Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Two-Volcano Island
That would be Ometepe, an hourglass of an island wrapped around two volcanoes in Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America (21st in the world) and hope to the world's only freshwater shark.In the 19th century, this was seriously considered as an alternative location for a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and this map shows you why...
Despite draining into the Caribbean Sea, 200 miles away, the lake is close enough to the Pacific that you can see the Ocean from the top of the Concepcion and Maderas volcanoes...
After a sweaty public bus ride, and a zip through Rivas in a taxi, we arrived at the landing to take the ferry to Ometepe.. Here's a monkey chained to a tree that I spotted while waiting..
I love this photo of a colorful but empty bus on the lake shore..
We board the ferry...
The ferry also carried vital supplies from the mainland... :-) The crossing took 45 minutes and was sufficient to singe my bare neck. On arriving, we just missed the bus to our resort on the Island's north side... So we rented a van for the 16 of us.. With 15 seats.. Guess who sat on the floor and only saw treetops as scenery...
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