Beach bum

Whatta a lazy day. I woke up to monkey noises, cows, and birds...who needs alarm clocks when animals insist i wake up at 4am?
My will to sleep in was stronger, i managed to shut life out a little bit longer.
Isl de Ometepe is alive - rough around the edges, but theres no denying that we are not alone at any given moment.

I headed straight for Lago Nicaragua in the morning to bake in vitamin D. This is the 2nd largest lake in all of central america so it actually looks more like a beach complete with sand.
I was planning on doing the hike on Volcan Maderas or Concepcion but those hikes are about 5-8 hours long depending on which Volcan i choose. According to others, the trek is just that...a trek. Not much to see or do once you get up so i opted to just chill out on the shore and go to Ojo de agua (the natural springs).

After lazying around and walking along the shores of the lake, i layed out a towel to sit and catch sunset. This is when a local came up and struck up a convo that would last for about 2 hours. My Spanish still could use some work and his English was almost non-existent but we managed to have a really good conversation. Drawing on the sand for explanation, pulling out the back of a frommers book (vocab section), and writing things down in my book definately helped.

His name is Harold and he lives in Balgue which is on the island. A 26 year old who works giving volcano trek guides with the occasional horse back riding guides as well. He never went to college but wants to learn how to speak English. Hes a painter...a poet...an artist. One of 7 brothers and sisters, he also ferments his own alcohol. One thing i learned in Nicaragua is that these people seem to ferment anything. Anything!
A farewell was inevitable as the shore became dark and cold. We said goodbye and went our seperate ways. I met up the group for dinner and a bonfire afterwards.

The next day, its off to Granada.