Semana Santa

As was made evident by my last post, I've been having a lot of feelings about work lately and I've been more than ready for a break.  To quote Matt Regueiro "I need a week away from Managua and this house and work".  So we rented a truck and put our week long vacation to use.  Although only Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are days off for a portion of the workforce here, many schools are off all week and Holy Week is treated like a holiday regardless of its lack of legal recognition.

Sunday we took off to the island of Ometepe.  This entailed about an hour and a half drive south to Rivas where we (and the truck) had to catch the ferry over to the island.  Once getting there and checking into our hostel (The Landing Hotel) we grabbed lunch at Antojito's (really great smoothies) and settled in.  The only thing on the agenda for Sunday was catching sunset at Punta Jesus Maria, a sandbar at a local beach.

The view of Volcan Concepcion from Punto Jesus Maria

The view of six cheles from Punto Jesus Maria

The evening's sunset

Sunday was a good way to ease into vacation because then came Monday.

The day to end all days.

The hike to end all hikes.

The volcano to end all volcanoes.

We had all willingly agreed to a hike of Conception Volcano, knowing it could take 10 hours and that it was a very difficult hike.  We made jokes about how our legs would fall off the next day, how we couldn't plan a place for dinner Monday night because who knew if we'd even be able to walk, etc. It wasn't until the day of that we could fully understand the intensity. The first half hour or so of the hike was walking to the base on sweet, sweet flat ground and hearing from our tour guide about the history of Ometepe, the volcanoes on the island, and Nicaragua in general.

The next portion was the jungle.  One of my biggest worries of the day was getting melted by the sun but the combination of starting the hike at 6:30 am and significant tree coverage alleviated that fear (plus don't worry mom, I put on sunscreen anyway).  After jumping that hurdle, the next thing to worry about was hiking a 5,280 foot (1600 meter) volcano. I struggled with the jungle portion of the hike because it was a lot of very high steps very close together.  Another thing about Concepcion is that it is not even a remotely leisurely hike.  Once arriving at the base, it is very consistently intense.  Somewhere close to the lookout point, I somehow gained a bit of energy and forged on for about fifteen minutes before we stopped for lunch.

The view from the lookout at 1000 meters into the town of Mayorgalpa

The last 600 meters of the hike before the summit was the hardest part for me.  I was consistently at the back of our group, shamelessly taking frequent breaks and shamefully thinking that I really might not make it to the summit.  Once hitting volcanic rock after the lookout, this wasn't a hike so much as scaling a vertical slope.  The constant cloud cover around the volcano made it so that I never knew how close I was and that made it much harder to motivate myself.  This was easily the most physically challenging thing I have ever done.  I really did contemplate just not summiting and resting, but realistically I was so close that I didn't want to give up.  Right when I wasn't expecting it, the endless vertical mountain came to an end, and through the cloud cover I saw a group of people huddling to protect themselves from the wind (it was actually very cold on the slope).  Climbing an active volcano is not something I ever would have said was on my bucket list, and I didn't really know the extent of what I was getting myself into, but I'm proud that despite that I got myself (or dragged myself) through it. 

This was only the beginning of the vertical portion

LOOK AT US ON THE SUMMIT

I don't remember if something was funny or if we were just delirious

Basking in the afterglow

The way down was just as hard as the way up but in a very different way.  I fell numerous times despite my focus and walking sticks (battle wounds healing up quite nicely). We also started to notice how tired our muscles were the closer we got to the bottom and a certain point, falls stopped being frustrating and started being hilarious.  We couldn't stop ourselves from laughing every time one of us fell but at the same time it just made our bodies weaker.  After ten challenging hours, we reached the bottom once again.

The encouragement of my friends and our guide was key to this experience.  It helped me push myself to realize that most of the time the obstacle is more mental than physical (although a 5280 foot volcano is no physical obstacle to sneeze at).

Tuesday was a scheduled recovery day at Ojo de Aguaa natural swimming pool turned tourist spot.

Wednesday we went back to the hiking trail (the much less rigorous one) of Maderas Volcano, Conception's smaller and much less intimidating counterpart.  There was a 45 minute hike to San Ramon waterfall which was a nice muscle stretch.

Thursday: Check out, drive to San Juan del Sur.

This second portion of the trip and was much less physically involved.  San Juan is a big surf and tourist town and we spent our time over the few days here at the beach, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Playa Hermosa at sunset on Friday

Playa Majagual sunset Saturday