Dirtbiking Ometepe! Today Luis and I decided to get up early and hire some dirtbikes and ride around the whole island. Luckily there was no rain and the weather didn't look so bad so we headed down to a guy I had talked with a few days ago about hiring bikes. After handing over our passports, showing our licenses, paying $20 we were handed our helmets and keys and we were off. I can't explain how great it is to be back on a motorbike and it didn't take my long before I got my confidence on the bike up. We cruised out along the south side of the island observing the beautifully thick green jungle and all the locals walking, bicycling, working and going about their daily business. We came to a nice little bay where there were some ladies out in the lake washing their clothes whilst the fisherman pulled in their nets. A beautiful island and the freedom of a motorcycle can not be matched and to think such an amazing experience can be had for around $25 - priceless. Every time we found a little trail or a side road we took off down it in search of adventure and some fun offroading. The little towns and communities we passed all had distinctive farming and collective community feels and we cooking help smile at this setting. We continued on around the first island with the volcano at our left and after an hour crossed the small land bridge to the second part of the island. The road soon turned to gravel and rock and the going got very tough and we both had to call upon our offroad skills from here on in. We passed some little towns and decided to stop at this one town where we saw a small school close to the road. We walked into the schools courtyard and the kids were out buying candy and snacks so we joined them and also got some snacks and frozen juice. The kids were very interested in us and wanted photos and for us to play which ofcourse we obliged to. The kids were so cute and in the end neither Luis or I wanted to leave. We continued around the small island and the road got worse and worse and we really had to be alert with random cows, horses, pigs, chickens and people running out in front of us every couple of minutes. We saw barely any tourists out at this part of the island and certainly felt the remoteness of this side of the island. We drove passed Little Morgans famous treehouse hostel and decided to stop in and have a look - as both Luis and I had been recommended the place. When we arrived it was full of shady looking characters all looking worse for wear and sitting around drinking and skulking random drinks - good decision not to stay here. Having said that though the actual hostel was beautiful with hand crafted wood tree-houses holding the guests and a very cool bar resteraunt area. The road had now gone back to bitumen and we we returned to the big part of the island and stopped in the main town for some lunch and fresh passionfruit juice. At this point both Luis and I agreed we were tired as and we would head back to Moyogalpa. We took a different offroad route back to town and had a little bit more fun on the dirtbikes before returning them to the shop. When we got back to Moyogalpa it was raining and continued to rain for the next 3 hours. The Israeli girls i had met in Monteverde arrived in the evening and had been out on the water on the boat in the crazy weather. We had dinner together down at my favorite chicken resteraunt and then chatted a bit before heading back to the hostel to get an early nights sleep.

OBSERVATIONS:
- Dirtbikes for the day $25
- Israeli girls arrived in Ometepe