Tane started on anti-malarial medicine several weeks ago, then noticed blurred vision, so he stopped. The blurring hadn't cleared up, so he

became quite concerned. This, together with an allergy irritating his eyes, prompted us to make an appointment with an opthalmologist on the

morning we were to leave for Ometepe island. She gave Tane a very thorough exam and determined that the blurring was a normal change that

will require glasses! Looks like old age is catching up with him!

Because it was getting late, we took a taxi to San Jorge, the ferry port town for Ometepe island. The papagayo winds were blowing up to 30

knots as we boarded the ferry and crossed to the island. Ometepe is the largest lake island in the world, and consists of two volcanoes

joined by a small isthmus. Conception, the larger, is actively smoking (see the photo with people playing soccer in the foreground) while

Maderas is covered in cloud forest and has a crater lake. At the island terminal, there was the usual clamor for taxis, and we chose one with

the name "Ronny Express",driven by a young fellow named Victor. He took us to our hotel, which was on the beach on the isthmus, and offered

his services as a guide for other excursions. We accepted, setting up a climb of Maderas for Tane and me the next day. We walked along the

beach as the sun set, with waves crashing under the influence of the constant wind--as Don the weather forecaster from California says on the

net, "The papagayos are blowing day and night, day and night, day and night, day and night." And they were. As we walked along, we saw a

couple of local vaqueros driving about eight horses into the lake, presumably to get them to drink and cool down. There was also the odd pig,

people riding bikes, a vehicle or two, and a number of people enjoying the evening stroll on the beach.

Victor was late to pick us up (he was supposed to be there at 6am), but we didn't mind, as we were watching the white fronted magpie jays.

These are quite big birds with a crazy topknot, a thin black band across their white chest, lovely pastel blue and black feathers, and an

amazing long tail that fluffs out wide when they glide. They are a major feature at the breakfast table... if you turn your back they will

steal the food from your plate. They jump right up on the table with you, so you need to practice defensive eating!

He took us to breakfast to an eco-lodge part way up Maderas volcano. It's very basic, but with a beautiful view and amazing gardens. From

there, the path goes up, getting steadily steeper and steeper. We saw wild flying turkeys, many jays (called Uracas here), and lots of tribes

of howler monkeys. We continued up until we reached the clouds, where the track became quite muddy and slippery with tree roots. We decided

to turn back after about half an hour in the clouds, as there would have been nothing to see if it didn't clear up at the top, and Victor was

suggesting we could see some other features of the island if we got down in time. Still, part way up there was a clearing where we had a

spectacular view of volcan Concepcion.

We met up with Sal and all went to a natural spring in the jungle for a swim.

Back at the hotel, we were entertained by a couple of old gringo guys with two young Nica women... clearly a paid for experience.

We were staying in a cabana... a small separate cabin. At 4:30am the next morning, we awoke to two loud bangs just outside our door. Moments

later, there were two more, a little further away, and then two more even further away. We were all wide awake, and whispering that it sure

sounded like gunshots. It was deemed a bad idea to pull the curtains to check things out. Later, at breakfast, we learned that a thief,

dressed all in black, was caught leaving with a hotel computer by the guard, who asked him to stop and when he didn't, opened fire. The thief

was shot in the hip and apprehended.

It was back to the ferry terminal after breakfast. Here we watched again the fascinating docking procedure that involved the ferry pulling up

at right angles to the dock while a guy dived into the water and swam a rope ashore about 50 yards. The rope was then used to pull the main

(and quite large) dock line ashore. This is the most unusual large boat docking procedure I've seen!

We were headed for Leon, back up north. All buses go through Managua, a huge sprawling crazy city. This time, we decided to take one of the

chicken buses... the same old school Blue Bird buses we saw in Guatemala and El Salvador, but not as brightly decked out. About an hour into

the trip, the bus stopped, there was a great flurry of activity and much revving of the engine, and after about 15 minutes, we learned that

the transmission had gone out. There were were, all milling around by the side of the road with the broken-down bus partly blocking the

traffic. The bus had been jammed full. After 15 minutes, another happened by, also jammed full. And we all got on! How this was managed is

hard to understand, but it does seem that you can get more people standing than you have in the seats. It made for a long trip, as the

chicken buses stop often. The Managua changeover was fairly smooth, and we made it to Leon by late afternoon.