Nicaragua, Dec 2012

Costa Rica

On Friday, my husband and I left Playa Hermosa for Nicaragua. First, we took the bus back to Liberia where we changed to another bus to Peñas Blancas. This town is the official border crossing between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

The border formalities for us were simple. We paid a small exit fee and an entry fee, and finally were on the other side of the border.

From there, we took one more bus to the city of Rivas and a taxi to San Jorge, a small town on Lake Nicaragua but our journey for that day was not over yet. The last leg was the ferry from San Jorge to Isla de Ometepe, an island in the middle of the lake.

Ometepe means “between two mountains” in Nahuatl, the indigenous language of Nicaragua. It is easy to see how the island got its name by looking at the map. The island was formed by two volcanoes. Concepción, on the left, is an active volcano. The smaller volcano on the right, Maderas, is extinct.

The ferry ride took about one hour. The passengers were mostly locals with only a few tourists.

The ferry brought us to Moyogalpa, the largest village on the island, where we planned to spend 4 nights before returning to Costa Rica. Nothing was prebooked; we started walking from the port up the road and checking for available accommodation.

The first place was more like a hostel with tiny, not so clean rooms. We took a note of it in case nothing better was found. The place across the road was called the American hotel. It was more expensive but definitely better. We looked at another place, then another. The deeper we got into the village the worse the rooms became.

‘What are we looking for here? A Hilton? That American hotel was decent enough and it is on the main street,’ I lost my temper. It was a long day with a lot of waiting and sitting on the buses.

We walked back to the American hotel that was actually owned by an American couple, Simone and Robert. The wife was Italian. They had lived in New York where Simone had a well-paid job of a headhunter, i.e. she was a consultant hired by firms to find talented individuals who meet specific job requirements.

One day, the couple got tired of too much stress in the big city. They sold everything and moved to one of the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean where they opened a jewelry business. It was supposed to be a dream-come-true in the paradise with a house on the beach. Although the business was successful, the life was even more stressful because of high crime on the island. Simone was robbed at the gunpoint more than once. It was not safe in the house behind the always locked metal gates and closed windows. The couple again sold everything and moved to Ometepe. This time, they built a hotel that had 5 rooms with hot water showers, a luxury not seen on the island. Who would want to have expensive running hot water in a tropical climate? Simone gave up on explaining to the locals why she installed hot water showers. If anyone asked she said it was her personal fancy as a gringa.  

Knowing that the temperature did not drop much at night, we asked for a room with A/C. Simone said that only one room was air-conditioned and it was occupied. She offered us to stay two nights in another room and then she would move us to the room with A/C when it became vacant.

Once we settled in our room, the next issue on the agenda was finding a guide to climb the volcanoes. They were the main reason for going to Ometepe.

Robert and Simone said that it should not be a problem. They knew someone called Robinson who ran a guide service; immediately called him and arranged a meeting at the hotel the same evening.

When the subject of climbing Concepción and Maderas was brought at home it was never discussed who would do that. It was my husband and him alone. He would climb Concepción on one day and Maderas on the following day. The third day on the island was in case the climbs had to be rescheduled because of bad weather or to recover after them. I was told to keep myself occupied any way I liked while my husband was conquering the volcanoes.

I did not question his plan. It was true that my fitness level was far below my husband’s. In addition, I had an abdominal surgery in April that kept me on a 1-month disability leave until mid-May. I just hoped to be well enough by December to survive this trip. Concepción is steep with elevation of 5282 ft (1610 m). Climbing it in the hot and humid Nicaraguan weather was not a small feat and I could not imagine myself doing that.

However, when we got to Ometepe I suddenly felt strong enough to do the climb. My husband shrugged off the suggestion to go to Concepción together.

‘This is impossible. You will be tired soon and then what? I cannot leave you on the trail and we will have to turn back. I am here to climb these two volcanoes and will not lose this chance,’ he said.

When Robinson showed up, all five of us sat down at the table in the reception area.

Robinson was a young Nicaraguan about 25 years old, he spoke fluent English. Robinson explained that the hike to the crater took around 8 hours. Most people went only to the halfway viewing point, Mirador. It is above tree line, provides good views of the island and challenging enough. He added that hikers really did not gain much by going all the way to the crater.

This was not how my husband wanted to do this climb. For him, it was all or nothing. If he did not get to the highest point of a mountain it was an incomplete climb.

Robinson sighed and said that there would be a group of two scheduled to climb Concepción early on the following morning. My husband could join them but there was no guarantee that the group would reach the crater.

Having heard that it was possible to go to Concepción right away in a few hours, my husband, without a moment’s hesitation, blurted out that he would go. He was excited and started talking the details as if I had not existed. I did not like that. I don’t know what came over me but I decided to climb the damn volcano too. There was only one way to stop him.

‘You go without me and I’ll divorce you!’ I yelled at my husband in Russian. He choked up and stared at me. A heated exchange between him and me convinced my husband that I meant business. It was in Russian and Simone, Robert, and Robinson did not understand what it was about but they could guess that it was not a pleasant conversation and looked uncomfortable.

It did not take long to come up with a solution that worked for both of us. My husband and I would climb Concepción together on Sunday which was in one day, with an individual guide. We would go as high as possible, ideally to the crater, weather permitting. Then on Monday, I would let my husband climb Maderas by himself and would not say a word against that.

The weather was a huge factor that could affect this plan. Saturday was going to be a beautiful clear day but things could change quickly. It would be an enormous frustration to hike when Concepción was in clouds and we would see nothing from its top. I admitted that the risk was real but I was willing to take it. Again, I had no idea what was driving me and if I was capable of doing this climb however I was very determined.

Ometepe