Nicaragua - Ometepe Island, Lake Nicaragua

I travelled south for about one hundred kilometres to the town of Rivas and located the ferry port for my trip to Ometepe Island in Lake Nicaragua, bought my ticket and loaded up. 

I thought it was nice that the ferry matched my Che sticker!

Ometepe is a small island that has two volcanoes, one active and one dormant. 

Martin had stayed with a British couple, Jim and Caroline, riding two identical Husqvarna 650s. 

Caroline was recovering from a broken lower leg after she fell from her bike on their second day on the island. 

I joined them at a small hotel resort called Santa Martha where I was given the pre-negotiated price of $15 a night for a lovely comfortable room near the water. 

The sound of small waves lapping on the shore was punctuated with bird calls, periodic staff music and the daily storm.

Jim and Caroline were welcoming and chuffed to have another visitor. She had been in a plaster cast for six weeks and recently had it removed so was starting to walk and do physio on her frozen right ankle. They have been travelling for ten months through South America heading south to north so we swapped lots of ‘places to see’ information. During my four night stay I unloaded Ziggy and did a figure eight loop of the two volcanoes. 

Jim joined me for the bigger paved island with a bit of gravel and we explored some of the small towns.

A church being renovated

and village life

Jim didn't feel up to the tougher south island so I did it alone and he returned to the hotel

It was 40kms of exciting riding. Mud, rocks, deep puddles, trucks, local villages and did I mention mud? 

There were some quite challenging spots for me where I felt like I was climbing paths of boulders, that were wet and slippery, but Ziggy kept her footing and I kept my technique and I managed the whole island without a fall. Of course those tougher areas I didn't get photos of. Skills have definitely improved! I arrived back tired but satisfied with a fun day’s riding.

A couple of days relaxing by the lake.

Time again to move on so we made our farewells and Jim rode with me to the ferry port. A storm came in when I was on the ferry and it bucketed down. 

I don’t know if I can count that as raining while I am riding, but I still seem to have this gift of the rain starting when I get off the bike and stopping when I get on. After a full drenching on the ferry, the clouds cleared as the ferry berthed and I rode carefully off the slippery deck. As I was exiting the port I came across a loaded KTM 1190 and met Fernando and Almu riding two-up around the world. 

We talked and swapped details, they too are travelling south but as I am finding, much faster than I am. Also they are taking the west coast to get down to Argentina for the start of the 2015 Dakar Rally.