Ometepe island

So far, Nicaragua has been wonderful. The dire warnings from Costa Ricans appear to be unwarranted from what have seen. I spent the first three days in Ometepe, an island with two volcanoes sitting in the largest fresh water lake in the world.



This is the view of the pretty one, but it's a steep slog up in sweltering heat to the 5000 foot summit with no cover from the sun. The other one is slightly smaller because it blew its top off a long time ago, but it is also covered in jungle which makes the hike much more bearable (although clambering up the side of a volcano in thick muddy jungle is no walk in the park).

The island is very relaxed, friendly and cheap. I spent $40 in three days on the island. I would have liked to have stayed longer, but today I rode a yellow chicken bus (literally with a chicken in the seat in front of me at one point) up to Granada. Granada is a busy stopping-point on the backpacker trail but it's a noticeably different crowd I am rubbing shoulders with now.

I'll spend a day or two here exploring and then I'll be off to Managua (where the students and bus drivers are rioting in the streets currently because of gasoline price increases) to bus up to Honduras and the Caribbean.