Ometepe, the place of two mountains

We climb out of the taxi at San Jorge and into a swarm of sandfly-type bugs. The swarm continues along the pier and aboard the small fishing boat.

Imagine thousands of insects, in a constant confetti, in your hair, crawling along your eyelids, glued to your clothing and blocking your vision of a few feet in front of you. This is what we experience for the next hour as we cross the Lago Nicaragua. The only relief is to stick one's head as far off the side of the boat as one's neck will allow. Our backpacks are heaving with hundreds and hundreds of the vile creatures.

I count down the minutes and seconds until we can scramble off the boat and big good riddance. We take our first few steps on the Island of Ometepe. Deep breaths. Concepción volcano greets us, standing handsome and tall.

Ometepe is a 276-square-kilometer island on the Lake of Nicaragua (the second largest lake in Latin America). It is considered the largest island in the world found within a freshwater lake. Population circa 42,000. The island is shaped like an irregular figure of eight, with both circles each holding a volcano: Concepción (1,610 masl) and its twin brother Maderas (1,395 masl).

Concepción

We hop in the back of a pick-up truck and bounce along the dirt tracks to our destination, Little Morgan's. Never a dull moment in Nicaragua, we watch a spot of ridiculous road-rage between our driver and another mini-van driver. Dangerously speeding along bumpy roads trying to catch each other and cut-each other off (Greased Lightning style) ending in a broken wing-mirror and the bumper knocked off. We all look at each other. What was that about?

Riding along in our automobile

Road

Driver´s helper with bumper

Little Morgan´s

The driveway (energy zapping & sweat-inducing)

Morgan is the owner, little Morgan is his son. This place has been open for about 6 months. We (Irina, Helene and myself) rent our own private wooden cabina, clad with Sky TV (never watched!), terrace with hammock and rocking chairs. Nicaragua is full of rocking chairs. We swim in the lake, and again at sunset, watching in awe at the orange, red and pink hues over the volcano peak. Nice people are staying here. Tito is the kitten.

Our private terrace

Casita

Perfect swimming

Caught in pensive-mode

Irina & Helene relaxing after a swim

Concepción, the active volcano

Our cabina is not sealed and this is Bug World. Our mosquito nets have holes. Along with the beetles, ants, flying monsters, toads and geckos, we sleep very little. Crunch, crunch on the way to the bathroom as many hard-backed insects are flattened. We guesstimate how many bugs we have inhaled during the night. We decide we may not stay as long as previously thought.

The following morning we hike up the Maderas volcano to get a view of Concepción. After a night of heavy rainfall, the path is quite soggy and we sink into the squish. Irina, who is accident prone when travelling, slides in the mud and thumps to the ground. The trees and bushes are rich and green, filled with birds, white-face monkeys and (roaring) howler monkeys. Upon our descent, we stop to watch the monkeys, who in return stop what they are doing and stare back at us. There are lots of horses and cows roaming, even a few bulls (but they have a tether from head to mouth presumably to stop them running to fast). The animals grazing here are a great deal healthier than on the rest of the island. We meet nobody on the path.

Making our way up to the Maderas volcano

With a cluck-cluck here

and an Oink-Oink here

Here a squawk, there a squawk, everywhere a squawk-squawk

Concepción volcano, with peace halo

Typical Central American cow, ears growing from cheekbones

The official bird of Ometepe is the blue-tailed magpie (urraca)

Petroglyphs are dotted around the island

It is uncomfortably humid, sweating buckets and guzzling litres of water we run back to Little Morgans - deperate to cool down in the lake. There is a circular cement pool which has been filled with about 4 inches of water and all the guests and firmly plonked themselves down with a glass of Flor de Caña (Nicaraguan rum) and fresca (Sprite-like). It is a fun afternoon, and the cherry on the cake is another 'Chico dinner'!

This has the makings of a pool-party (Morgan the Irish on left)

Irina getting ready for another sunset swim

Can you spot three heads in the water?

Helene

Alan, Ty, Tito & Irina

Diachachimba is Chico's favourite word. He has lived in Canada for twenty something years and this word is the closest thing to 'fuckin' eh' - a common Canadian expression of exclamation (apparently). Chico is effeminate, expressive, spontaneous and a truely wonderful chef. His food could easily entice me to extend my stay here (but bugs make me reconsider). Hehas been the resident chief for approximately 10 days, and since my arrival he has created amazing omeletes, salads, chicken with mango, steak with jalapenos and the best potato-salad I have ever tasted! He has a real joie de vivre, and seems to live his life on the end of a shoestring. When asked how long he plans to stay, he shrugs and with a beaming smile replies ' I got nowhere I need to be, I can go wherever I want, you know? Now I like it here'. A lesson we could all learn from Chico is how to enjoy the present now, rather than constantly thinking about what we are going to do next.

Chico

Chico feels that Helena does not carry enough names (just two is apparently not sufficient). He waves his magic wand and calls her Helene Maria del La Concepcion Martinez.

We visit El Zopilote an Italian-owned eco-friendly hostel, organic shop, pizzeria, garden and viewpoint. A pleasant half an hour, especially on top of the viewing tower where there is a gentle breeze.

Gecko

At night, the secret is to walk up a small hill and sit and watch in amazement at the thousands of fireflies that sprinkle their magic all over the island.

There is a girl with more tatoos than I have freckles or daydreams. Across her back, D I S T U R B E D is stamped. A local tatoo man comes to fill a vacant space on her left forearm. She gives him full permission to use his creativity to draw whatever he feels best symbolises and encapsulates Nicaragua to him. I tell her she is brave, I really think she is mad. I try to talk to her sometimes but find it difficult, all she wants to do is tell me about the fireflies. She tells me how they swoosh past her like ghosts, totally freaking her out. She tells me the fireflies used to be in California but they left and now they live here.