With 4 days off of work for Semana Santa and 1 country left to visit in Central America, a quick trip to Nicaragua seemed like the obvious choice for what I like to think of as Spring break 2013. After flying into Managua, taking a taxi to the market, and then a bus to San Jorge, I finally arrived at the ferry dock for boats going to Isla de Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. The island is actually two volcanoes connected by a land bridge. I opted to stay almost in the middle of the two in a place called Playa Santo Domingo, right on the lake's beach.
On Friday, surrounded by two volcanoes, a hike up one of them seemed like a logical choice. I opted for Maderas, the one with a crater lake and a cloud forest on top, instead of Vol. Concepcion. Though cloudy (that tends to happen in the cloud forest), there were some great views, though the crater lake at the top was almost invisible due to the dense fog/clouds.
On Saturday, I did a morning hike to a waterfall followed by a late afternoon kayak trip across part of the lake and into one of the rivers. Twilight is the best time to see animals and we were able to see quite a few different bird species and a ton of alligators before turning around and heading back onto the lake, finishing the rest of the paddle in the dark.
While I'd managed to avoid most of the semana santa crowds, it's impossible to travel on Easter Sunday and not be surrounded by people, especially when trying to leave an island with limited ferry service.
After the ferry, I made my way to the colonial cite of Granada, where I was lucky enough to find a Michigan sports bar to watch the M-Florida game...in English...surrounded by expats from Michigan. Nice experience complete with M flags in the bar.
