Aug 8, 2012 - Trek and a half!

Back down the mountain we went in the direction of the Nicaraguan boarder at Rivas! The bus seemed a bit less ominous without the thunder and lightening but the view down the couple of hundredg feet drops were still pretty cool! To get to the boarder we had to get the first local bus down the mountain and then (hopefully) intercept the central American Tica bus on the main centroamerica highway... Which is a single lane road not much wider than two cars!! So there we were left on the side of the road with nothing in site apart from a few...

Jul 26, 2012 - Island Paradise and bugs

Another short hop and another ferry crossing but this time on flat fresh water - the biggest fresh water lake in the Americas Lake Nicaragua. A two volcano island Ometepe Island, with not much else to do except...hike up a mountain well not all of us like hiking up mountains so Dave decided to go wandering on local buses and I decided to join him. But first there was a mineral spring - set up as a swimming pool with enough area to have a proper swim but with a natural bottom - the water was cool but not cold and it was a hot afternoon so...

Sep 24, 2011 - Volcanos, sweat and tears

23rd Sept Maderas volcano and San Ramon waterfall Today was really tough but totally awesome :). It took us about 4hours to reach the waterfall and it was so hot. We had to stop a few times along the way to catch our breath and try cool down.. pretty much impossible at that altitude and with the heat. We resorted to throwing our water over us which had turned luke warm. I got my usual beetroot face but we sweated it out and got to the waterfall, which towards the end was more like rockclimbing then hiking! It was spectacular and Totes...

Sep 22, 2011 - Idiots abroad- Another hilarious journey!

Idiots abroad- Another hilarious journey! 22nd Sept My actual birthday and I got to speak to my mum, sister and nephew Tye on Skype :) starting to miss home a little now. I know I keep blogging about bus journey's but its just because they are all so hilarious but potentially dangerous and disastrous! We took a ferry from Granada to Isle de Ometepe, an island on a lake formed by two massive volcanos. It should have taken 3hours but as everything takes at least an hour longer then expected in Central America we arrived after dark. We'd...

Sep 22, 2011 - Bugs and dugs!!!!!

After a good couple of days in Granada we headed to Ometepe Island, as we were off schedule we managed to get the ferry on the Thursday from Granada so we saved some time having to do more bus journeys!!..although the ferry was 3 hours, it was ok and they sold really good hotdogs ha ha Ometepe is an island formed by twin volcanoes rising out of a lake so it was pretty cool on the boat taking in these giant volcanos with clouds swirling over the top of them. We got talking to 2 guys on the boat from Israel (one knew Spanish) so when we got...

Jul 29, 2011 - Monteverde

Bienvenidos en la tierra de la PURA VIDA!!!! Nous voici a Monteverde, beau petit coin de pays du Costa Rica!!! Tres haut en altitude, on se retrouve a la hauteur des nuages!!! Etant dans la saison des pluies, on se fait mouille!!! Cela nous importe peu puisque le petit village est charmant et quon ne se prive pas pour faire des activitees!!! Notre journee a bien commence avec lactivitee des ZIP LINES!!! Cest pratiquement un arbre en arbre sauf que tout le long, on est attache a une corde et on vole aux dessus des arbres!!! Tellement beau...

Jul 29, 2011 - Ometepe

Bonjour a tous! Nous avons ete pendant deux jours sur la petite ile d;Ometepe qui se trouve au milieu du lac Nicaragua! Cette ile est compose de deux volcans; Conception et Maderas... Nous avons passe une journee a escalade le plus petit des volcans soit Madera... Cela nous a pris 10 hrs... Cetait une hike`plutot difficile car on a passe a travers 3 sortes de forets et les deux derniers kilometres etait plutot apic et tres boueux.... Comme nous etions dans la "Cloudforest", on sest retrouver au milieu des nuages!!! La hauteur totale du...

Jul 13, 2011 - Ometepe

Ometepe is an island on Lake Nicaragua and has two large volcanoes. The biggest volcano here and the second largest in Nicaragua is an active volcano called Concepción at 1610 m (5281 feet). The other but dormant volcano is called and Madera and is 1340m high (4395 feet). While I was here, I decided I needed a fair bit of excercise as I have been doing a lot of long travel days and wanted to do something challenging at the same time. I had no real idea how difficult a climb this would be. We were told that this was a difficult climb and...

Dec 25, 2010 - Christmas on Ometepe

Although we have had some fantastic experiences we are also now suffering from 'traveller's fatigue' so we decided we had earned a little break over Christmas and came to Ometepe. This is an island in Lake Nicaragua, dumbell-shaped with a volcano (what else?!) in each round bit. We stayed at Hacienda Merida (great recommendation thank you Anna!) for four days of R & R. Well, I did the R & R thing while Les, you will not be surprised to hear, hired a bike and explored the island. To be fair I was planning to get a bike too, but if you saw...

Jul 23, 2010 - Isla de Ometepe

We´ve stayed a few days on the island of Ometepe. It is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua that is famed for its twin volcanos La Concepcion and La Madera. One of the days we climbed half way up La Madera - one very hot and long climb but finally we reached a beautiful 40 meter waterfall that made the climb worth every step. We enjoyed the refreshing water and swim, sharing the beautiful sight with just two other people - a nice young couple from Texas.

Jul 1, 2010 - Isla de Ometepe

We caught a ferry to the Isla de Ometepe, an island in the middle of a massive Nicaraguan lake. The island has two volcanoes which looked amazing as we approached. We went to the main town, Moyogalpa, which was really quiet. The whole island is really quaint, and not many proper roads or towns. We decided to attempt to climb the biggest volcano, Concepcion, but only up to the cloud line. The hike was around 7 hours in total and was definitely a test on my fitness. I couldn't get over how steep it was to get up there, my little legs couldn't...

Apr 9, 2010 - Ometepe Island - Some Pics Need Captions

Leaving Oasis Hostel today...been a good place to stay, lots of different people, big group from Global College, Long Is. U. here...very interesting 4 year program, travel to different parts of world every year for 4 months of their education. One next year will study comparative religions going to Turkey, Taiwan, India, and Thailand. Left hostel w/ friends we met (Nina & Nels from Denmark, Greta from Sweden) and bus to Rivas & San Jorge. Countryside is brown & dry except in a few cases where land owners obviously have access to irrig water...