Ometepe

Mini-vacation to an island...

Sunny shores
Great view of volcanoes
Relaxing time with friends

But - this is Nicaragua, and Laura is traveling with you. Mishaps are sure to happen.

Some teacher friends and I decided to take a four day trip to Ometepe, a large island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.

On the way to Ometepe, we heard something funny in the car, then quickly realized we had a flat tire.

After searching the car for a jack, we realized we did not actually have one. A random passerby tried to help and finally flagged down a taxi. Together they went into town to get supplies. They came back and the nice Nica man helped us out, but not before it started to rain like crazy.

Another man came by to see what the action was all about. Turns out he didn't want to help us, but wanted to steal someone's wallet. After he successfully did that, we went on our merry way with the nasty, stinky tire crammed into the backseat. 

We found a tire place close by and got rid of the tire and put air in our tires, just to be safe. The tire man was impressed by the damage done to the tire.

By this time we very worried that we were going to miss the ferry that was to take us and our vehicle to the island. We drove and drove... and made it with five minutes to spare. From the ferry, we had a beautiful view of the island. One of those moments where you have to stop and thank God for the beauty of his creation.

The island is home to two volcanoes, Concepción and Maderas. Concepción is the cone shaped one behind me and Rebecca and is still active.
On day two we trekked up a part of Maderas to a waterfall.

I was a little winded when we made it to the waterfall, but it was worth it.

Later we spent some time at Ojo de Agua, a crystal clear natural spring.

Coconut juice anyone?

We spent some time at a beach and did some kayaking in a lagoon with an awesome view of the volcanoes and some monkeys in the surrounding trees. The only downside was getting bitten by angry fire ants.

Ready for our next mishap? One night my friends thought they would like to wake up early the next day to see the sun rise over the beach. I generally don't think waking up for any activity, no matter how great, is a good idea, so I decided to sleep in. I was sharing my room with Erin. She set her alarm clock for 5:30 am. Her phone had been having issues recently and her alarm went off at 1:30 instead of at 5:30. She hopped out of bed, grabbed her camera, and closed the door. Our door was very loud, and no matter how quietly you shut it, it still banged and made a loud noise. I was in the middle of having a frightening dream when I heard the door slam. I looked all around the room and finally realized it was the door and that Erin was not in bed. I tried to rack my brain for all the possible reasons that she would not be in bed at 1:30 in the morning, and finally came up with the conclusion that she must have been kidnapped. Obviously I was still in dream mode and not thinking rationally AT ALL. I freaked out for a while, but was so tired that I started to fall back asleep. Just then Erin came through the door and I yelled, "Where have you been?!" She explained that she sat outside waiting for the sun to come up when she realized that it was still very dark. She kept checking her watch and figured it must be wrong, so she changed the time on it, instead of on her cell phone. Finally she realized her phone must be off and came back to see what time it really was, where she met me angrily questioning her.

The next morning the fun continued when my other friend got locked in her room for a couple of hours and had to shout out her window to get help. On the plus side, we had a great view from the hotel and also some great sunsets at night.

Did you know that I have a habit of missing planes, buses, and other vehicles when I am traveling? It's true. Sometimes it's my fault, other times it's my alarm clock's fault, or it could be a plane delay's fault. I missed numerous flights last year on the way home from Bolivia. Suzi and I overslept and missed our plane in Chicago. In Spain I missed a bus to see a castle - twice. I had that feeling before I went to bed the last night of our trip. I triple checked my cell phone alarm clock. Because there was not a free outlet in our room, I had it charging in the lobby and my friend was going to bring it in with her. I woke up in the middle of the night and was nervous that maybe she forgot my phone. There were no windows in our room, so there was no light. I shuffled my way around the room to find the door and looked for the phone in the lobby and realized she did bring it in. My phone was in the room, but I didn't know where, so I couldn't put it next to me. I went to sleep and woke up about seven more times during the night, worried we weren't going to wake up on time. What happens next? You got it, my alarm didn't go off. We woke up at 8:10 and were supposed to leave to catch the ferry in time at 8:15. Thankfully, we made it with 5 minutes to spare, albeit a little dirty and smelly.

Oh, the adventures of traveling. We stopped at a restaurant on the way home, and I got in just a little more time to relax before the craziness of the school week.

xoxoxo
Laura