The Longest 3 Km. in Ometepe

(Part 7 of the Volcano Trail series.)Another ferry ride, this time to Ometepe, an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Ometepe has lush scenery and a tranquil atmosphere, and due to its unusually fertile volcanic soil has an amazing argicultural output, thus the island's population of 30,000 people are considerably more prosperous than most of Nicaragua's mainlanders.

We had just missed the 10am ferry by minutes and were waiting for the 1130am one, so a few of us decided to use the restrooms and grab some drinks by the small convenience store. At around 1115am just as we were preparing to walk back to the dock, who else but U. was dashing in our direction - he saw us and frantically gestured for us to get our asses to the boat pronto!!! Yes, this one time – of all times – the boat happened not only to be leaving on time, but even early! Surprising...no, shocking and quite unheard of in Latin America. No kidding. As we approached the island, dramatic views of the island's two volcanoes, Volcan Concepcion and Volcan Maderas, were offered.

The subsequent van ride was a bit rough – there’s only one main road circling the island, and once you get off-road it’s a horrible bumpy ride for 4km. Our cabin at Hotel Villa Paraiso was a welcome relief from Hospedaje Cocibolca in Granada, and a few steps away from the beach. Since an ardous, steep climb up either of the two volcanoes wasn't my cup of tea (7-8 hours), two days of R&R seemed to be in the cards.

However, feeling a bit guilty at my sloth, and eager to be in the company of the girls (haha), at the last minute decided it might be fun to join the early morning hike to the San Ramon waterfalls which was supposed to take about an hour each day. C. billed it as not-too-strenuous, or in her words, "easy-peasy". At the falls entrance, the first clouds of trouble appeared. Our guide indicated that it was more like two hours to hike up because it was all uphill - uh oh, how do I say this? NOT GOOD. Too late to back out now, "what the hell...it's only 3 km. according to the sign", I hopefully told myself. And of course, our 32 cordobas (roughly $2) entrance fee had already been collected.

We all hiked along the path - at first it was smooth sailing on the well-defined trail, but as it gradually became more and more uphill, rocky, and crooked I soon got tired and just willing myself to reach the falls – from time to time I’d stop to catch my breath and silently curse at my decision and resolve to spend more time at the gym (yeah right). Other members of the group were getting knackered as well. Pei (a full name mention for you :-D) had on flip flops which I’m sure weren’t the most ideal footwear for this actvity. After each mile elapsed, there was a marker which counted down, almost teasingly, "2Km to the falls", "1Km to the falls", and left me shaking my head and wondering why it seemed like an eternity between each kilometer. It was the longest 3km of my life, and felt more like 30km. U. explained that the signs were indeed misleading and the work of amateurs, in his native Switzerland they take into account steepness and other factors - thus the signs in the Alps indicate "how long it feels like for the average person to hike", and not the actual distance.

At last, we reached the falls which to my blurred vision looked only barely more than a trickle and did not appear to be impressive at all. (Judge for yourself, refer to photo). So all that effort for a trickle. Too tired to be mad, I just sat silently and enjoyed the cool breeze which from time to time sprinkled me with water. After a big lunch back at the Villa Paraiso, the afternoon was spent napping and reading up on "Naked Economics" down at the beach. Relaxing, idyllic - yes, tranquility is more like it - not much else happened, except for a passing bird which shat on my leg, thus I had to go into the water to wash it off.

Note: This concludes the Volcano Trail series. Although I have not talked about Costa Rica at all, I've simply ran out of steam. Among the great things that happened in CR were spotting the resplendent quetzal (usually follows the words "damned elusive" in the same sentence) at Monteverde cloud forest, churrasco and shrimp at Nene's (Sta. Elena), beholding majestic Arenal volcano on a clear day exploring downtown San Jose (better than expected), relaxing at Baldi hot springs, and best of all - a smooth border crossing!