Volcano Island ⛰️

The boat to the island turned into a Friday afternoon party deck for the locals. Beers, grooves and a half decent playlist cranked, a lazy skipper, cannonball of a man, steering with his feet and his hardy partner checking tickets. An hours ride later, catching glimpses of the volcanoes, we piled off in the port town and swiftly walked ourselves out of the chaos that most ports have and through the town that had a little Friday buzz. Picked up a 'chicken bus' a few blocks away, heading east and absolutely rammed. We thought we must be the last passengers on until a couple more locals squeezed on, pushing Jelly half out the window.

We were only heading a town down so about 15mins of a hot and stinky ride, sharing smiles and shoulder shrugs, this was daily life here and a chicken bus was the best way about. Old US school busses, sent down and repurposed as Nica's No.1 transport option. We jumped off and mosey on down to our lake side gaff for the night at a local art gallery-come-guest house with beautiful sunset views, hammocks and a chatty parrot. Heading back later into the village proper we were looking for dinner but it was slim pickings.

We got to the recommended eatery for the abuela to turn us away, kitchen closed, 6pm on a Friday night. Back through the village that obviously knew us by now after walking up and down it's streets a couple of times but we knew a place. I'd chatted with this guy earlier, road side bbq doing two tables service out of his lounge and some hot business with passing traffic. He was clearly the man in town for dinner, the menu, bbq chicken! I settled for it with all the trimmings and Jelly was served a plate of plantain crisps with a salad on top and 1/2lb of cheese overflowing the sides. It did the job and we hit up the only bar for a couple of swift ones on the way home!

Jelly woke (hadn't actually slept) to her entire right side peppered with bites from an unknown beast but otherwise the morning was chilled on the lake side with breakfast and coffee on the room. We jumped on another bus to get half an hour down the coast to walk around a coastal nature reserve and butterfly house. Still the volcanoes had cloud cover but we were itching to see them. Another knackered old bus ride and hitchhike in the back of a pickup later we almost made it to our final village on the other side of the island. We got caught talking nonsense with a couple of locals outside a store, clearly a few beers into their afternoon, while the final bus came and bumped into the girl we gave a ride a few days before. Finally in our town for the weekend we treated ourselves to a swanky lunch date before the half hour slog up to our accommodation. A rustic old working coffee farm at the foot of the volcano with views of the lake and island.

The place was rundown, hence how we could afford it! But very peaceful and views for days so it was a gorgeous place to be. Weather came in for most of the rest of the weekend so put a stop to much hiking. I got up early to thunderstorms so decided not to bust a gut up the trails into the cloud forest and instead walked in the lower slopes, found the ancient petroglyphs then ended up at a chocolate farm café of the lake side, filthy and tired but great to be out hiking the countryside. Jelly had a relaxed day writing on the hostel balcony and met me for dinner in the village, but yet again it was impossible to find any food. Madness! We settled for grabbing beers and snacks and hoped the hostel could find us some grub. So it was a simple dinner with a view, monkeys howling and bats doing fly-bys, it could have been worse!

The next day we were offered a complimentary breakfast when we checked out and headed back down to the village to wait for a bus that never came. After an hour and multiple different times told we thumbed a ride to the next junction then thumbed another, right to the ferry terminal with helpful Israeli traveller and his friend. It had been a good weekend getaway to the island, great to experience the atmosphere of old life there but we were keen to

get back to Franky. A rough ferry ride back to the mainland with rowdy locals and awful music this time but the best glimpse of the volcano island we'd had all weekend after it had been hidden in clouds since we arrived.

The mechanic picked us up and gave the all clear on the van, some minor fixes, we stopped in to get suspension and brakes lubed up and hit the road back to the coast for sundown.