Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua...

Currently I am on vacation for 15 dias. It is basically Costa Rica's "winter" break. Since Costa Rica is far to expensive to travel for any extended period of time on a volunteer salary I joined a group of seven other intrepid volunteers to head north into Nicaragua.

Our trip started with a ten-hour bus ride from San Jose, Costa Rica to Rivas, Nicaragua. The trip was largely painless except for about a three hour wait crossing the border. Once crossing we were immediately struck buy how different Nicargua is from Costa Rica. While Costa Rica has the highest per-capita income in Latin America Nicaragua has the lowest. We immediately found ourselves surrounded by crumbling Spanish architecture, colorful buses, pushy street vendors, and streets mixed with trucks, trolleys, bicycles, motos, and horses. It was Central America as depicted in the movies. Poor, beautiful, seedy, and alive.

In Rivas we started looking for the bus to the ferry. Of course the cab drivers told us there were no buses but they could give us a ride. We went to stores to inquire about the buses and they also said there were no buses but plenty of cab drivers willing to take us. Realizing no one was going to tell us the truth we let some cabies place some bids and we rolled down to the ferry. (Where there was a waiting bus.) We waited at the dock and gazed at the two gigantic volcanoes that formed the largest lake island in the world, Isla Ometepe. This was our destination. Don't worry, only one of the volcanoes is still active.

Upon arriving we tried to find another bus that everyone insited did not exist. However, everyone also knew a very friendly taxista. Given the fact that it was very dark and we actually did not have a place to stay yet we went ahead and jumped into a taxi that in about five minutes passed a bus that apparently did not exist.

We found a hotel that was cheap, mostly clean, and had a very friendly but cronically absent-minded staff. We ate there mostly as the price was low and the portions muy grande. Our first day was spent on the beach. It was particualarly nice to hang out on a lake beach because one does not come out of the water with salt stuck to them. However, Lago Nicaragua is the only freshwater lake with a population of sharks. Needless to say we stuck close to the shore line.

The next day we hired a tour guide who took us through an organic farm and halfway up the smaller of the two volcanaoes. The view was spectacular and the farm fields scatered with volcanic rock outcroppings very interesting. We then went to a natural pool for swimming and to be harassed by particularly mangy dogs.

Life in Ometepe is muy tranquilo and makes sleepy Costa Rica seem fast paced. We had no problems adjusting, however, and were enjoying some real quite time away from our schools. There, most people work in agriculture and after the beaches, there is little to do except hang out in the plaza infront of the old colonial cathedral.

The look of Nicaragua is very different from Costa Rica. Historically, Nicaragua was heavily developed buy the Spanish while Costa Rica was largely considered backwater and poor in natural resources. (That means it did not have much gold.) Consequently the streets of Nicaraguan towns are lined with houses dating back hundereds of years while Costa Rican streets are lined with pre-fab houses constructed during the past decades' economic boom. Despite Nicaragua's superior architectural beauty and equal scenic beauty to Costa Rica its economy is far poorer. A walk through the streets in Nicaragua is not complete without at least two or three people begging for money, food, or one's watch. This is something largely abscent in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is poor but not "begging poor." However, the poverty has also preserved the uniquely Central American culture in Nicaragua while it is being eroded in Costa Rica buy an influx of North American materialism. I suppose you can have your cake but it's going to make your teeth rot.

Our last night in Ometepe was spent eating a candle lit dinner. It was only candle lit because the power was out for about five hours. I had an entire fish and even sampled the eyes balls which were supposed to be good for you somehow. They just tasted crunchy to me.

posted by k meadows @ 11:07 AM