La Isla de Ometepe

Juan Carlos and I took a three day, two night vacation to Ometepe Island located on Lake Cocibolca. These are the pictures of our adventure.



The Santa MarthaInside the Santa Martha

This is how they ship fuel to the island

Approaching the island and the volcanoes, it is breathtaking.

Once on the island, life as I knew it was different. For starters, people keep their horses in the front yard.
The main road is used to drive cattle.
Or to just go from point a to point b.

The views are absolutely stunning no matter which direction you look.

When we first arrived to our hotel (after 5 hours of traveling on dirt roads and a rickety boat) we decided to get a bite to eat and check out the lake. This is the view from our cabin.
We found a nice quiet beach near our hotel. The sand is black!!!

This is me on our way back to the hotel.

The next day we saddled up some horses and went to the top of Volcan Maderas to the waterfall.

As it had rained the whole night and part of the morning, everything was green and begining to bud.
We found this guy on the side of a tree. I think he officially is a "foaming grasshopper".We had to hike part of the trail because it was so steep! This is me, lagging behind.

I'm not sure if you can see how big this guy actually is, but let me assure you, your hand is smaller.

Finally after two hours on horseback and foot, we made it to the waterfall. It was worth the sweat!
Juan Carlos got thirsty...

There is also a crater lake at the top of the volcano, but we didn't hike that far.

The fields surrounding the volcano are littered with volcanic rocks. Instead of moving them, they just plant around them.

I was fortunate to see howler monkeys and capuchin monkeys. This is the only picture I could get, but you can see the large black male howler in the center of the photo.

This is the view on the way back down.

The next day we went to see some of the 1200 year old statues. They were very neat.

These rocks are other indigenous pieces at the museum.
I was told that this is one of the few places where they use cows as horses. I couldn't believe my eyes.
My favorite part of the whole trip was the parrots, or Loras. This pair was outside our cabin the morning we left. I also saw a large pair with red under their wings while on our horseback ride.