Monday, February 10, 2024: On Monday morning after the girls slept over, the power went out in Totoco from around 5:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. It didn’t matter too much because there isn’t much electricity in there anyway. The three interior lights are so dim, we need to use our phone flashlights to see anything.
We all got up and the girls played around in the yoga pavilion until breakfast time. We all had breakfast together. While Andrea, Mia and I gobbled down pancakes, Mike and Cristy ate a traditional Nica breakfast. I showed the girls pictures of my dad (now deceased), my nephew Seth, and my siblings, Joanie and Robbie. I said Joanie was the beauty of the family. Andrea said the beauties in her family are Mia, Mikey and Johnny (Maria’s oldest son who is 20 years old). I said, “No, you all are beautiful.” Andrea said, “I don’t think I am.” I think she’s beautiful, especially because of her unique and lively personality, but I guess she knows, like we all do, where we stand on the beauty scale. I think Cristy is also very pretty, but Andrea didn’t mention her. I’ve never met Johnny, so I don’t know about him.
I didn’t know Maria was born in 1989, meaning she’d turn 36 on her birthday, Wednesday, February 12. The girls spilled the beans about her birth year. I’d always thought she was closer to Adam in age; he will be 33 in December.
We took the girls home and I realized I’d left my glasses behind. Adam needed to make a chicken delivery to Totoco, so Mike and Andrea drove back up to deliver the chicken for Adam and Mike picked up my glasses.
It always takes a while to get everyone going, but finally we were on our way to Ojo de Agua, arriving there around 10:00. We had a fun and relaxing morning and afternoon. This was little Mikey’s first time in a swimming pool and he seemed to love it, even dipping his head into the water on his own volition. We shared a giant fish and meat platter, and Mike, Adam, Andrea and even Cristy jumped off the Tarzan swing.
I walked around the edge of the pool to take photos and videos of them jumping. Some of the rocks were slippery and I lost my footing about halfway along the length of the pool. My phone flew out of my hand and landed at the bottom of the pool. Adam swam over to retrieve it, and I was surprised to find it was still working. I was able to continue taking photos the rest of the day. Adam insisted phones are made to be waterproof these days.
Mia liked hanging on the more sedate swings and I just swam around and got stung by a wasp 🐝! A South African guy started chatting with me and introduced his girlfriend who was Welsh/Italian. He wanted to know why it wasn’t as hot there as he expected and what we were doing there. I’ve met many South Africans and I like most I’ve met, but I wanted to say, “Why did you send that Nazi Elon Musk to the U.S.?” Of course I didn’t say that and I had no idea about this guy’s political inclinations. I did say we planned to spend as much time away from the U.S. over the next four years and he said, “You should! Sounds fantastic!”
Of course, Mike, Adam and I had to have coco locos after lunch.
We dropped off the family at 1:30 and headed up to Totoco where I showered and relaxed a bit. When I tried to charge my phone, a message popped up that said moisture was detected in the charging port and it couldn’t be charged until it dried, which could take several hours. I only had 5% charge left, so I turned it off and put the port facing the fan in the room. I guess there IS a drawback to letting your phone fall into a pool.
I finally got my green chicken curry at Cafe Campestre on Monday night. It was delicious as always.
Steps: 6,187; Miles 2.62. Weather Hi 83°, Lo 75°. Sunny.
Tuesday, February 11: On Tuesday morning, Mike and I went for a walk along the road from Playa Santa Cruz, past Xalli, an Ometepe Beach Hotel, and then toward Playa Santa Domingo. We couldn’t walk on the beach of Lago de Nicaragua this year as we did last year because the lake’s water was so high that there was no beach. It wasn’t an exciting walk, although we did look around the grounds of Xalli in case we ever wanted to stay there.
Lago de Nicaragua,also known as Cocibolca or Granada (and many other names) is the largest freshwater lake in Central America, the 19th largest in the world (by area) and the tenth largest in the Americas, slightly smaller than Lake Titicaca. The intermittent Tipitapa River feeds Lake Nicaragua when Lake Managua has high water.
The lake, despite being a freshwater lake, has sawfish, tarpon and sharks. The sharks are synonymous with the widespread bull shark, a species also known for entering freshwater elsewhere around the world.
There seems to come a point in every visit to the family when the family gets super stressed out by our presence despite the fact that we try to give them space. When that happens we find our own activities and try to keep our distance. It seemed Tuesday and Wednesday were those days.
We had lunch at an Israeli restaurant, Bûstavö, and then stopped at El Pital, the Chocolate Paradise, where we thought we could take a chocolate tour. However the tour wasn’t offered on Tuesday so we sat at the very pleasant deck that juts out over the lake and had iced cold spiced cacao: Chocolate Vanilla with coconut milk and vanilla. It was pleasant with a nice breeze coming from the lake and soothing music, including “Agitations tropicales” by L’Impératrice, “The Conservation of Energy” by Vanishing Twin, and “Television (featuring Ilhan Ersahin)” by Oceanvs Orientalist & idil Mese.
We went up to Totoco for a special healing session with biofield tuning forks led by Crissie. It was super relaxing! I fell asleep and started snoring, so Mike had to nudge me awake. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon despite the high winds and rain coming sideways into the pavilion. We also met a nice couple from South Carolina, Rochelle and T.J., who have built a house on Ometepe they call Casa Mariposa. We also met another young woman from Netherlands, Irene.
We took some afternoon shots of our lodge at Totoco with the sunlight streaming through the blinds.
We enjoyed a magnificent sunset view from Totoco on Tuesday night and dinner of fish fingers on salad.
Steps: 1,056; Miles 0.45. (This is incorrect because my Fitbit wasn’t working). Weather Hi 83°, Lo 75°. Windy.
Wednesday, February 12 (Maria’s birthday): Wednesday was a super boring day in Ometepe. We drove to Moyogalpa, a one-hour drive, to try to find some furniture for the family but we came up empty-handed. We bought a couple of dresses for Maria because it was her birthday, and we got some toys for little Mikey.
We drove back to Balgüe and had lunch of bruschetta and falafel at Bûstavö and then went up to Totoco to relax. We couldn’t see the family for the second day in a row so we weren’t able to celebrate Maria’s birthday with her or the family.
Apparently, Adam had hung out with his friend Jon on Tuesday night and had gone off with him to get ice cream for the family. Maria got mad at him for not spending time with her on and around her birthday and not giving her any special treatment. She was freezing him out by not speaking to him. Thus we couldn’t go out with them on Wednesday night for her birthday.
Later we went to dinner at Cafe Campestre where, once again, I enjoyed the green chicken curry and Mike and I shared a warm brownie with ice cream. We always love the music and vibes at this place, with songs such as “Les chibanis” by Zebda, “Le dimanche autor de l’église” by Zebda, and “The Fix (feat. Richard Hawley)” by Elbow.
This was the second year in a row where we’ve felt 7 days was too long to stay here. The weather wasn’t even warm enough to hang out at the pool.
Steps: 6,132; Miles 2.6. Weather Hi 84°, Lo 75°. Sunny.
Thursday, February 13: Our last day in Ometepe, on Thursday, we went to Adam’s casa and Mike helped him disassemble and reassemble a playpen/crib, which their midwife had given them, to fit their needs. The crib had a ton of dust on it, so I helped by dusting off all the slats. Now little Mike has a safe place to play where he won’t hurt himself. I think it will make the family’s life a lot easier to have a place to put him while they are busy.
We went with Adam to see Finca Campestre, where he has been clearing the land and planting grass for the cow that he and Ben own together. We met the cow and then had lunch with Adam at Isla Bonita. One of Adam’s friends stopped by and gifted me a flower to put in my hair. She looked like she was in a happy place! 🙂
We picked up the girls, Andrea and Mia, and took them up to the Totoco pool, where they wore themselves out splashing around with Abuelito.
We chatted quite a while with a Canadian couple who seemed very worried about the US threats of high tariffs and making Canada the 51st state. We found ourselves embarrassed and ashamed to admit we were Americans and said we supported them fully in their Canadian sovereignty. All of us felt strongly that we needed to boycott America and we told them we were hoping to relocate elsewhere for 75% of the next four years.
We had plans with the family to go to Pizzeria Mediterranea for our last night, but just as we arrived, little Mike threw up all over himself and Adam. Maria was worried about him so Mike drove her and Mikey back to the casa. We enjoyed our pizzas with Adam and the girls but it was disappointing not to have Maria be part of our last dinner, especially since we weren’t able to celebrate her birthday on Wednesday. The dress she’s wearing in the picture is one of two we bought her in Moyogalpa.
The restaurants that we frequent on Ometepe are usually outdoors and rather rough, with dirt floors and compost toilets, but somehow they always manage to have great music. Tonight we were serenaded with “Je So’ Pazzo” by Pino Daniele, “La Fama” by Aloy, “Milonga” by Ibu Selva, “Almarita” by La Rue Kétanou, and “Gipsy Valley” by N.O.H.A.
Below is a short video of our last days in Ometepe.
Steps: 4,134; Miles 1.75. Weather Hi 84°, Lo 75°. Sunny.
Friday, February 14 (Valentine’s Day): This morning, I got a text message from Maria: “I’m sorry for not being here with you. I want to be better next time. Thank you so much for all your love for the girls and me. I loved your gifts.” I was happy to get this message and let her know it was okay; I know they are under a lot of pressure as a family to make ends meet. I know also that Adam can be a challenge in general.
Friday was a long travel day. We dropped by Adam’s to say goodbye to the family. Andrea was in time-out for something she did and was rather grumpy, at first sitting in her chair facing away from us and refusing to say goodbye, despite Adam telling her she could come out of time-out. Finally she came and gave us hugs. Little Mikey woke up just in time to burst into tears when he saw our faces, but we hugged and kissed him anyway.
Then we picked up Alberto, who had rented the car to us, in Santa Cruz; he drove us to Moyogalpa so we wouldn’t chance getting stopped by police (which has happened to us on both of our previous visits). We made it to Moyogalpa without any police interactions, thank goodness.
We took the 12:30 1-hour ferry to San Jorge where Alberto’s cousin Dani picked us up and drove us 2 hours to Managua. There we stayed overnight again at Best Western Las Mercedes directly across from the airport.
We sat by the pool for dinner as the entire dining room had been reserved for Valentine’s Day. I had shrimp with garlic and butter, mashed potatoes and veggies. We went to bed early so we could get up at 3 a.m. for our 6 a.m. flight to San Salvador (again) and then on to Mexico City.
Steps: 5,607; Miles 2.38. Weather Ometepe Hi 83°, Lo 74°. Weather Managua: Hi 90°, Lo 74°.
~ wander.essence ~ 
You must be logged in to post a comment.