Hey mate, let´s go biking! What could go wrong? I mean, this is a 90% touristic and hippie island right?
Oh, I should have listened to my gut and said no, but being the careless mexican I am, I smelled adventure and signed up without thinking of the possible outcome.
I mean, I already know this argentinian Luciano from México but I surely don´t know Hans from Deutschland or Sergi from Turkey and I don´t like comitting to odysseys with potential liabilities - I know, this statement sounds like I am full of myself but it is true, sometimes you end up carrying someone in your back for 2 miles because they sprained an ankle coming down a mountain - so I learned the hard way to be more cautious.
But hell, I came to the island Ometepe to be with Luciano and spend with birthweek together so let´s do this.
Being the only spanish speakin person without a hated accent - somehow they hate argentinian accent in some parts of Nicaragua - I was in charge of bargaining with the lady renting the bikes. After getting a far from fair price for a whole day having four bikes, we started the bike trip.
But we started with the wrong foot. We all had a massive hangover from drinking tequila the night before thus we left the hostel around one pm - very late for Nica touristic standards - and got the bikes around two in the afternoon. We knew we didn´t have a lot of time to adventure around the island but wasting the day just hanging out in this hostel full of good looking, hippie style european girls was out of question.
This is the route we took:
According to google maps, it takes approximately 8 miles to get there, but being a dirt road full of rocks, biking there was going to be a challenge, and being so short of time, a good challenge if you ask me
Do you see the Volcano in the middle of th island? We climbed it, but that is a story for a different ocassion.
Anyway, let´s get to bussiness, let´s bike mates
The thing about writing about my adventures is that I don´t like to blog about everything, just new things and, at least for me, biking with mates in a Nicaraguan island is new, so I brought my GoPro. I took some videos while riding one handed - to get some selfie shots perspective but also to get a first person perspective in the same video.
Don´t pay attention to the conversation - yep, that is my voice - it is only nonsense about an issue I had with some girl a few months ago and I was telling my mate about it.
But the road was not that smooth all the way
The trail was full of big rocks and we biked through four small road hills and went down full speed - otherwise where is the challenge? -. Hans is Deutch, bikes are engraved on their daily routine but for Sergi this was kind of hard, first because he brought sandals and second because he was not so used to riding a bike.
Coming down from the fourth road hill he fell. We all knew this could happen but we all took the risk. He fell directly to the rocks and almost brings down Luciano with him.
He injured himself very hard and we almost thought he had broken some bone but luckily he didn´t. I took a photo of the aftermath.
I mean he´s already injured, at least let´s get a picture, right?
My mate was still in one piece and ready to continue. Well, sort of, he had to go back, he coulndn´t continue after rendering the bike useless and him being injured so he paid a pick up truck a few bucks to get him back to the hostel but we continued the journey. We still had a waterfall to conquer.
On our way to the waterfall, we stumbled upon views like this one:
As you can see on the map, these are two islands connected and in the center of each, there is a volcano. You can see the volcano way behind on this photo
Anyway, we got the waterfall and we had to hike about two hours to reach this hidden gem, but I will tell you all about in another post.
Coming back through the same road, tired, thirsty and the day about to expire
One thing you have to know, is that in Central America around this time of the year, night falls upon you very early. Around six it is already dark and we were aware of this.
We weren´t going to make it on time, we would be forced to bike at night and, altough Nicaragua is considered safe - compared to Honduras or El Salvador - biking at night in a Central American island can be considered dangerous by some people.
But hey, we were born for adventures, born to be wild, right?
Think again.
We didn´t count with the road being pitch black. Yes, there were no public lighting on this road. I mean, we should have seen it coming, this island has a very rustique scene: Internet only in some points and at certain hours, electricity powered by generators mostly etc.
Can you see the road? Good.
Can you see any lights? Not good.
Around halfway we had to stop. There was no lights and we brought only one cellphone (Hans´s) and one camera (mine) so we didn´t even had cellphone flashlights.
The trail was full of rocks and we still had to go through 2 more road hills.
There was noone else in the road. It seemed we were the only dummies to play at night in the road.
Yep, we were doomed. We would have to walk all the way back - around 4 miles - to the hostel or face certain injury while biking in the dark.
For the night is dark and full of terrors
Game of thrones reference, got it? No? Oh well, let´s move on then.
We started to walk back. It was going to be a long walk home. But then we heard a noise behind us. A motor sound very vague. This has to be a motorbike. Perhaps we can follow his light!
Yeah, but try to keep up with a motorcycle after riding a bike for a while, climbing a mountain or two hours and then biking another hour.
At least we managed to follow his lights for half a mile or so. It was a win.
Then a pick up truck came our way and we did the same. A truck is slower than a bike so we kept up for around a mile.
After that it was already 9 pm and we wanted to get to those hippie good looking girls waiting for us so we decided to bike in the dark. We were already past the hills so only smooth road ahead.
We got to the hostel at 10 pm. And we went straight to bed, sadly. Too much adrenaline for our bodies to handle, it seems.
But this, mates, this adventure, is one I will remember all my life, and all because I was always telling myself...
Remember, Be Here Now
Hey mates, join Steemit World Map, I am already using it!
!steemitworldmap 11.4710228 lat -85.6166633 long Biking in Ometepe, Nicaragua d3scr