After saying goodbye to San Juan the beach and our new friend Tyler, who has been accommodating us, we made our way over to the island of Ometepe. The island is on the biggest lake in Central America. With its water covering 8,264 sq km makes it the 21st largest lake in the world . ITS BIG! We arrived to the island by a hour long ferry boat trip, then took a 2 hour long bus ride. On the way we passed by many villages (each one getting smaller and smaller) and plunged deeper and deeper into the Pacific Dry Tropical Forest. Our hostel was literally at the end of the road, the bus could no possibly go any further.
Again we are blessed with beauty. As we got out of the van with butts sore from the constant bumps of the unpaved road, a flock of green, yellow and red parrots flew over head. There is are many critters and beautiful animals here. A teranchala scared us half to death as it tried attacking Kaiese as he ate dinner. Volcanoes also surround the island, one of which we hiked today.
On the way up we came across views looking over Ometepe. We stared trying to distinguish water from clouds in the distance. At the end of the 4 hour hike we found our selves down in the volcano of Madera. Other than a 3 ft deep pond filled with mud that one sinks into another 2 ft that Bobby attempted to swim in, a dense forest surrounds the floor.
Coming back down the mountain we came across 3 different troops of Howler monkeys. Before seeing the hairy animal their screams were heard a good 100 plus yards away. It is crazy how such a small thing can make such a loud cry.
Tonight we dined to yet another beautiful sun set and this time instead of a ocean we gazed at a massive volcano that seemed to scrape the pink sky. Tomorrow we shall rise at 5 am and hit the road once again; another country, Costa Rica. There we will start a turtle project that many of us have been looking forward to.
With love,
Alex
