10/11/2012 - 11/11/2012 - Steppe onto Ometepe

There may be 2 volcanoes on Ometepe, but it's all about Volcan Conception (and his little cloud hat)

Volcanoes in the lake at dusk

Tony enjoying his first (but not last) Tona

Again, our timing was not ideal so instead of hopping on the last ferry over to the twin volcano island, we stayed on the ‘mainland’ and watched the sun disappear beyond the lake. As anticipated, neither volcano shrugged off their cloud blankets, but it was better than in the morning – not the most successful sunrise we’ve dragged ourselves out of bed to see!

Just to prove that we were using bikes!

Beach and fresh water waves, complete with volcano

Conception from treehouse (and that's more cloud,
not an eruption - unfortunately...)

The Ojo de Agua 

On the ferry across we were treated to ‘Hotel California’ by the Eagles on repeat (video) – Tony’s hair wasn’t quite up to their standards just yet. Once set up in our hostel, we hired bikes for some island exploring, taking in a (not-so) natural watering hole and the beach, complete with fresh water waves. The petroglyphs the island is famed for were slightly more elusive, so we made do with replicas… Took advantage of the cool treehouse to watch volcano Conception as the sun went down, then chilled out sharing travel stories in the hostel where a hog roast had brought in an eclectic crowd.

Perhaps the biggest apple
ever seen... Newton wouldn't
have wanted this one to land
on his noggin, that's for sure!

Not petroglyphs, but
the next best thing - still
not convinced by Tony's
replica attempt, however!

Key Learnings:

1. A lack of Wifi in a hostel takes things back to the good ol’ days where people talk about their previous travels and decisions are made on that, instead of everyone staring at tablets, smartphones and laptops.

2. Isla de Ometeppe seems to draw people under its wing for lengthy periods of time – we met more people who had stayed over a month than under! Not quite the way we were going about it…