5th August started with our journey to the island of Ometepe which is in Lake Nicaragua, which is the second largest freshwater sea in the Americas and is fed by 40 rivers. Our journey started at 8am on a Nicaraguan "chicken bus" so called as we were soon to find out because of the way people are crammed on, it was certainly a very packed bus!! Buses here in Nicaragua are old American style school buses, there was a luggage rack on top but we put our bags in a big pile at the back of the bus and were were fortunate to all just about get a seat as we got on at the departure point, however the seats were all full as we left, which meant anyone getting on en route had to stand and there were many people who got on along the way! The system for stopping and starting was the conductor guy whistling to the driver, if people needed to get on or off, and on several occasions people were running alongside and jumped on while it was moving! It was an interesting experience, but I think it´d be quite hard to travel like that every day, though I guess its comparable to rush hour on the tube....

So, that took just over an hour and instead of getting out and getting a taxi to the ferry our guide paid for it to take us to the ferry, where we had to rush to get the ferry, which was a good thing though as it meant we gained an hour in Ometepe. the ferry took around an hour with lovely clear views of Ometepe as it was a lovely clear day, but also extremely hot, even though it was only 9.30am! Once we got to the island we got a mini bus to our hotel which was located on Santo Domingo beach, located in the middle of the island, which is made up of two volcanos, Concepcion and Maderas. The hotel had a really lovely location and some steps led down to the lakeside beach. After possible activity information and lunch it was time to go to ther beach. Fortunately there were no bull sharks to be seen (they live in the lake!) but unfortunately distant rumblings of thunder led to a windy afternoon and a bit of rain so we weren´t on the beach long, most of us left after a load of flies/insects were blown at us, at first we thought it was rain, but it really was a load of flies! So the afternoon was spent relaxing/chatting on peoples verandas instead. I had a lovely dinner of fish and prawn kebab (on kebab sticks), it was delicious follwed by an earlyish night. I declined the opportunity to go a hike to a waterfall (way too hot for hiking!), so I spent the morning reading whilst swinging in a hammock, nice! We then went to meet the rest of the group to see some of the island´s petroglyphs, carvings on rocks by the Mayans- they think Ometepe was the furthest south that the Mayans went. This was an interesting tour, but very, very hot! I don´t seem to be adjusting that well to the heat, though others are finding it too hot too. Afterwards we went to the "Ojo de agua". the "eye of water", a freshwater pool that comes from a spring. I didn´t swim as I´m always a bit funny about swimming in lakes etc and it was also a little cooler by this point so I wasn´t desperate to go in to cool down, earlier I would have been!

The evening was the highlight of the visit to Ometepe as we went to have dinner at a local family´s house. It was the guide who had been with our group for the day and they cooked us a lovely meal, of either fish, chicken or vegetables and cheese, with rice, beans, plaintains, salad and tomato sauce (not of the ketchup variety, more salsa like). I opted for the veggie meal as I didnt fancy having a whole fish on the plate, head included, but it was all delicious. I really enjoyed the opportunity to communicate with them (and use my Spanish!) and to find out about life on the island, the children´s schooling and so on. They seemed to enjoy having guests and the children enjoyed playing, especially taking photos with people´s cameras! I´m glad we had the opportunity to do this as it´s really good to be able to speak to and have contact with local people.

Apparently Ometepe island is known to be a really peaceful place and it certainly seemed it. I would have quite liked an extra day here and to have maybe seen a little more of the island, but I´m glad it was part of our itinary. Next stop Granada.....