Nicaragua - The Roads of Ometepe

(by Curtis Smith)

And the 20-day Free & Easy trip is all but complete as I have encountered another indispensible piece to an epic Nicaragua experience. This is my fifth and final night in Ometepe, but I have so completely fallen in love with this island that I know I will be back.  My afternoons have been spent dreamily riding a bike through rocky dirt roads constantly amazed by my surroundings.  The island is written about as a place of myths and tales, and I can’t help but feel like it has some sort of spiritual energy to it.  2 volcanoes rising up out of the enormous Lake Nicaragua and joined together by the lava flows and volcanic activity over time.  One of the volcanoes – a perfect cone - is still active and always has magnificent clouds hovering above the crater.  It really epitomizes the stereotypical volcanic shape, and it’s so easily visible from almost anywhere on this island.

There are many travelers coming to the island every day, but it is still mostly a simple traditional lifestyle going on with probably as many horses on the roads as there are vehicles.  The gravel roads are all cut through massive old trees hovering all above in almost a spooky way – especially when you hear the calls of the howler monkeys…which sound more like king kong gorillas under siege, than 2 foot monkeys!

I met a cool group of travelers on my second night on the island, and it seemed we all had the same idea that a place this awesome required some celebration.
We had quite the contrasting perspectives in our crew, but this actually set up for many interesting debates while the bottles of Flor de Cana rum disappeared at our new pal Juan Carlos’s beachside restaurante.  A liberal, free-loving Vancouverite, a conservative and abrasive Torontonian, a diligent but naïve Dutchman, an easy going couple from California, and myself a Calgarian….(in my mind….sort of a mishmash of all that!)  Throughout the night though, it seemed that we all had our perspectives shifted by some great conversation.  This really is one of the beautiful things about traveling is how quickly you find yourself making good friends, and sharing ideas and ways of life with people from all over the world.  And Nicaragua really is a perfect country to travel cause it hasn’t been hit by massive hotels, or even cement roads in a lot of places!  So, it really is a ‘backpacker’s’ country for the moment, where you meet open, friendly travelers wherever you go, and the locals are still speaking Spanish and getting along with the new guests they have to their country.

The day after our fun party night, I spent a lazy afternoon basking in a swimming hole fed by a volcanic stream called ‘El Ojo de Auga’ (the eye of the water).  It was a crystal clear lagoon surrounded by all the sounds of the jungle and huge trees….but has also turned into a chill out spot where you can hang in a hammock, bask in the sun, or enjoy a tasty Tonia beer from the beverage stand.  With the constant sound of birds squawking or monkeys howling, you realize how truly wild the island still is.  The town I am staying in is also a little beach town…yes….also a beach!  In 5 nights, I have checked out 3 areas of the island and stayed in 4 hostels/resorts…but I certainly narrowed in on where I like best.  Amongst all these natural wonders there is a black sand beach tucked in between the volcanoes, and it has tiny waves constantly rolling in.  5 nights on Ometepe, and I wish I had more.  I have realized being here that I am now committed to being back in Nicaragua in 2010.  I have been spending part of my travel time each year in Thailand and the Philippines along with Free & Easy’s other trips, but Nicaragua has caught me off guard and for the first new trips in Jan. 2010, I will be here.

The roads in Ometepe perhaps have one vehicle pass you by every 5-10 minutes.  But in the short time I have been going down these roads, I’ve run into several people I know.  It has been strange….to say the least. The first person was on my 2nd day on the island…actually shortly after I got dropped off by the plantains truck I had hitched a ride with.  Along this empty road I realize the guy walking towards me pushing his bike is actually the same Dutchman that my friends Aaron and Jen and I had hung out with for the entire evening on my first night in Nicaragua in the Corn Islands.  We had talked and talked that night, and being an extremely knowledgeable and friendly guy, he had shared the most important lessons he’d learned about Nica.  Now, I had a chance to see him again when I am a bit more weathered in my Nicaraguan travel, and since then, he had gone even further into the deep rainforests of the country.  Cool.
The next day, my crew of 5 friends and I were riding in the back of a pickup truck to go change hostels when we encountered 4 foreigners on the road, baking in the hot sun, looking to hitch a ride.  One of them turned out to be Theo!  This was the English guy I had gone surfing with in San Juan del Sur.  There are LOTS of travelers in San Juan del Sur, but Theo and his Canadian girlfriend had taken the same jeep as me heading out to a surf break, and we had become pretty good pals throughout the day.  Now transplant us both into an entirely new setting and it shocks the hell out of both to realize we see someone we know…..’hey, it is you out here…wow….’…

Then finally the most surprising of encounters happened today as I decided I was going to ride my bike to go use internet.  The closest place to get internet for a laptop was a 40 minute mostly up-hill bike ride…But, what else to do today but explore….so why not?  This time I encounter 4 foreigners and a guide walking down the center of the road, and the 2 girls are my Swedish friends from last week!…the ones I had shared the hostel dorm with right at the beach.  We were all equally as stunned to see each other, but at the same time…not surprised because we could all look around and sense the magic of this island…. ‘It is a good place hey?’  With them heading south to Panama the next day, it was great to have a final encounter and to hear the update on the events that transpired the night that I had left San Juan del Sur, and with all the friends we’d made.   There are not too many roads on Ometepe, but somehow several paths converged along them.  I will be back for even more of the magic someday soon.