The name Ometepe means ‘two hills’ in the native ‘náhuatl’ language. The island measures 276 square kilometers and it houses two majestic volcanoes connected through a small strip of land the volcanoes are Concepcion and Maderas.
It is the largest island in Lake Nicaragua as well as the largest volcanic island inside a fresh water lake in the world.
Getting to Ometepe was the best part of this day. At first I had a guide planned to go with us that I arranged from home. The hotel made it seem like it was close, yeah right. When we went to confirm the detail the evening before they said those magic words be ready to leave at 5:30 am!!! Hahaha right there my eyes bugged out of my head and I turned around and looked at my friend and said what do you think about a helicopter ride to Ometepe? If we would have gone by car it would have taken us 1 1/2 drive to a ferry dock then an hour across the lake on a public ferry and then all over again on the way back. I don't think we would have enjoyed Ometepe like we did by going by helicopter that got us there in 15 min. I must say we made the right choice. Now our trip started at 8:30 am and we got to se so much more, we had a full aerial view of Nicaragua and it's major cities plus the active volcano of Masaya. We flew over Mombacho volcano the to the very active Masaya volcano and were able to view the volcanic activity. Then over Apoyo that is shared by the city if Masaya and Granada provinces. From here we continued to the city of Granada which is very colorful and beautiful also it is the oldest colonial city in Nicaragua & the all-time-rival of Leon. Continuing on we flew over the Isleta's which means tiny Islands and there are over 365 of these small islands scattered about the Asese peninsula.
All I could think about while I was flying over them was how I wish I could be down there to paddle board around that area even though the water was very brown I think a paddle board or a kayak would be amazing. At this point the helicopter pilot was flying very low so we were able to see everything very well.
By now we were up in the air for about 45 minutes getting the most amazing view and tour of Nicaragua. Our next stop was Ometepe. By the way we did have a local guide with us that came from the hotel called Danillo he is 20 years old while he would explain everything we were looking at in Spanish I would then translate in English to Mike and my 2 friends from
Tampa that joined us mid trip .Dannilo proceeded to tell us that the helicopter ride was the second time he has ever been up in the air! We were all wondering why he looked so nervous. Dannilo was born and raised in Ometepe so we knew we were going to be in for a treat and see more than the average traveler.
Our first stop was Charco Verde and natural preserve located between the two volcanoes of Ometepe. Here we saw a family of howler monkeys that I enjoyed photographing. We proceeded to hike up to Mirador Guachipilin were the view were spectacular.
Moving along we drove through some of the towns and everywhere you looked were pigs pigs and more pigs. We then arrived to the town of Altagracia , Astalgalpa, as the Nahuatl indians called it, was the indigenous capital of Ometepe in pre-columbian times.
On the eastern side of Altagracia's central park is the parochial church, built in 1924, and its wooden bell tower. On the grounds of the church you can admire some of the biggest stone idols found on Ometepe. Other vestiges of Ometepe's rich pre-Columbian past are found in the nearby archeological museum, along with some information about geology and culture of the island. This church was a bite strange to me, there was Jesus sitting in a chair that looked like Captain Morgan? Services are not held in this church it was just there for display. Behind the odd Jesus was a wall and behind that wall we found a colony of bats!! Yes bats , they are so ugly and creepy looking.
In this town there was a strong Sandinista influence with red paint on every street corner or pole in the town also various painting of a man in a hat, a symbol for the Sandinista.
From here we moved on to the petroglyphs which were located on the property of a hostel, as we were entering we noticed a very loud hum and as I looked up the hum was black bee's the size of the palm of my hand! Good thing they were not aggressive.
It was finally time for lunch so we headed to Hotel Villa Paraiso that was located right on the lake with great views plus tropical birds trying to get a free snack. I really enjoyed this lunch the food was great except for the small insects that kept trying to swim in my coke.
After our lunch we finally were making way to the reason I wanted to visit Ometepe, Ojo De Agua lagoon. The water of Ojo de Agua has a special quality as the pools are filled with thermal spring water from an underground well at the bottom of the upper pool. A continuous stream of fresh water flows through the pools which are almost 4 ft deep. This was a great place to unwind and relax after a fun filled day of site seeing. We took a relaxing cool dip and enjoyed the tropical setting.
At this point we started heading back, but we made one more stop since we had a little bit more time left before we needed to head back to Mukul. Our stop was at El Ceibo Museum, I am not big on Museums but it's important to know the history of an area. The museum has two specific sections on two separate buildings, one is Nicaraguan numismatics, and another about pre Hispanic archaeology of the area. There were many pieces from BC and AC but due to the lack of funding there was not much information on the pieces.
basement we all looked perplexed but we followed her
down
and boy
was it worth it.
The basement was filled with hundreds of bats!!Yes more
bats! It took everything in my power to hold me back from
spooking them out of the basement and watching them fly
out like a good old vampire movie
It was an amazing day and even better than what I had envisioned. Now the best part, back to the helicopter for a quick 15 min ride back to the beautiful Mukul.
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