto bismol 