Nicaragua (segundo installment): tree pigs and death moths

The next morning we headed out to climb to the sumit of Volcan Madera, the older inactive and considerably smaller volcano on Isla Ometepe. We started the hike weaving through a network of dirt roads leading through local maiz y arroz fields. We could see the base of Volcan Maderas, the majority of the mountain was shrouded in clouds. From a little higher up, we got a great view of Volcan Concepcion.

Jennifer had just gotten back from a Sierra backpacking trip and is a big stud. Only, I forgot that it takes a while to adjust to hiking in hot, humid weather. in the tropics. After the first hour of me walking fast and talking a mile a minute about plants, she was ready to kill me. Once we started up the mountain, it cooled down considerably, though. Now all she had to worry about was the steep muddy trail. Sorry Jennifer!

Our muddy hike turned into scrambling over roots and tree trunks, slipping through mud and sinking into the occasional hole filled with muddy water as we got closer to the summit. Then we were litterally climbing up the trail, using tree roots and branches to pull ourselves up. Then we were attempting to hop from root to root, branch to branch after our guide, because the trail was such a tangled mess it was easier to careen from perch to perch a meter or so above the actual trail, rather than try to manouver through the trees.

When we reached the summit, it was cold and misty/rainy: cloud forest weather. the trees were stunted from strong winds. lots of bromelidads. everything obscured by mist. beautiful. from the summit, we dropped down into the crater lake that was an additional hour from the cima. this involved scambling down a gravely slope with minimal vegetation to catch ourselves on when we started to slide. although, i seem to be the only one who had much trouble. at one point, our guide almost had to catch me when i started sliding down. we had lunch at the lake, but it was too chilly to swim and thunder and lightning were threatening, time to try to make it back up and off the summit before the lightning. the rain started up in earnest on our hike back, but the lightning held off. by the time we made it back down to the base of the volcano, jennifer and i were covered in mud. our guide, however, was surprisingly clean. he spent his time walking behind us, watching and laughing as first i, then jen, then i again slipped an fell in the mud.

we got back to the hostel almost 10 hours later, with just enough time to jump in the kayak and paddle around a few little islands at dusk. we went around monkey island, which surprisingly enough had monkeys. who would have thought? we stayed out of poop throwing range, though. jennifer had a run-in with a death moth and heard a few tree pigs. (so i'm not quite as good with my fauna identification and like to lie). then we watched the sun set from the dock with cold beers and hot food. the sunset was amazing, rivaling those in arizona during monsoon season. it was a perfect end to our day. a perfect end to our stay in ometepe.