San Juan del Sur to Playa Maderas to Ometepe Island

Concepcion Volcano

While we loved Playa Hermosa, we had to leave after only one night because we still had so much we wanted to see. I wanted to go to Leon but realized that the travel time needed would take up waay too much of our week. Instead, we decided to stay another night in SJDS and take a day trip to Playa Maderas with Good Times Surf Shop. Ryan didn't really want to go to Maderas because it's a notoriously crowded surf spot but it was the only option by the time we made it back to SJDS. We quickly checked in to Casa Romano (we didn't want to deal with the surly lady at Estrella again, it seemed like she hated us) and grabbed some lunch from Taco Stop before getting on the truck to Maderas.

You can fit a lot of people and a lot of boards in this truck

Maderas is beautiful and for those of us not surfing, it was fun to explore the shoreline and sample some delicious cocktails made with passion fruit, dragon fruit, etc. Ryan said it was frustrating because the local surfers did not "follow the rules of surfing" which are there "for the safety of everyone" but I think he had fun anyway.

Breakfast in the market in SJDS

Gallo pinto with limes and a drink
made from pitaya (dragon fruit)

That evening we had a low key anniversary dinner at Barrio Cafe before continuing our Nicaraguan trend of going to bed super early...it's tough when you keep waking up at 5-6 am! The next morning, after a quick breakfast at the central market, we decided that taking a cab to San Jorge to catch the ferry to Ometepe Island wasn't that expensive and much easier than taking the chicken bus again. When we arrived in San Jorge, we had to wait nearly 2 hours for the ferry anyway, so the chicken bus probably wouldn't have taken too much longer...live and learn! The ferry to Ometepe takes about an hour and it's pretty boring, but it's a good opportunity to nap because you clearly did not get enough sleep the night before going to bed after Matlock (that's a joke that makes fun of us for being old farts).

Our chariot to Ometepe

During our 2 hours waiting for the ferry, we decided that we wanted to go to Playa Santo Domingo once we reached Ometepe Island. We were only on Ometepe for about 5 minutes before someone asked us in English if we knew where we were going or if we needed help. Very kind of her but we actually knew what we were doing this time! We were waiting for the chicken bus to leave and take us from Moyogalpa to Altagracia so that we could take the bus from Altagracia to Santo Domingo. It's incredible how interactive travel can be when you don't have a car :) While we waited for the bus to leave, I copied the woman sitting in front of us and ordered an "enchilada" from a street cart in front of the bus. It was more like a fried empanada with seasoned rice inside and it smelled like a Dorito...super awesome.

Room #1 at Buena Vista

Hammocks everywhere!

Fast forward to the bus to Santo Domingo where they drop you off on the side of the road and you question if you understood them correctly until you realize, yep, this is it! There are a handful of restaurants and hotels and we picked the first one we walked up to: Hospedaje Buena Vista where we stayed in Room 1, which overlooks the lake for $20/night. It's very basic but nice and when someone is at the desk (not likely in the evenings) they have drinks and snacks for sale that you can enjoy in one of their many hammocks. They also sell breakfast but we ate elsewhere both mornings we were there, so I'm not sure if it's any good or not.

More hammocks!

After dropping off our bags, we walked across the 2 lane road to a business that rents bikes, 4 wheelers, scooters and dirt bikes. We chose the bikes because we LOVE biking....turns out we love biking on paved roads with few hills (well I do, I think Ryan is okay with off road biking). We only had a few hours before sunset, so after a fruitless ride to nowhere, we came back and showered before grabbing dinner. Looking back, I realize that this test bike ride should have been an indicator and warning against future bike rides!

Gorgeous views of the volcano

We enjoyed delicious and inexpensive dinners both of our nights on Ometepe Island at Jacqueline's Comedor which is run by a family. They have 2 dogs and 2 parrots/African Grey's (?), one of which says "Hola" and other phrases. There are other restaurants within walking distance but this one seemed to be the best combination of inexpensive/great food/friendly staff/nice atmosphere. There is also a cool vegetarian restaurant near Buena Vista, but we saved that for smoothies and breakfast foods.

The next day, our second to last day in Nicaragua, we decided that the hike up the volcano (8 hours roundtrip) would be too much. Instead, we decided to bike to San Ramon Waterfall, which seemed to be much easier to get to. Holy crap were we wrong!! Here's why: Biking from Playa Santo Domingo to the base of the volcano where you have a 4 hour r/t hike to the waterfall is a trek that will crush your spirit and kill your hope. We thought the rental shop was ripping us off by charging $50/day to rent a 4 wheeler (you can rent a car in the US for $30/day!!) and he said it was "possible" to bike to the waterfalls. What he didn't say is that while it is "possible" it's HIGHLY UNLIKELY that my scrawny butt would make it. Most of the trip to the base of the volcano is unpaved. Not just hard-packed-earth-dirt-road unpaved but dry creek bed full of boulders and rocks unpaved. Also, much of it is very hilly in addition to being full of giant rocks.

Before I realized the futility of our efforts...note we're still on paved road

The butterfly garden at beautiful Finca Magdalena

Why didn't we just go to the petroglyphs???

A horse I started to follow before Ryan
reminded me that it was probably unwise
to have a horse as a tour guide

Coffee beans!

It didn't start out so bad. We biked to Finca Magdalena because I've never seen a coffee farm and have wanted to since we went to Honduras. It was physically challenging but not terrible. When we arrived, we had a nice cup of coffee and enjoyed the absolute peace and quiet on their porch overlooking a massive floral garden. It was so beautiful and there were butterflies everywhere! We wandered around the farm for a little bit and even walked to the entrance to the hiking trail but decided that it would be dangerous to explore on our own. If we had gotten a guide at this point, we could have climbed Volcan Maderas and had an amazing day! We would have felt such a sense of accomplishment and awe. If only. Instead, what we did was hop back on our bikes and head towards San Ramon Waterfall.

Coffee plant at Finca Magdalena

I made it to Merida (small town near waterfalls) before needing to sit down and chug a liter of water and eat a Clif bar. At this point, I was near death but thought we were only like 15 minutes away from the waterfalls so I was willing to hang on.
After I scraped up my remaining energy and will, we biked the remaining 30ish minutes to what we thought was San Ramon Waterfall. We went up to the guard house and were informed of the price and the fact that there was most likely no way we could hike to the waterfall (again 4 hour r/t) and then bike back to Playa Santo Domingo before dark. I sat down and cried. Like, tried to hide behind my giant black sunglasses but there was no disguising the fact that I was all out sobbing in front of strangers cried.

I'm not proud of what followed next but why start lying to you now?! I was so defeated after all this that all I wanted to do was crawl back to Merida and find a ride back to Santo Domingo and never set foot on a bike again. Ryan, being logical and level headed, tried to reason with me and let me know that it would take us forever to walk back. So, I hopped on my bike and screamed "Are you happy now?!?!" and pedaled as fast as I could...."that'll show him" I thought to myself. I almost fell down because it started raining and the boulder road gets pretty slippery in the rain. "He'll be sorry if I fall down and hurt myself", I pedaled harder and then I reached a hill and gave up. I don't know what is wrong with my brain that I get so crazy dramatic in stressful situations but I really felt like I was suffering worse than anyone had suffered before (in under an hour, I would fully comprehend how much of a spoiled brat I am).  I walked the remaining 10 minutes until we found the kind gentleman who sold us water in Merida. He directed us to a nearby hostel/hotel where he said his friend had a truck and would probably take us to Santo Domingo for a fee.

This wasn't even the worst part

When the truck owning friend (I cannot remember his name for the life of me and it's killing me! It started with an "E" and I had never heard it before) said he would bring us for 500 cordoba ($20), I didn't even do the math. I would have probably given him $500 USD if it meant I didn't have to bike anymore that day. All I felt during that truck ride was relief....and soooo much guilt about being a super pansy. About a quarter of the way to Santo Domingo, we picked up one of the employee's of the hostel where we found the truck. This man bikes on this un-bikeable terrain EVERY DAY....it must take hours but he didn't seem all that upset about it. We are so spoiled to complain about traffic! Bike over some boulder roads that are impassable in heavy rains and then talk to me about traffic in your air conditioned car!

We treated ourselves to the most amazing smoothies at Natural Vegetarian Restaurant after we returned the devil bikes in Santo Domingo and I made a kitten friend. This kitten came sauntering over to me and promptly jumped in my lap. This kitten is the entire reason why we would enjoy our last breakfast at this restaurant the next day. We went to Central America and saw beach cows, sea turtles, pigs and horses on the side of the road, chickens, and monkeys and one of my favorite moments was hanging out with this awesome cat. The owner has another cat and a dog too but this kitten and I were buds.

This gregarious kitten was one of the highlights of our trip...Crazy Cat Lady!

That evening, we tried to make the most of our remaining hours of daylight and took a walk on the main road until the sun set. 

Adorable pigs!

Sun setting behind those trees and we could hear monkeys in one of the trees

The rest of the trip consisted of making friends with a woman from Holland while we shared a cab and ferry ride back to San Jorge, a chicken bus ride to Managua, a taxi to the airport and about 11 hours in the Managua airport (similar situation when we went to Honduras except the airport in Managua is soooo much nicer!) eating, shopping, reading and watching Neflix because they had WiFi. Also, Ryan was so excited about this buy 1, get 2 deal on Victoria beer at the equivalent of Popeye's Chicken, Pollo Estrella. 

 We had an amazing time in Nicaragua and I just wish we had more vacation time so we could have stayed longer! This is definitely one place I would like to return to :)