Rob and Anna's travel adventure

Anna's entry:

That was a very interesting experience! The island is formed by two large volcanoes - Volcan Concepcion (1,600 meters above the lake Nicaragua), and Volacan Madera (1,394 meters). Lava flowing from the two volcanoes created an isthmus between them, and united both in a single island.

Getting to he island was an experience in itself. First off, the day we arrived to the boat dock, it was very windy, and the waves were high, so they canceled all boat departures, and we had to turn back. Secondly, we were told later on, one of the boats sunk a few days prior while disembarking. Thirdly, the day we were finally able to get on the boat, it was still very windy and wavy, but boats were sailing that day anyway. Let me put it this way - I do NOT get sea sick easily, but that day I came very close to throwing up. The boat was like a box of matches thrown by the waves, the guy inside of the boat kept pumping the water out (though some crazy device), the passengers were required to put life vests after boarding the vessel, the engine was loud, the kid to us kept creaming, etc. - so you get the picture. I think it would be acceptable to borrow the term "chicken bus", and call the boat "chicken ferry".

The island itself was gorgeous. Rob and I took a nice hike in the forest from where we could see the volcanoes, and other islands of the Lago de Nicaragua. And during another hike, we saw lots of howler monkeys in the trees. One of them had a cute baby on its back and seemed like it was teaching the youngster to climb the brunches. Also, on the way back to town, our "chicken bus" hit a big rock on the already challenging road, and it broke an engine mount, which slammed the engine into the radiator. So, there we were, sitting on the road, in the middle of nowhere. There were other buses though, and we took a detour with other locals.

During this detour we learnt that pigs are a king of cool in the animal world of Nicaragua, and they run the show around here. We observed a little female piglet harassing a big male dog, and generally pigs control the roads here. By the way, that little piglet was running in the park in the center of town, and we had no clue where it came from, but locals seem to be used to this. Anyway, I gained a tender appreciation and respect
towards pigs and piglets here.

On a sadder note, we also encountered a discrimination on the island. We went to a local restaurant, and would not be served for being the "gringos". That was the first time it was obvious, and we stood up and left. I did tell the lady what I thought about her. It brought up in my mind memories about other minority groups, and what they must feel when they deal with discrimination on every day level. It definitely reminded me how ignorant we can be as humans, by judging a person on a basis of color, race, or nationality. Over all, however, Nicaraguans were friendly and we met a lot of very kind individuals.