Shark Infested Waters and Another Beach

We recently spent two days on Ometepe Island out in freshwater shark infested Lake Nicaragua.  Well, it used to be.  Ometepe is a figure 8 shaped island made up of two volcanos.  One is dormant the other is active.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ometepe. After the one hour ferry ride from San Jorge we got off in San Jose and headed for a town called Moyogalpa.  Most of the loop around the active volcano Conception, has a road made out of paving stones.  It was actually  pretty smooth and they must have used a couple of million paving stones.  The part that wasn't paved was ten miles of volcanic rock that resembled a road.  We took it of course and ended up in Altagracia where they were preparing for a parade and procession for the local bishop of the Catholic church. This was a Sunday feast after Corpus Christi celebration on Thursday May30.  We had to move on to find lodging so we didn't make it back to witness any of it.  We toured the rest of the paving stone roads on the other island the second day but didn't do much but relax.  We checked into some horseback riding but decided not to since they wanted us there too early in the morning.  The hike up Conception is a grueling ten hour hike so we passed on that because of the rainy season adding difficulty.  On the ferry ride the shutter release on my camera decided to quit so I will be sending it home.  The back up point and shoot has been put to work so hopefully I can still get decent pictures.  We now reside in San Juan Del Sur on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.  This is a nice town built around a cove or lagoon.  Life is slow here but it is also a tourist magnet.  Lots of backpackers and other tourons like us. There is a giant statue on the cliff overlooking the town that we rode up to today that had some beautiful views of the coast.  We will probably be moving on to Costa Rica in the morning. See ya....

               Going to the Island of Ometepe

     This is going away from the island but it shows you what it looks like. The next few photos

      are scenes from our arrival by ferry.

              Next up,  preparations for the Corpus Christi celebration in Altagracia.

  This table was at our hotel,  upon further inspection it has two growth rings, but still impressive.

    Follow the yellow brick road.  More scenes from our ride around the island.

      This is the dormant volcano.

    Leaving the island.

       The smoking crater.

   San Juan Del Sur 

     Statue on top of hill in the center.

    View from the other side of the statue

      Sunset from the hotel.  Goodnight and goodbye.