Jurassic Park-minus the dinosaurs

Ometepe Island looks and feels like Jurassic Park. It is two Volcanos attached by a narrow isthmus situated in Lake Nicaragua. It takes an hour on the ferry from Granada and we had a huge rain storm while crossing. This was uncomfortable but fortuitous as we had the most amazing view of the Conception Volcano (still active) with a rainbow.

Sadly the awesome photo with the rainbow is on my camera-but you can see the faint start of it on the left hand side. We stayed in a hotel in cabins right on the lake and it was wonderful to sit on our little balconies watching the storm across the lake. There may have been a drink or two as well.....

(The ingredients for the local cocktail)

The next day four of us had chose to accompany a local guide called Willmore on a full day if adventure. We were in very safe hands as he was the Captain of the local volcano evacuation team, the head of the rescue team and had been on 4 national geographic documentaries filmed on the island. He was fantastic with impeccable English, a passion for wildlife and conservation and there wasn't a plant or animal he didn't know. We walked half way up the volcano to a view point. This was bloody horrible as it was about 90-95% humidity and three hours long. I actually had to ring my Tshirt out-gross. We made it and the view was worth it!!!

Next stop was lunch-to try to dry off- followed by a trip to the 'beach'. It's very bizarre as it looks like a beach but the water is fresh. We were walking along when about 6 horses came down and went for a frolick and a drink. A very bizarre sight and I had a moment of panic they were going to make themselves sick as I forgot it was not salt water. They then just wandered back up to their field. Very well trained!

The rest of the day involved feeding monkeys pork rind (!) and stopping the American tourists feeding them chocolate biscuits (Go Willmore!), a swim in the natural springs, a trip to the oldest church on the island which featured a Jesus statue wearing the most bizarre outfit I've ever seen-it was almost like something from Mardi Gras with his lovely red and gold Cuban heeled sandles.....And it also housed a colony of vampire bats.....

All finished up with a walk in a nature reserve which just about finished us all off! We did see some Howler Monkeys and a heap of birds. Willmore had a crack at trying to wind the males up which just resulted in one of them weeing at us. Sadly I can't upload the video of this.....something to look forward to on my return! A quick UNO tournament rounded up an awesome stay on Jurassic Park...with no Tyrannosaurus related fatalities.