Tag: Ometepe

Woke up at Jordan and Carolina’s place and they had already left when I got up. Being with them gave me a lot of perspective of what it would be like living in Nicaragua as a foreigner. And to be honest it was a little depressing to me. I love the idea of settling down somewhere and just living off the land, but they had no money saved up and it permeated through everything. I just felt this tension of any little expense having the potential of putting them over the edge. I would want to have enough saved up to never have to think about it again before settling down in a foreign place.

I went to start the bike after packing and Donkey just wouldn’t start. I was thinking it was too much fuel but it felt like it was the spark because it didn’t seem to be catching anything at all.

So I tore it apart to get the spark plug off which wasn’t too fun. I couldn’t clean it properly so I have no doubt some residue fell into the engine. Hopefully it found its way out. But that seemed to fix it so I mounted Donkey and shot off.

I drove to San Jorge to take the ferry to Ometepe(technically Moyogalpa is where it drops you off). It cost me 20 córdobas($.55) for foreigner tax, 25($.70) for moto tax, and only 200 córdobas($5.50) to take the ferry across. Surprisingly incredibly cheap. I think it costs much more to take a car.

I got to “life is good” hostel and checked in. Interesting place run by a Slovakian couple with really good food. I walked in and the owner was speaking Hebrew with me. I though it was just awful Spanish but eventually we figured out that he just thought I was Israeli because he gets a lot of Israelis and I guess I look like one. So we switched to English.

I went downtown Moyogalpa to get money from the ATM as that is the only place on the island to get money out. I also got something to eat. Delicious shrimp garlic.

I walked by a place selling tours and they said that a guide for the Concepción hike was $20 per day for just me. I’m sure they are dying for tourists right now. It would be $15 if it was more than 1 person.

I went back to the hostel but couldn’t find anyone else interested in doing the hike with me so I decided I would probably just go at it alone.

There were some nice people at the hostel. Some German girls and guys and a Danish girl. We played some monopoly deal while Rikki the Danish girl endlessly scraped a old, dry coconut with an old bendy hostel spoon.

Tomorrow I’ll wake up early AM to hike Volcan Incepcion!