The island of Ometepe. Well this update will be fast seeing as I couldn’t get off the island fast enough!

Before I launch into why this was my least favorite spot, I understand why some people love it, we just aren’t those people! The island of Ometepe sits in Lake Nicaragua. It has two large volcanos, one of which is active. When we visited Granada last year, we took a boat tour on Lake Nicaragua. We heard such great things about Ometepe, we knew we had to include it in this years travels. There are basically two sides to the island to stay on, the side you arrive, which doesn’t have much more than a neat museum on it, or other side closer to all the outdoor activities. We chose the active side. After a $30 cab ride we arrived to a place where they suddenly didn’t have room for us. Not only did they not have room, the next 5 places our cab driver tried were all full. We finally found a place on the “beach”. We spent the first afternoon researching ways to get to activities which included kayaking, hiking, visiting a large permaculture farm, and seeing the “Ojo de agua”. We found out we could not walk to any of the activities, but we could rent atv’s for $70 or take a cab for $30 each way. Then we had to pay to do the activities. The reviews on the kayaking and volcano hike were average, which bummed us out even more. We realized we would have to spend a lot just to get somewhere (when we felt like we were so close) only to do a mediocre activity?! We decided to stop wallowing in how disappointed we were and get some food and drinks. All I can say is we probably ate more bugs than actual food. Their beach restaurants, which are the only ones walkable, were completely taken over by some little fly gnat things. Im talking EVERYWHERE. We even went in the water and realized we couldn’t swim far enough to get away. Definitely not the best day.

Day two, after walking up to an ant infestation and covered in bug bites, we decided to turn it around, try to have a better outlook, and do the one thing we could walk to, Ojo to Agua. It was described as a large mineral water spring. After a long walk along a volcano in 95 degree heat, through a cow pasture, and then through a palm tree farm, we arrived. Majorly disappointed, yet again. It was basically a public swimming pool. Covered in bugs,again. And Mosquitos. It was terrible. We were so hot though, and had a long track back, so we quickly jumped in then out and bailed. Even though we were trying to make the best of it, we decided that place wasn’t for us and we didn’t need to waste any more time. We stayed one more night then took the first ferry out!! The topper on the way out was rushing to get the 10am ferry that was randomly cancelled so we got to sit in the hot sun until noon. Yay! Not