Get a Job...

Back to Ometepe.
On New Year's Eve, we decided to stay in Moyagolpa (the town where the ferries disembark) because we didn't know how quickly we could get around the island and we were afraid that transportation would stop early on that day. So we got a room and went for a walk around the town. After Granada, it was refreshing to be in a town where there was clearly a life beyond the gringos--we didn't get asked for money or to buy a lot of junky trinkets or take a carriage ride. Instead we just wandered the hills and talked to a few of the locals. We made friends with some little girls taking a swim. Kids down there LOVE digital cameras--they love to be able to see themselves in the photos. I hope that those pictures turned out. For now, a view of the lake at sunset
Oh, and New Years was extremely anticlimatic. The hostel locked and paddlocked the door (pretty much everyone staying there had decided to take naps before venturing out again) so we didn't get to really observe the Nica New Year. But from what we could figure out earlier, it just involved lots of noisy fireworks and some ice cream.
The next day, we decided to move on to a place called Charco Verde, which is a wildlife reserve more toward the point where the island narrows between the two volcanos. Unfortunately, as noted before, there was no public transportation on New Year's Day. Instead we paid $10 to be driven about 15 minutes. Next time we will pack two SMALL bags and use our legs. We were dropped at Hotel Charco Verde, where they told us they might have a room for $35 per night. Then the snotty receptionist sniffed and informed us if we wanted something mas barrato we were welcome to take a ten minute walk down the beach to find something in our price range.
We did. This was the view out our window:

And that was for $5 per night. Of course, we also had to deal with agressive geese that tried to bite my legs, but it was worth it. Once we had accomodations, we set off back down the beach and took a walk through the nature preserve. There's a beautiful lagoon in there which is supposedly haunted by a spirit that doesn't like it when you take photos of his lake (hmmm...maybe that's why the camera broke) but we saw no evidence of this, nor did we see anyone else swimming so we decided to keep going. Instead we found a little beach with only a few people there, where we could swim in view of an island and one of the volcanos.
That night, well that late afternoon, we took a trip up Mirador Diablo. This involved what felt like breaking and entering--we needed to open gates and watch for stray horses. It also involved a VERY steep climb that was slightly scary when walking back down. But it was worth it...see if you agree.



We had the place to ourselves, and that's what we decided was our own new year...watching the sunset on Nicaragua on the first day of the new year was our celebration, our welcoming of 2007.