Isla de Ometepe

The view from where we stayed at the coffee farm overlooking volcan de Conception


The workers dried the coffee beans on these massive concrete areas during the day


One of the ancient petroglyphs we found on one of the walking trails


A family of howler monkeys on the side of the trail


BIKE TOUR OF THE ISLAND

The volcanic cold springs we visited on our bike tour


This was a funny site with cows all over the main swimming beach on the island


Wicked view of Conception

VOLCAN DE MANDERAS

Look out half way up the mountain


View of punta gorda


The summit of maderas,covered in cloud like it is most of the time


I went for a swim in the crater lake which turned out to be 2 feet deep with 1 foot of mud


Conception at sunset

Volcan de Conception

View of the town of Altagracia


View half was up across to Maderas


The almost non existant path was covered in scrub


I reach the summit and the crater is spewing with sulfur


The top of the volcano was all really slippery scree

14 November 2009

From the beach we went to Lago de Nicaragua and caught a ferry to Isla de Ometepe.
What a cool place, 2 volcanoes have formed in the middle of the lake joining together to create some wicked terrain.

The ride over was crazy as it was so windy there was even surf. A long bumpy ride in a tourist van got us to Balgue where we stayed at the base of Volcan de Maderas on a really relaxed coffee farm. We saw the workers using the machines to take of the shells and where they dried the beans.

Being right on the edge fo the forest we headed out early for the 8 hour return climb up maderas. The forest was incredible and changed from dry tropical foreat to rain forest and then cloud forest. We saw heaps of monkeys, big blue butterflies and petroglyphs (ancient inscribed rocks)all the way up. The top of the mountain was covered in cloud like it is most of the year so there was no view but it was cool to go for a swim in the crater lake and to have made it through the mud.

The next mission was Volcan de Conception on the other side of the island, unlike the dormant Maderas, Conception is very active, extremely steep, and has only a little forest at the base, then grassland followed by slippery scree. Karen wasnt keen fo this one so I headed out alone on the 4.30am bus for Altagracia. I found a guide and we started climbing the almost vertical face. The guide only took me to half way as the huge increase in sulpur gases in the crater have indicated a big eruption very soon(the last one was last year). So I pushed on by myself somehow finding the faint paths and finding the strength to get to the top. Every so often the cloud cleared and I got a wicked view of everything. Somehow to made the top and the ground was steaming hot, sulphur gases were speying out and the wind was up at 70+ km/hr. The adrenalin was pumping so hard I made the normal 12hr climb in 7hrs : ) I was stoked.