Ometepe

We were in Nicaragua. The taxi drivers jumped us. We were the most popular people in the country. Finally after some heated discussion we crammed into 4 taxis and were off to San Carlos. They drive on the other side here, except the roads are so bad that the drivers roar off at 100kmh and then weave all over the road trying to miss the pot holes in the bitumen and the drivers in the other direction are doing the same. we feared to watch. We arrived at San Carlos on the shores of Lago Nicaragua, a huge, huge lake. About 45 rivers feed into it. We were heading to the island of Ometepe, which has 2 volcanoes on it. We waited for the boat to load and headed of for our next adventure. We were staying on the other side of the island and our plan was to climb the big one. Volcan Concepcion, both were dormant, however this mountain had decided to blow some steam and over the last couple of weeks, the steam and smoke was increasing. We were advised not to climb it so we had to settle for the smaller one.

After an hour on the ferry, we arrived on the island and were met by a Toyota not too many seater and not a 4WD. The driver started the van, it decided not to go. He tried again and it spluttered and coughed and died. We had been on the road since 7am and it was hot, it was humid and we were tired. It started and spluttered and died on the first uphill slope. He started it again and splutteringly we drove over some extremely shocking roads for another hour until finally arriving at the hotel. But the journey ... oxen pulling carts, cattle and pigs wandering over the road, children playing everywhere, pushbikes travelling faster than we were. Yes the road was that bad. And always looming over us was that 1850 metre volcano.
It was worth it when we arrived just on sunset with a view through the palms to the tranquil lake. AAHHH!!! That is what our life is about at the moment