Following a night in Granada, in an air-conditioned room (trying to ease the body into the heat and humidity with a cool night’s sleep), I got up early to scout the town, before the drive to San Jorge and the ferry ride to Ometepe. The vendor stands and horse-drawn tourist carriages were accumulating in the Grand Plaza, getting ready for the day. Other vendors were on side streets, and hawkers were on street corners. With sunrise at around 5:30 year-round and sunset about 12 hours later, with little of the seasonal variation of locations further from the equator, the day starts early. It was barely 7:30 AM and Granada was hopping.

Vendors on a sidestreet in Granada set up for the morning.

The cathedral.

From Granada it was a 60-minute car drive down the PanAmerican Highway with Pedro at the wheel of his hire car (not really a taxi) to San Jorge, where the ferries to Ometepe dock. The ferry Empresa Turistica Milton Arcia made the crossing to Moyogalpa in about an hour. I think this ferry may be the largest of the several boats that carry people and vehicles from mainland to island, able to carry vehicles and passengers. People are ready to help carry gear for a tip of 10 or 20 córdobas.

Ometepe is an island in Lago de Nicaragua (Lago Cocibolca, or Lake Nicaragua) made up of two volcanoes that merge in a narrow, low isthmus. Concepción is the higher of the two volcanoes and rises 1,600 meters above Moyogalpa. It is young, steep-sided, and still active; the last eruption was in 2010. The dormant southern volcano is Mederas, at 1,400 meters, somewhat eroded and forested all the way to the top.

Concepción, seen from the ferry.

Lunch in Moyogalpa was followed by a drive to Merida, situated below the Mederas volcano—the destination for the next week. The last part was over the bumpiest dirt road I have every been on. Done traveling for a while, the last daylight was enjoyed from the cooling (but not cold) waters of Lago de Nicaragua, the sunset straight down to the horizon.