A confession to make…

I lost my Toe-ed Shoes!!! But not really if you consider that I will be getting them back in a few days… hopefully. I accidentally left them, dry out, at one of the quick overnight stops a ways back during the trip and couldn’t figure out where they were at. The good news is though that we did locate them and they are actually very close to Monteverde, so it will just take a bit of finagling to get them 40km up the mountain. No worries… they will be back in the story soon.
In any case, I have been walking around barefoot, which isn’t so bad, minus a few cuts and blisters here and there. Leaving Ostional Beach (regretfully), we started heading north again, bound for Nicaragua. Before we could cross the border though, we had to make a stop at one of Costa Rica’s geothermal power plants. This was an experience in itself. I am sure that many of you have been to Yellowstone National Park, so some sort of Hot Springs area, but have you ever considered converting the heat of the earth into electricity and using it to power our energy hungry society? This type of power is not suited for all places though, considering it takes a great amount of heat located near the surface of the earth to make enough steam. Costa Rica is fortunately (depending on how you look at it) is located along the infamous “Ring of Fire” that circles the Pacific. Without going into too much detail I will say that it was not as smell as it could have been, and is actually one of my favorite sources of power, rivaling wind generation.



Oh yeah we also had a flat tire!



So I climbed a vine while I waited. (it was about 6 inches caliber)



Very fashionable headgear!

We spend the night near the thermal plant in a small town. The hotel was very beautiful with warm pools (not from the hot springs unfortunately) and a large waterslide which we had a lot of fun with. This is also were we ate Pizza for dinner for the first time. Costa Ricans like to make their crusts very thin, and with minimal sauce, so I really enjoyed it!

The next day we were heading north again. We crossed the border at about Noon, which was quite easy compared to my adventures crossing through this boarder during my Honduran trip a month earlier. We were bound for a little place in Nicaragua called “Ometepe.” But what is Ometepe you might ask… what does it have to do with “fire over the water” as I noted in the prior blog? It’s a volcanic Island located in the middle of Lake Nicaragua made up of two volcanoes spaced about 10-15km apart. To ease your nerves, let me just say that we stayed at the base of the dormant volcano… does that make you feel better?



A wind farm alongside the lake, with the volcano in the background.

Before we could get to the hotel though, we had to take a 1hr ferry ride from the mainland to the island, and then another 45 minute van ride over very rough roads (like 15mph or less). But finally we made it to the hotel, which turned out to be more of a bunkhouse where hippies stay. Not that I have anything against hippies, but just for this case, I would say that they were smelly, noisy and ruid! Case in point, the second night we stayed there, we were kept up till 1:30 in the morning by a group of 20 or so hippies that just wouldn’t move their guitar, drinking, and smoking party away from the entrance to our room. I will quit complaining though, because overall, I would stay there again… minus the hippies.



Our first full day on the island we visited a tilapia fish farm floating a hundred meters out on the lake. So once again we were out on the water, but there were some great views of the two volcanoes from there. The fish farm was also interesting to see, due to all the large netted cages and baskets that are floating around. It kind of reminded me of the movie “Waterworld” with Kevin Costner. Pretty sweet! Unfortunately the farm is closing down due to the economic recession, but now at least I know where my Lenten fish comes from.



Later that day we visited the beach on the east side of the island, and relaxed for a time. Oh yeah and climbed trees! No toe-ed shoes though :( We also went to visit a local fisherman/farmer at his home which as a great experience. I am always amazed at how open the people of Central America are to visitors and sharing their lives.
We tried to get some sleep that evening, amongst the hippie party, since we had a large climb ahead of us the next day. Our goal; to climb the dormant volcano and get into its crater. We left at 8 am in the morning being told that it would be a 4 hour climb. I like to think of myself as being quite fit, so when I hear a 4hr climb, usually I cut it down in my mind to 3 or even 2 hrs. But no, that is not the case with this trek. It took us nearly the full 4 hours, and I was pretty tired. I can only image how tired everyone else was. The trail if it could be called that started out nice in places with some vernacular steps made out of cookie cuts from fallen trees.





This is Ross, sticking his head out of the top of a tree at the top of the volcano!



The family... at the halfway point... can you see the lake down below.

Then it continually got steeper and harder to climb. In some places we were nearly climbing vertically with muddy footholds and hope that the person in front of us wouldn’t fall. Oh how I wish I could have tested my toe-ed shoes out on this trail… oh well, I guess I will have to return. We all did make it to the top though and then descended into the crater. This decent was just as tough due to steep drops and muddy slopes, but it only took us 10-15 minutes. There at the base of the crater we found a muddy/greenish lake. A couple of students tried to get out into it, but we trapped it the “quick mud” so that we had to reach out and pull them back in. I am glad I had my rope along, even though we did not have to use it.



It was a very beautiful crater though, so we spent a hour or so there eating lunch and PLAYING FRISBEE. Yeah that is right, we were probably the first people of toss a Frisbee around in this volcanic crater… it felt historic! The decent down did not take quite as long, but it was very tough on the knees to where we were all happy to be able to just sit down and relax for the evening. We even watched a movie with the class projector. I cannot remember the name but it is Argentinean and it just won an Oscar. I am sure it is good, at least the actors were pretty good; I just couldn’t understand their thick and very quick Spanish accent.

The third day, Friday, we took tour of the farm that we were staying on. I learned that it is a Cooperative that grows plantains, organic coffee and cacao (cocoa). There are also petroglyphs located on the farm that were carved into the volcanic rock somewhere around 2000 years ago. During this walk, we also noticed that the opposite volcano, called “Concepción” was a bit more active than we had assumed it would be.



Am I supposed to be this happy about a volcano that could explode at any moment? Oh wait it is!

Well, it didn’t blow while we were on the island but it did keep spewing ashes at times, which was making the locals a little bit nervous.

We left the island of Ometepe on Satuday morning by ferry again. It was an extraordinary few days that I hope I can try to relive again sometime. I think one reason it was so extraordinary was because I was completely disconnected from the outside world (no internet) for 5 full days. That was the longest stretch yet this trip. Because of this, I was able to invest more time in the other students around me and I got to know them much better. I know I keep saying it, but we are a family here, and I am going to have a hard time parting. Good thing I still have about 2 months left! This is not to say that I don’t miss any of you back home though, I do, and I really wish I could talk to you hear how you are doing. If you want to, feel free to drop me an email at any time, or let me know how you are doing by “leaving your own toe-prints.” Thanks for your prayers. Now it is time to put my nose back to the grindstone and do some homework for a month before the next fieldtrip.

I pray that all you ISU students have a wonderful safe spring break… especially those who are traveling long distances on the Honduras Service Trip and Ethan who is coming to Costa Rica. Let me know how your breaks go!

Peace and Blessings!
Cody