Giants, Packers and a Toad
Day 76
Up early today and out of our hot room to catch a bus south to Rivas and the ferry to Isla Ometepe. The bus station in Granada is no more than a gravel yard with a few chicken buses waiting to fill up before rumbling off to their destinations. We wait in the increasingly hot old school bus for one hour before the driver deems it full enough to begin the 65km journey to Rivas. Even though the distance isn’t great the trip takes close to 3 hours as we stop frequently and half of the way there we drive on a rough pot holed road.
Arriving at the chaotic Rivas bus station we quickly climb into a taxi for the short ride to San Jorge where the ferry departs for Isla Ometepe. As we climb out of the taxi and get our first glimpse at the huge lake we are both surprised at the large waves. This looks more like the ocean, although a muddy brown one. We wait for another hour as our ferry pulls up and we board. Lucky us as this is the large modern ferry. I’m pretty surprised actually, we sit in comfortable seats in an air conditioned lounge with baseball on tv and a snack bar at the front. Isla Ometepe looks magical in the distance. The island is has two large volcanoes on either end that are connected by a narrow ithsmus. As we approach the incredibly green island the volcanoes are shrouded in cloud at the tops.
Docking at the island town of Moyagalpa we decided to spend one night here before venturing further around the island in the morning. We walk up the very quiet main street of Moyagalpa and find Hotel Ali. Kind of an odd name for a hotel in Nicaragua, but we have been assured that at $12 its the best budget hotel in town. Maybe so but the small damp room leaves me wondering how bad the other options were. After dropping our packs we set out for some food. A tasty dinner of tilapia from the lake leaves us satisfied as we then get on the net to try and figure out our plan in Panama. Since Jordana’s parents are arriving the first day of Carnival I book a room for them and us in Panama City. We never book places, its just not our thing. I’m a bit nervous as the only place we cod find is new and I can’t find much info on it. Anyway, that’s a few weeks away still.
Moyagalpa is a very quiet town so at night there is little to do. We set out to a bar listed in the guide book, Yogi’s. Upon arriving it was more a guys house than a bar. Turns out the bar is run by Jerry a expat from Canada who has been in Central America for years. We grab a cold Victoria and Jerry sits with us to chat. Super friendly guy with some interesting stories. He runs his bar now and operates an animal rescue on the island. There are two other customers there, one from California and Jonathan from Wisconsin. We sit in the living room where we all watch the New York Giants/Green Bay Packers NFC conference final on tv. I don’t watch the NFL at home but it turns out to be a good game with an exciting end. Turns out Jonathan is also staying at the Hotel Ali.
We all walk back after the game and sit down for a beer with Jonathan before turning in for bed. I open the door and flick on the light and yelp like a little girl. There is a huge toad on my backpack! Looks like I underestimated the Hotel Ali, who wants a chocolate on their bed at night? These guys provide some local wildlife. Since I’m a big pussy when it comes to these things Jordana grabs the toad with a plastic bag and let’s it lose outside. Looks like Ometepe will definitely be an adventure.
Tags: Nicaragua
Michael Coroneos
Glad my baby girl is there to protect you from the big bad wildlife!!