Holy Week for me here in Nicaragua meant a week for vacation from work, learning lots of wierd new Catholic rules, and two of my best friends visiting me from the states!
More on the Catholic rules later, let me tell you about the vacation...
We decided to go to Isla de Ometepe, one of the most beautiful spots in Nicaragua. In fact it is a candidate to be one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World, unfortunately, it is in 124th place in that contest.
http://www.new7wonders.com/nature/en/nominees/northamerica/c/OmetepeIsland/ Nonetheless, it is a very beautiful, unique spot in the world. Nicaragua is known as the ¨Land of Lakes and Volcanoes¨ (a bit cooler than ¨Land of Lincoln¨, in my opinion). The Isla de Ometepe brings this nickname to life in a grand fashion. The island is really two connected volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is the largest lake in Central America and the island of Ometepe the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world. I had never been to this 124th Natural Wonder of the World, so I thought it would be a great place to take my friends. They arrived at around 1pm on a Saturday (having had a flight from Chicago at 6am) and we headed straight for the islands. The trip to our lodging on the island took slightly longer than any of us expected but we arrived at 7pm at la Omaja (
http://www.laomaja.com/).
It was dark when we arrived on Saturday night, but luckily the next morning we were rewarded with the views that la Omaja offered, including this sunset view later that day:
On that Sunday we hiked Volcano Maderas, supposedly the easier of the two volcano hikes on the island. It ended up being an 8 hour hike. We weren´t as lucky with our views this time, when we got to the top, the volcano was in a clould. Still a very pretty hike but the next day our sore muscles paid for it. The rest of the time we had on the island we just hung out. We went to the beach one day and to a natural spring another day. We celebrated St. Patty´s day as best we could with Nicaragua beers and rum. Not quite the same as Guiness and Irish Whiskey but it got the job done. Here are some pics of my friends from la Omaja. We weren´t very good at taking group shots or anything...
On Wednesday morning we left the island to head back to the mainland. This was the view of the island behind the ferry.
This is the ferry you ride on, it is about a 1 hour trip.
Ometepe is a gorgeous place to visit but it is fairly obvious that tourism is still fairly new. In some ways that was great, we were off the beaten path and seeing things that not many have. But in some ways not. La Omaja is a set of beatiful secluded cabañas with gorgeous views, but mobility from there was difficult. If you wanted to go anywhere else on the island you had to set up transportation the day before. There was one vehicle and it usually left in the morning and came back at night. I´m sure in 5 years things will look much different on Ometepe as Nicaragua is starting to realize its tourism potential. I´m glad I got to see it before it is overrun with tourists.
From Ometepe we went to the colonial city of Leon which is about 1.5 hours from Corinto. Unfortunately, many things, including the Cathedral, were closed because of holy week. So we just hung out with some other Peace Corps friends that were in Leon on their vacation as well.
On Thursday morning, we headed to Corinto so that my friends could meet some of my friends and people I work with in Nicaragua. We had a Nicaraguan version of a BBQ, which is making a huge soup. It seems wierd to make soup at midday on a hot day, but it was delicious. Although there were some language difficulties, I´m glad that my friends got a chance to meet my friendships here in Nicaragua and that my workmates had a chance to meet my friends. Now that the people here know my friends, they are always asking me how they are doing and if I´ve talked with them recently. Its nice when they take an interest in my life like that.
It was great to have friends from home visit, this way when I get back to the states other people will know what my past two years were like. We had a good time vacationing and now all three of us are back to our normal routines.
As far as wierd Catholic rules here are a few:
1. No sweeping the floor on certain holy days
2. No swimming on Holy Thursday or Good Friday (although only the very religious followed this)
3. No sex during the holy week (they interpret the ¨dont eat meat¨thing as not eating ¨human meat¨ aka, sex.
Of course, as with anywhere, only some actually follow these rules. I just thought it was interesting that the Catholic church, which is supposedly run by the Vatican, is so regionally different.
I hope everyone had a a good Easter and is enjoying the Spring! I´ll try to write more often in the future...
