Now that I'm back from the island of Ometepe, I can tell you all about it. However, I'd like to back up to Thursday night. We spent the afternoon/evening in Masaya where we spent time in two markets. The first one had some touristy things but when we got out of that area, they also had normal things that a market would have like food and clothes and lots of shoes. Things were cramped but it was fun to walk around and see everything that was for sale. We then headed to the "tourist" market which was much higher priced even though the items for sale were exactly the same. However, that market was more spacious and things were clearly marked (and there was no food for sale)--I guess you pay for that convenience. Later in the evening we had dinner and watched folkloric dancing. We had a great time with excellent food (we all had a massive amount of meat) and a very entertaining dance contest.
On Friday after our classes, Sally, Gary, Ian, Jean, and I headed to the island of Ometepe. We were driven to the ferry, took the ferry to the island, and then took the bus to a hotel where we were staying. All in all, it took about 6 hours to get there. Ometepe is an island made up of two volcanos and is located in Lake Nicaragua. On the shore where we stayed, there was a constant breeze and it was pretty much delightful. We ended up staying in two different hotels because the first place we stayed at (which is said to be the best on the island) only had room for us on Friday night. It was a great place with excellent food--it felt like we were on vacation.
Saturday was beautiful and we walked/hitched a ride on the back of a truck to a place that had a bunch of petroglyphs and checked out all the rock carvings. The petroglyphs are pre-columbian and they are scattered throughout the island. We noticed smaller ones being used as doorstops and as decoration. We walked back to the hotel via the beach in time to move our bags two hotels down the street where we stayed on saturday and sunday night. After getting settled and having lunch, we decided to walk down the road in the opposite direction to check out "El ojo del agua". It's a pool of water that supposedly has healing and restorative powers to it since it has many volcanic elements in it. You'll have to decide if I look 10 years younger or not. Healing powers or not, it was very relaxing. The water was clear and cool and deep enough to swim around in. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and relaxing and preparing for Sunday's adventure.
On Sunday, we climbed Volcan Conception (the higher of the two on the island) and that story deserves a post of its own so that's what it will get. Since we were all pretty much exhausted after the climb, we had some dinner and went to bed. We took the 5:30 bus from our hotel to catch a ferry (which we missed so we ended up taking a boat and I'm glad I'm not a person who gets seasick) and then were picked up and driven back to La Mariposa. We were all less than excited to have classes this afternoon, but we survived.
Ometepe is a beautiful place (and was recently in the running for being included in the 7 Natural Wonders of the World) and I would gladly visit again.
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since you haven't emailed me lately, i thought i would reduce the amount of things you have to look at by one.
ReplyDeleteok so you swam in a pool that you believe will make you look 10 years younger. since you currently look 18 (on a good day), you should come home looking about 8 years old. no one better think you're my mother then! so my schedule continues. no major updates. i picked up the potters at the philly airport last night and we stopped at california pizza kitchen for dinner. my proposal paper is almost complete...some editing and revisions, hopefully nothing major. things at the gym are good and i've run with the girls more times than i would like to count.
i guess that's all