Hiking on Ometepe Island

 I LOVE Isla de Ometepe! After one night in Moyogalpa, where I met a lovley girl from Taipei, Taiwan, (we were room mates and decided to go to the Maderas part of the island together), I took the afternoon bus to Merida (in fact there are only 1 or 2 buses a day because of the bad roads).

I jumped into the wonderful lake as soon as we had beds for the night. This picture above is from Merida on the way to the one and only waterfall on the island. Me, and my friend Rei-Han, went hiking to this waterfall the day after we arrived at Rancho Merida, a family run place we slept at for $ 4 a night. It is possible to also go horseback riding, a good idea, since it is a though hike, and quite hot. It is a long walk from Merida to the entrance itself, and then you start climbing 3-4 km. We walked at an easy pace, and when arriving we could get into our swim suits and jump into the really cold, refreshing water. It is not really deep, waist deep, but stand underneath the waterfall and let it cool you.

It is not a big swim hole, but it is beautiful and lush, and you can hear the monkeys and see birds. We idled away 2 hours here, reading, soaking and enjoying the view. On the way back we saw a howler monkey. It is called San Ramon waterfall.
















Going back down is easier, but then we had the long way back along the dirt road from San Ramon the nearest community to the waterfall. On the way back I was tempted to jump into the lake to cool off before proceeding to el Communidad Merida and Rancho Merida. I was going to jump in on this side of the pavilion by the lake, but the wind had picked up so much that the waves were violent. I tried to get in there, but the force of the water was strong that I thought I would hurt myself on the concrete, so I went to the other side without the concrete and got in. The waves were strong, so I had to spend more energy swimming, but it was good and refreshing before continuing back home.

 

The lake was in a furry that night, boiling with big waves that kept me exercised in the water,when I jumped in again back in Merida. It was almost a little bit scary, but there were other people on the dock, and one man in the water, so I figured that I would be OK. The water in Lake Nicaragua is very

warm, despite the size of it. A little after I got out of the water a big thunderstorm blew up, lightening up the Volcano Conception (the pyramid on the picture). Every night on this side of the island lightning would make a spectacular show behind, above and around the volcano.

It gets dark really early here, around 6 O`clock, so by the time we got back we could see the beginning of the sunset on the lake, like a staircase of gold on the water. As soon as I was back home I jumped into the lake again, and stayed in the water until after pitch dark.