Central America 2000 - Into Nicaragua
From Worldtraveller
The next day, much restored after our exertions, we headed out of Costa Rica. Our next stop was to be Ometepe Island, in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. It's the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world, and Lake Nicaragua is the largest lake in Central America. The island itself is made up of two volcanoes, one active, joined together by ancient lava flows. It can be seen from far away, the twin peaks rising dramatically from the waters of the lake. Before the Spanish arrived, the area was inhabited by the Nicarao tribe (whose name, together with the Spanish for water, agua, forms the name of the country), who spoke Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. After a civil war in Mexico, the Nicarao people had fled south, and, on consulting their idols, were told that they should continue until they came to a huge expanse of fresh water with two mountains in the middle. Thus they settled on Ometepe and around the shores of the lake. The name Ometepe comes from the words Ome Tepetl, meaning 'two hills' in Nahuatl.
Latin American border officials have not received the best press in the world, so we were a little daunted as we got the bus to Peñas Blancas, the border crossing. However, in the event the border officials weren't a problem. We crossed without paying bribes or having drugs planted on us, and our last resort (selling Moh into jungle slavery in return for my freedom) was thankfully not necessary. The main problem was the bank, who spent a good half hour stamping, scratching, marking and variously defiling our travellers cheques, before giving us Nicaraguan córdobas at an abysmal rate, counting them out four times.
But soon enough we were across the border. Some taxi drivers told us there were no buses onwards from the border and we'd have to take their taxi if we wanted to get anywhere. We were too streetwise for them, though, and hopped aboard a nearby bus, which was going to Rivas, from where we would continue our journey. As we drove off, we could see Lago de Nicaragua and the towering peaks of Ometepe Island on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.
The first thing we noticed when we entered Nicaragua was that the people look very different to Costa Ricans. Straight away you can see that the people are mestizo, a mix of Spanish and indigenous. In Costa Rica, disease and cruelty very nearly wiped out the indigenous people within about 50 years of the Spanish arriving, so no intermixing took place. But in Nicaragua, the Spanish were a little less brutal in their treatment of the natives, and the mixed race descent is clear to see.
As we arrived in Rivas, we noticed another difference. When we couldn't understand Costa Ricans, they would try the time-honoured method of talking louder and slower. Nicaraguans, however, would generally try communicating by hand movement. I found the loud slow talking more effective. We never worked out what the old man was trying to tell us when we asked him where the San Jorge bus stop was. We wandered off up the road trying not to look abysmally stupid, and down the deserted street towards us came a battered old taxi. It said 'Pablo Garcia' in the window, and Señor Garcia leaped out when we glanced in his direction, cheerfully hustled us in and drove us to San Jorge, from where we were going to get a ferry to Ometepe Island.
On arrival at San Jorge, we bought tickets for the Señora del Lago, the beaten up old ferry which plies the waters between San Jorge and the island. The sun was setting over the lake as we crossed, and we arrived at the village of Moyogalpa just after dark. Here we got another bus, to Altagracia, where we would stay. This was a great ride, on an absolutely packed bus, with lively Latin pop blaring out on the radio, fireflies flickering outside the window, and people carrying chickens and fruit and vegetables home from the market. It was almost disappointing to arrive at Altagracia just after 7pm.
