Things have not gone exactly as I wanted. We landed by ferry in Moyogalpa last night. We woke up in the morning to catch a bus to the other side of the island and where there are more things to do. We did not realize that it would take us us 3.5 hours to get to the other side. The main road on the Island is bad condition and very narrow. The bus we were on never went faster than 30mph, and also made a one hour stop at an intermediate city. When asked the driver why he needed stop for an hour, he informed us that the government forces him to. This is to ensure spread out bus schedules.
We arrived at Hacienda Merida a little after noon. There was a problem with getting a room with a locking door. By the time we finished lunch, it was past 2pm. We managed to kayak for an hour. We could have been out on the lake for longer, but we were given heavy wooden paddles that quickly made us tired.
We rented bikes and rode for a couple of hours heading east. We took pictures of a bunch of butterflies and checked out some of the local scenery.
What happened to the waterfall? The petroglyphs? The path to the waterfall was closed because of a mud slide. Getting to petroglyphs was going to take too long since it unexpectedly took us too long to get to this side of the island.
After biking, we had dinner at local comedor, or dining place. Although Becky was tired and went to sleep, I went downstairs and hung out with some of the people. Including a couple of Dutchmen who we managed to coerce into signing Dutch songs for us.
Electricity was out for most of the day, before nightfall it came back, along with WiFi.
Overall, I am not too fond of this place. Room, food, and equipment fees are much too high (using Nicaraguan standards). There is a lack of a homey, welcoming feeling. I feel that this place is much too commercialized. We will be staying here because of convenience and availability of equipment.
One thing I will note. There are more and more tourist in Nicaragua than I saw three years ago. A lot more! Although annoying to see clueless white people everywhere, this is good for the country and I am happy.
I will leave my pictures uploading tonight, and update this post with some selected pictures tomorrow. If there is electricity.
UPDATE: All pictures here.
A couple of my favorites.
