This guest blog is written by my husband, travel-buddy and partner in crime, Dave, to provide a different view on our travels. If he is well received I might convince him to write a few more! 

Isla de Ometepe is one of those locations that, although seemingly amazing according to guidebooks, travel blogs and other travellers, getting there may have placed it in the ‘too-hard’ basket.

That said, after 1) a sweltering 20 minute walk, with backpacks, through Granada to the ‘bus terminal’ (AKA a vacant lot behind the local markets); 2) an epic, hot and crowded 2 hour chicken bus from Granada to San Rivas; 3) an overpriced cab ride from San Rivas to San Jorge; and 4) a very dodgy boat ride from San Rivas to Ometepe, we were finally there!

Our Chicken Bus. Extremely hot, very uncomfortable and painfully slow – the only way Nicaraguan transport should be 

I say a dodgy boat ride because, generally when I’m on a boat, I don’t expect the ocean to be lapping at my feet for the entire journey. The engine room was also located in the main cabin where all the passengers were sat, so the smell of diesel was omnipresent for the journey too. Dangerous leaks and carcinogenic fumes aside, the 1-hour boat ride over to Ometepe wasn’t too bad, albeit a little rough.

Captain? I think the boat is broken – 

We had booked our accommodation on the island the previous day, and settled on (Hospedaje) Soma, partly for the air conditioning but mostly because it is the name of my favourite Smashing Pumpkins tune.

Soma is located approximately 15 minutes walk from where our boat docked in the town of Moyogalpa, which gave us an opportunity to walk through the main strip and find a place for a late lunch. After a delicious pizza, garlic bread and a couple of cold beers, we were ready to brave the 15-minute walk in the heat with our packs!

Upon arriving at Soma, we were shown to our room and were reasonably happy – Nicaraguan accommodation rarely has air conditioning and/or hot water, so to find both was quite a treat. We opted to drop our gear and head back up to the common area to have a few beers and jump on Wi-Fi to figure out what we should do for the next 3 days.

Although the accommodation itself was fine, we found the rest of Soma to be very much lacking in any kind of atmosphere. Soma is marketed as a ‘chill out hostel’ and has dorm and private accommodations, but lacks any real hostel ambience.

What do I mean by this?

Well, the staff aren’t totally across what to do on the island, there is a large kitchen located directly beside the check in and communal area that is strictly off limits to guests (highly unusual for a hostel), there is no option to order food at Soma (despite no use of the kitchen and being located outside of town), and the owners of the hostel cook and consume meals with their family and staff in the communal area right in front of guests.

These are all small items, but are actually a big deal to people travelling for extended periods. Granted, we found out that the owners are reasonably new (around start of April) and are still trying to find their feet, but when you take on the highest ranked (Trip Advisor) accommodation on Ometepe, you should have a sense of what you are doing.

A conversation Kell and myself had with one of the owners around these points did little to allay what we originally thought. When we put the issue of the exclusive-use kitchen to said person, the response was, ‘yes, but then people will want to start borrowing butter, milk etc…’ The positives about staying at Soma were the accommodation itself, breakfast being included and the fact we were able to make activity bookings through the hostel.

Our chalet at Soma

In any case, the first evening we took off into town in search of a low key dinner option. On the way in, we had passed by a lady grilling different types of meat on a charcoal BBQ right out the front of her house, and there were locals eating on plastic table and chairs in and around the area.

The smell from the BBQ was amazing, so we had a chat to her (with our limited Spanish, she spoke no English) to find out what she was cooking and whether we could eat there. She happily led us inside her house and seated us at a table about 2 meters away from where her 3 sons were watching TV in the lounge room – no joke!

Within 10 minutes though, we were served a huge plate each of BBQ pork and chicken, fresh salad, rice and beans, and fried plantain chips. The food was delicious, extremely cheap (around $3 each) and was made all the more special by this unique experience.

Our host

Our first full day on Ometepe started reasonably early and we had decided to rent a scooter to explore the island. Taxis on Ompetepe are wildly expensive, and we had heard the local bus service was fairly slow and unreliable, so an investment of $25 for a scooter for the day was well worth it.

Our first stop that morning was to a nature reserve named Charco Verde, which consists of a jungle walk around a large lake.

After paying our entry fee ($2 each) we began our walk. Kell relished the chance to put the camera to good use by snapping lots of pictures of all of the diverse flowers that lined the pathway.

Around 10 minutes in, we were surprised to see a goat running full steam towards us on the narrow pathway. We jumped to the side of the path to let the goat pass, whilst looking at each other like ‘how random was that?’

Shortly after we passed a goat herder accompanied by no less than around 40 goats, walking up the narrow pathway – fair enough.

At this point on the walk, I was beginning to think that Charco Verde was a little dull – yes it was nice with plenty of trees, flowers etc. to look at, but I had heard that the reserve was home to a number of howler monkeys, and was a little disappointed we hadn’t seen any of these or other animals.

Halfway around the lake however, we came across a dog on the track, which started following us as we walked. Dogs are ubiquitous in Nicaragua and in fact pretty much all of Latin America, so you are never surprised at where and when a dog will show up and start accompanying you somewhere.

I was glad the dog joined us, because around 10 minutes later, the dog spotted some horses in a field off the track, which it proceeded to bark at. In response to the dog barking, a howler monkey located in a tree just above us, began to deliver one of its territorial roars.

If you’ve never heard this sound before, its probably best described as similar to the roar of a big cat. We had heard howler monkeys previously in the jungle in Guatemala, but you generally hear them, not see them, particularly when they are ‘howling’. But, this primate was located in a tree about 5 metres away from us, and we got to see it up close, which was awesome. So, cheers random dog for waking up the howler for us!

After leaving Charco Verde, we jumped back on the scooter to head to our next destination, Ojo de Agua.

Ojo de Agua is essentially two swimming pools that are half-natural, half-artificial. The source of the water is natural, the pools are made with cement and rocks, and the bottom is rocky and sandy, and the pools are set against the backdrop of the jungle.

This place was quite literally an oasis for us, as the high heat and humidity were making us crave some respite. After paying our entry fee (around $3 each) we legged it down to the pools and jumped in to the cool water – amazing!

There was a barman making drinks from fresh coconut that he was adding rum to (aptly named a ‘coco loco’) so we opted for one of these each to have in the pool also ($2.50 each). After swimming for a little while we jumped on the scooter again to continue around the island in search of lunch.

Coco Loco, anyone?

We had heard of a local ‘comedor’ (restaurant) situated a few kilometres away down on the beach called Comedor Jackeling (!), which we arrived at in the early afternoon. This restaurant had a sand floor, and was quite literally located on the beach, which was great.

We ordered a whole local lake fish and some sides and we were good to go, cost was around $15 for both of us with drinks.

After lunch we made our way back to Soma, and repeated our first night’s dinner at the home restaurant ran by the local lady – it was that good!

We switched it up on day two by hiring an ATV, or what we would call back in Australia a quad bike. ATVs are a good option for the island, as the roads get a little dodgy and can be hard to negotiate on a scooter.

Our first stop was to one the local legends who runs a horse riding business on the northern end of the island – Hari’s Horses. After negotiating the impossibly rough terrain to the other side of the island, we arrived at Hari’s at around 9.30am and were greeted by the man himself.

Hari is a German guy who has been living on the island for 8 years, and has built up a reputation as someone who loves and respects the horses that he keeps. This is evidenced in the healthy physical condition his horses are in, which is in sharp contrast to many other horses that we saw on the island (and in fact in the rest of Central America).

Many of the Trip Advisor reviews of Hari’s Horses rave about the horse riding and Hari’s treatment of his horses, but are not so glowing when talking about Hari himself, but Kell and I found him just fine, a little strange and brash but clearly passionate about his horses and indeed horse riding. So, how was the horse riding? Well, it depends on whether you’re asking Kell or me.

My horse, Tequila, was described to me by Hari as ‘the Rolls Royce of horses and a real gentleman. You need to be a gentleman with him too’. I didn’t quite take Tequila out for dinner or anything after the ride, but I think we showed each other enough respect to have a good time. I actually loved it, and felt it was an awesome experience since a) I haven’t ridden a horse since I was abut 15 years old and b) I’m actually allergic to horses!

The ride was amazing, taking us up toward the volcano into the jungle, before descending back into the village through plantain plantations.

Now, Kell didn’t have such a good time. First, her horse – ‘Marijuano’ was a real bastard. Kell followed Hari’s directions to the letter, but old Marijuano was having none of it, walking at a snail’s pace until he was far behind us then galloping with no notice to catch up, or even not following the path that Hari and my horses were taking.

Kell’s horse couldn’t even manage to pose for a photo…

This unfortunately marred Kell’s first experience horse riding, which was a shame, but we are hoping to do some more horse riding later on in the trip so stay tuned for that. The 2-hour ride cost us $40, which was amazing value.

The legendary Tequila. What a gentleman he was

Kell’s horse wouldn’t even look at the camera. Unbelievable. That’s Hari on the left. He always looks like he’s hating life, don’t worry.

After saying farewell to Hari, the gentleman and the bastard, we headed around the other side of the island to find a place for lunch before heading back to Soma. We managed to ride around the entire island on our ATV, which was awesome.

Rush hour on Ompetepe

The road running the length of the island passes right over the top of the airstrip for the airport…! Volcano Conception in the back ground

Dinner consisted of a cheese and onion flavoured chip sandwich (yep, seriously) for Kell, and a toasted ham and cheese sandwich for me after I was able to convince the Soma staff to please let me use a fry pan to make it.

The following morning we took off for Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, where we would be catching a flight to Panama City. It was slightly daunting knowing that we had to backtrack through the same means of transport that took us to Ometepe, but on we went!

Things went a little pear shaped when we got to San Rivas however, when we realised that the regular buses running to Managua were seemingly not operating on a Sunday (which it was). At the location we were waiting for the bus, we met a Nicaraguan girl who we started conversing with in Spanish who told us that we could jump on a ‘collectivo’ to another town – Jinotepe – where we could catch a bus to Managua.

Not having any other real options at this point, we took her lead and jumped in the Tarago that was full to the brim with people heading to Jinotepe. The driver charged us for both of our backpacks at the same rate as a person, so effectively we paid for 4 seats, which was decent of him.

During the drive, our new friend initiated a Google translate convo on her phone between he,  myself and Kell where she essentially told us that she had a car in Jinotepe and would happily drop us to our accommodation in Managua for US$20. We had to admire her quick business acumen and, having been through the commute ringer at this point, were happy to agree to her proposition.

After we arrived in Jinotepe, we waited for our new friend’s neighbour who we were told was dropping the car off to us down at the bus port. After about 10 minutes, a car the size of a Hyundai Getz rolls up driven by a lady with two kids sitting in the back.

The next five minutes consisted of myself, Kell, our backpacks, daypacks, our new friend, two kids and the driver arranging ourselves into a bloody tiny car…!

We drove back to a nearby town, where the neighbour and two kids got out (thank god) and the three of us drove on to Managua. The drive took about 1 hour, and our new friend really struggled to follow the directions to our hostel, but we got there in the end – she had definitely earned her $20!

Next stop – Panama City!