My boyfriend is a geologist and our travel buddy Niki is a geologist (they worked together), so part of Central America was always going to be about volcanoes. Volcanoes being the most exciting part of geology, apparently.

We kicked off our volcano tour with Isla de Ometepe, an island formed by two volcanoes rising from Lake Nicaragua. The two volcanoes are called Concepción and Maderas, they are joined by a small stretch of land called an isthmus.

We took a ferry from the mainland at 5pm and were treated to spectacular views of Concepción in the fading light.

Conception in the distance

We watched the sunset looking west back towards the mainland.

Bye sun

We got a taxi from the ferry terminal to our hostel on the other side of the island, our journey only slightly delayed by a protest with deafening fireworks. We stayed at Hacienda Merida.

The next day we hired scooters and took off to explore the island.

My life in Andrew’s hands

We passed all kinds of farm animals and some monkeys as well. Our first stop was Ojo de Agua, a manmade pool with natural spring water flowing through. It was like a green oasis hidden at the end of a dusty dirt road.

We got there at about lunchtime, so it was packed. But still beautiful.

In every direction was a slightly different shade of green/blue, depending on the light.

Things got even prettier under the water.

Was very happy to have replaced my GoPro by this point! All the underwater selfies.

Happiest guy around

After splashing around for a bit (and being complimented on our childrens’ goggles) we dried off with some local beers.

The easiest drinking beer around

Slightly soggy, we jumped back on our scooters in search of a late lunch. We came across a small town and pulled up to a food stand in the park.

I had a mix of plantain chips, slaw and a chunk of fried cheese (hidden by the slaw). It was delicious. I think it cost about $2?

Andrew had a classic rice and bean combo.

We ventured on (this time with me driving) further around the island, until we reached volcano vistas.

Looks like it has a wig on

In the late afternoon we moseyed on back to the hacienda.

Oh hi

That evening we took in a particularly decent sunset from the dock at Hacienda Merida.

After dinner we shared many rounds of Tona with new friends whilst avoiding two particularly evil ducks who kept sneaking up and nipping our hands and toes. I’m not kidding. Not even the dogs could scare them away.

An excellent start to Nicaragua.