Isa Omotepe

I promise I am getting to the point of my vacation. I tried to do it in my last journal entry, but getting out all the drama I had to go through in the course of 24hrs was a story in itself. Yet, I digress; back to the topic at hand, how was this last vacation easily one of the best vacations I had? It couldn’t have been the time; it was only 3 days, it wasn’t hard won after a tedious season of work, and it wasn’t basked in luxury. However, this trip hands down stands out as one of my top trips. In order to see this you need to step back and look at how all the blocks happened to fall in place. I reached Rivas with Stella after a strenuous period in the Peace Corps Office where I was literally counting down the minutes and only seeing lost opportunities. It happened at a point where I was re-energized to work, but as a result quickly buried myself in too big of projects. Together, Stella and I had to fight through traffic and avoid the imminent government rallies to get to the bus station and catch one of the expresses just as it was pulling out of the station. Maybe it was the fact that our friend John was waiting for us at the station ready to depart at a minute’s notice and we were again fighting the clock to make the next ferry that we caught with only minutes to spare. All these factors compounded upon themselves to create a situation that superseded reality and created a hyper sense of manifest destiny that I was supposed to take this trip.

Ok, finally, the trip. After our late night pizza in Managua and our odyssey to get to Rivas Stella and I were finally able to meet up with John Gwillim (Check out his websites: Blog and Site ). We made our way to the port town and caught the last mid-day ferry and were merrily on our way to Isla Omotepe. For those of you who don’t know, Isla Omotepe is in contention to be named one of the great treasures of the world and is distinguished as the only island with two volcanoes on it or something like that. Alright, so the ferry; it was a boat that fit about 50 people, but don’t let the number fool you; Nicaragua knows how to cram people into way too small of accommodations. We crawled across the lake to the island at a pace I swore I could out swim. Yet, we did make it and we were being perilously chased by some ominous rain clouds in the distance.

The theme of this trip was to not be scammed by the shameless Nicaraguans. As soon as we got off the boat we were bombarded by taxi drivers willing to take us anywhere on the island. Now, I don’t want any of you picturing Hawaii in your heads. Even though this is one of the biggest tourist destinations in Nicaragua it is far from developed and as I got off the boat I swore I got off in the wrong location. The town wasn’t rundown, but it wasn’t exactly touristy. It had an ominous air to it that was not the least bit welcoming and it seemed the goal was to get out as quick as possible. There were two options, a cheap bus that would take 4hrs to get to our destination or clash with the taxi drivers and manage a reasonable rate and a 1.5hr ride. Luckily, John is a pro at negotiating and had inside information; his friends said a taxi should cost no more than $4 a person. To show you how bad the taxi drivers are, they started off with a rate of $10 a person. Ha, we spat at their pity attempts to sucker us in and we found some other tourists to split a taxi with us and we managed a respectable $5 a person.

The taxi ride was a story in itself. We managed to gather the most indecisive group of tourists known the man. I don’t like to brag, but the three of us had our heads on straight, but I don’t think the others had a clue where they were or even what they wanted. To be truthful, neither did we, but we figured we would see what we wanted and it would just come naturally. Well we managed to chose a hostel right on the beach and like a flock of sheep the other 6 people followed us. While we booked a room and got settled in the others were wandering around lost double guessing all of their decisions. It was a sad sight, but we had things to do, stuff to do so we could not worry about the lost.

Hopefully in all my rambling you did not lose my mention of the ever present thunderstorm looming just off the horizon. Well by the time we got settled into the hostel it was upon us and there was a steady rain coming down. However, who were we to let a little rain and electrical currents to ruin our afternoon. It was only 4pm and we theoretically still had 2hrs of daylight left. John helped convince us to rent kayaks and we took off in the rain. I would like to clarify, at this point the thunder was only a distant rumble and if you follow the counting rule it had to be at least a 1,000 miles away, right? Anyways, we set out on the lake and were being somewhat cautious and stayed within 100yds of shore. It was quite a juxtaposition; the rain was nice and cold, but the lake was so very warm. We splashed around for a little and headed out for Isla de los Monos. It was exactly that, a small island about 50m long that had two monkeys on it. Later we were disappointed to find out that the monkeys were put there by someone and fed daily. We did a couple laps around the island and one of the nearby islands as well and finally decided to head in as the thunder steadily grew louder.

That night we found out there was an all you can eat buffet at the hostel. You heard me right, an all you can eat buffet at a hostel, who was the sap who thought that was a good idea. John’s and my eyes lit up and we were ready to put that title to the test. Perhaps Stella was slightly appalled by both our appetites, but it sure was delicious.

The next day was the real kicker for the whole vacation. We set off early in the morning on our kayaks and our newly acquainted friends, Bob and Kathy. They were a married couple from AZ who decided to just take a vacation and seemed interesting enough. There were five of us and we set off in 3 kayaks for a little known river about 1hr up the coastline. It was a beautiful trip heading up towards the river. We were hugging the coast of an amazing island watching all the locals head down to the shore to do their laundry, to the backdrop of Volcan Concepcion. Yet, it was no easy stroll, it was an hour of some serious kayaking and we had to rotate people in the single kayak in order for the slower single to keep up. By the time we reached the river it was a welcoming idea to jump in the water and pull the kayaks to shore. We weren’t exactly worried about the bull sharks, they have been over fished for decades and plus what were the odds?

Again, this is not what you are picturing. When I say river it is not like we were going to turn and head up the Connecticut River, it wasn’t even on the scale of a brook. From out on the water it looked a little murky, but then again we knew that it was technically classified as a swamp. No biggie, we thought we would just have to pull our kayaks through the delta or about 100m and then we would be on our way. John was our unofficial guide and I guess like me he has a way of getting himself into situations. We figured we would just go straight up the delta because the fastest route of travel is a straight line. Seems logical enough, but that is the exact same rationale that leads to planes crashing into mountains; you forget to look at the geography. Well we did just that and instead of a mountain, we quickly found ourselves in knee and later waist high mud. It was really quite an experience to have mud just sucking you down and climbing to any and every part of you. It was slow going to say the least and it was made harder by the fact that the ground underneath was scattered with uneven rocks, debris, and just icky thoughts. I didn’t want to know what I was trudging through and if it wasn’t for the others by my side I would not have been in there. About halfway through the delta Stella climbed back into the kayak and I had to pull her. I guess there really is no way to describe it. From a distance it looks like a river, all be it shallow, but it seems like running water. The entire time there was about 3” of standing water, but the layer of mud below it had a way of just sucking you down.

Finally we made our way through, were able to climb back in our kayaks and head down the narrow river. It really was breathtaking; it felt like you were transported out of the civilized world. There were no signs of human development, no distant voices, and only the symphony of singing birds and insects. About 150m in I did however make a startling discovery. There in front of me in the water was movement. I thought it was a turtle or something, but it was way too long to be a turtle. As we got closer I noticed it had one serpentine eye that had an unwavering gaze on us… it was a caiman! I was trudging through water that had caimans, animals that resemble a alligators and are up to 6ft long. Surprisingly my initial thoughts were not of fear, but how cool it was that I was in dangerous waters and my mom would kill me if she knew. We pressed onward and the river began to get narrower with overgrown vines and the water turned into a carpet of water plants. We were really being transported through time and the only thing I had running through my head was the theme song of Jurassic Park. A comical moment along the trip was that we did run into another group that came up behind us. The most surprising part was not seeing them, but the fact that their boat was spotless and so were the people. I guess that is why you hire a guide, we were tricky and followed them out on the dry path.

From this point on the trip headed back to a more regular vacation. I was no longer sludging through caiman infested waters or narrowly catching buses. It is not to say that my trip lost any of it’s luster, just that it was just that, a vacation. I had to say my farewells to Stella, and John and I were off to Granada for the night. Our main goals were simple, to find a place with Guiness and have a last decent meal. Well we fulfilled one of those goals, we had a great dinner, but the Guiness fell short. It was not because it was unavailable, but we got caught up with some Happy Hours, and who can say no to two for one mojitos? Finally, it was Monday and I was supposed to head back to site. Unlike the end of most of my trips it was not filled with anxiety and dread, but I was ready to head back. I felt fulfilled and ready to return to my “home.” I was actually excited to see my house and my neighbors again. Maybe it was because I had to stem the hemorrhaging of money, I had spent my monthly salary in the course of 4 days. Yet, I did have one final trick up my sleeves. I had a pit stop in Managua to visit an old friend, Carl Bailey.

Carl Bailey (Bio) is perhaps one of the most amazing men I have ever met. He is the father of one of my good friends form high school and we often joked that he wasn’t human. It was just one of our inside jokes, but I never realized to degree in which that was true. Carl is the most selfless man I have ever met. He has an extensive past of donating and working to help many impoverished schools and disenfranchised children. He is part of many NGO’s in the Danbury area and he even finds time to teach at Fairfield University. I don’t want to brag about all his accomplishments, but I felt secure being in his presence. I felt a reassurance that something in the world was going right and perhaps with luck I can accomplish a fraction of what he has done. I am always struck by how genuine Carl is and how no matter the situation the world is seen infinitely better through his eyes. It was a great note in which to end my trip and a motivator for me to continue my work in the Peace Corps.