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Island Adventures
This past weekend was undoubtedly my favorite trip in Central America. It started off on a great note - meeting up with all the Duke students on Friday night, enjoying the Intercontinental Hotel, Pizza Hut, McFlurries, and celebrating Grace’s 20th birthday in style.
Then on Saturday we made the voyage to Ometepe island, an island made of 2 volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.
One of the volcanoes, covered by clouds (and smoke?).
A bus, cab, ferry ride, and 5 hours later, we landed on the island. First thought? Let’s rent mopeds! So all 10 of us rented mopeds and spent the rest of the day exploring the island. It was quite a thrill to be zipping down the rural roads of Ometepe at 50KPH, passing horses, pigs, cows, volcanoes, and lots of handmade huts. The villages here seemed very traditional.
Duke girls on mopeds!
Horse crossing! No cars on these roads, but lots of animals caused a few “traffic jams.”
After a few hours of driving around (and getting lost), we arrived to our first destination: hot springs. The title is misleading, because the springs were actually quite cold, but they were beautiful and it was fun to splash around in such clear water. Then we headed out for the sunset, and as I was watching the sky fill up with gorgeous shades of red and yellow, I couldn’t stop thinking that the only missing component was a bonfire and s’mores!
The next day, we woke up at 5AM to take a 3k hike up one of the volcanoes. We had to wake up early to make it back to the bus on time, but it was so worth it. At the end of the hike was a huge, gorgeous waterfall, and it was one of the most breathtaking views I’ve ever seen. The moment we walked over the last peak of the hike and first saw the water, we all gasped. It was truly breathtaking.
I didn’t bring my camera to the waterfall, but hopefully I’ll upload somebody else’s pictures to this post soon!
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