“In the middle of a lake, two volcanos form an island, that is magical like Kauai....”, those are the words I remember from a conversation with a man from Kauai, who had recently traveled through much of Central America.  I was in the planning stage of this trip at the time and pressured him to tell me which country was his favorite.  “Nicaragua” was his quick answer.   I was intrigued, as Nicaragua was not on my radar and I asked the simple question, “why?”, fully aware that that question is never simple to answer as a traveler.  I am sure he went into further depth, expounding on why he preferred Nicaragua, but only the brief description of the mystical island stuck with me.  I couldn’t recall the name, but with a name as unusual as Isla de Ometepe, I don’t blame myself.  Luckily, an island with two volcanoes in Nicaragua was not hard to locate.  Ometepe is on the list of sights for travelers in Nicaragua, but it is often passed by for the sun, surf, and parties of San Juan Del Sur or the colonial quaintness of Grenada or Leon.  

We choose to visit Isla de Ometepe after the Corn Islands.  It is often tiring, time consuming, and sometimes disappointing (i.e. Dobedo on Little Corn) to pre-book accommodations, so we had a few ideas of lodging in our heads but nothing reserved.  As luck would have it, the day we arrived at the ferry station the owner of Hacienda Merida was in town doing errands and had a 4x4 truck waiting for his return on Ometepe.  We were invited to ride with him for free.   I had been wanting to stay at Hacienda Merida since talking to a family of four on Little Corn who had visited there the summer before.  The well-spoken, twin 15 year olds told us about the remote hotel with kayaks, bikes, and a bilingual school on the property.  It sounded wonderful but I was hesitant since I didn’t want to “push” the kids too far.  This was another long travel day, or at least it was meant to be.  We had flown from Big Corn to Managua on the morning flight and then gotten a taxi to the bus station.  The taxi driver quoted $15, which seemed expensive but matched the price quoted in the guide book.  When the driver heard we were headed down to San Jorge, the jumping off point for Ometepe, he said “Why not go all the way by taxi? $55”  The bus for all 4 of us was going to be $13, plus the $15 taxi to the bus station, so we made the executive decision to spend the extra $27 to enjoy the relative luxury of a taxi ride for the 2.5 hours to San Jorge.  

So the idea of an additional 3.5hrs on a bus to get to Haciend Merida, on roads the guide book described as “laughable except in the rainy season when there is nothing funny about them.”,  after the 1 hr ferry ride, did not sound like a good choice.  BUT a 1 hr free 4x4 truck trip with the owner sounded perfect.  

Normally I like to start at the beginning but when your 23 days in and there have been countless incidences of beauty and breakdown, with traveller’s belly and unrelenting heat thrown in, it is hard to simply start at the beginning.   Nothing is linear, as my mind whirls, trying to figure out what to include in this post.   

Our 3 weeks thus far in Nicaragua could aptly be described as “intense”, mentally and physically.   I  am continually attempting to determine if our mental struggles are causing our time to be physically difficult or if the physical harshness of Nicaragua is causing our mental unrest.

Of course in reality our experience is a result of a combination of countless, undeterminable elements but two main causes in particular keep coming to mind.   
 
1. Travel in Nicaragua is physically harder than travel we encountered in Ecuador.

2. Psychologically, “travel shock” may be in effect as the initial euphoric phase of travel wains and we emerge into the real day to day of long term family travel and what that really feels like.