We had a beautiful ride over to the ferry that took us to the island of Ometepe (which means two hills). They are actually more than two regular hills, they are volcanoes. The plade where we left the surf on the lake was derinately up. That sure didn’t stop some people from getting wet.
Surf X
I took this photo of the big volcano on the way over on the ferryboat.
Volcano X
This is supposed to be one of the biggest freshwater lakes in the world. I think Bonnie said the tenth largest and I read in my book that it is the largest fresh water island. What ever it is, it is a beautiful island. The ferryboat was a old piece of shit but it made it across to the island in good time. I think the projected time was forty five minutes and that is probably about right. Since it is a big lake, the water was rather rough. I stayed on the deck with the bikes while the others went up top and sat in the sun. I actually had a nice place to sit on my bike and I was able to watch our bikes and be sure that the deck hands didn’t get to go through the zippers and look in our bags. I don’t have a lot not under lock and key but it is nice to know that your stuff is all there.
We took off from the dock and were on our way to a selected resort beach when we met a guy that we had met in Granada who invited us to come down to his hotel site and have a drink. It turned out to be a 7 kilometer very bad road and I was sure hoping that Dan and Bonnie were going to be able to make it ok on their 1200RT which is a road bike and not a dirt road rig. They made it ok and even made it through the sand spot but I could tell they were not happy about it. John and Linda on their KLR’s didn’t even notice the bad road I think. My bike did just fine but I was sure feeling sorry for Dan. We made it down to their hotel (Hotel Villa Paraiso) and had a juice drink there. We looked around and it was certainly a nice place but we had been told to head for another spot. We headed back and finally found Hotel Charco Verde Inn. What a wonderful place.it is inside an ecological reserve and there is bird watching as well as monkeys (the howler monkeys are to be heard now as I write this). There is a nice beach and the brochure says that an hour of kayak goes with the room. I saw several of the plastic ones on the beach near the main restaurant building. It is really nice here and the room that I have is nearly new.
Bike room X
I paid 102 cordoba or $6/night. There is a nice big fan and outside the door is the toilet and shower. The bed is a big double with a top sheet if needed. I think this is the first bed I have slept in on this trip that has a headboard as well as a footboard. Oh, it does come with a gecko who I guess will eat any bugs that come in the room that might bother me. He/she is scooting around the walls and ceiling now looking for something to eat.
Oh, I took this photo of a nice turtle ceramic planter, or I guess that is what it is at the first place we went to and thought of Tova. Bonnie is the one that pointed it out to me as she is a turtle lover as well.
Turtle X
And I had to take a flower photo too so here is the required flower photo for the log. It was on a rather large bush and the flowers were stunningly beautiful. There don’t seem to be a lot of wild flowering stuff down here now but the selected flowering plants for yards and gardens are common.
Flower X
12-6-05
I have been waking up rather early lately and when I was in Granada I would have to wait until seven and walk up town to find a restaurant that was just opening and wait around for a half hour or so to get a cup of coffee. Actually sometimes the breakfast would come and be mostly eaten before the coffee came. It is odd because there are people out and about early, but I guess they must get their coffee and breakfast at home because it sure isn’t out on the street yet.
This morning I slept in until about six which was nice. In Granada there were bombs going off before that. By bombs, I mean the big firecrackers and rockets that they blast off everyday and sometimes a lot of them. It is supposed to have something to do with celebrating birthdays and I am sure some of it is for religious reasons. These are not the piddley little things that we have in the states. These are big mommas that really blast out a report.
This morning I looked out and saw a guy in the field behind my cabin doing something with a big stick. He would bend down and pick at the vegetation and then take this big stick and ram it into the ground and wiggle it around. I just had to see what he was doing as it just looks like a short grassy field. Once I got out there I could see the melons all over amongst the grasses and bind weed. He was pulling some of the weeds from around the hill where the melons were planted and then making a hole and lifting and loosening the soil. I have no idea why he was doing it as I really cant see any advantage to doing it other than removing some of the root competition. He is going to have a lot of melons in that field. They are about cantaloupe size now but he made the gesture that they will get much bigger maybe they are watermelons as that is about the size he indicated. Someone else down here said that they grow a lot of watermelons down here and juicing them is very popular. That evidently is popular in Mexico too as that is what quite a few of those juice bars that I ate were made out watermelon juice with the seeds in it.
I took a walk along the beach this morning and it is really pleasant. This is the lee side of the island so there isn’t any wave action. I sat on a bench and watched a woodpecker working on a big limb of a tree. It sure looks like on of the woodpeckers that lived on the farm in Montana. Could it be that we are both down here enjoying the winter. It is a long way to fly but nice country to travel through.
I checked with the young man at the desk and it seems like I will have to go back to the town where we landed to find internet service. I will take the bike and scoot in later this morning and see what news on my new debit cars is. Charlie was able to order a new replacement drivers license for me as well so that will be nice to have an original. Before I left I made two drivers licenses on the color copy machine and then laminated them. They look almost like the real thing and I have had no problem using them so far.