Ometepe island - Charco Verde Ecological Reserve and a scooter ride around the island

We really wanted to walk through the Ecological Reserve of Charco Verde and the rest of the island. We felt compelled to rent a scooter for the day to have some freedom of operation. It turned out that there was a shop near our hotel renting scooters. Et voila! Helmets, driving licence, Brigitte in front driving, Glenn holding on her in the back....we had opted for an adventure. Needless to say that we had never driven a scooter before, except for a short while in Thailand and we had managed to fall on a sharp turn.
We needed a second positive scooter experience.

Breakfast first

Ready, set, go! Next stop - Charco Verde, about 15 km away

I have to admit that the first 10 kms were a little stressful. The good news was that there were very few cars on the road. The bad news was that we had to share the road with so many animals.The worse feeling was the fear that either a horse or a cow or a pig or a dog or a chicken would cross the road in front of our wheels. At some point, four big cows  were walking in parallel on the road, taking the entire road, so we had to slalom in between them to pass. In those moments, you just remind yourself that the best is yet to come :))

We arrived in Chaco Verde - Many beautiful flowers here and a nice view of Volcan Concepcion

There is a butterfly sanctuary at Charco Verde. We checked it out.

We then took a walk around the reserve to see the reserve and the lagoon with emerald green waters.

The green lagoon with lake Nicaragua further away

 A termite nest

So lucky to spot a family of howler monkeys

An egret hidding in the swamp

Workers building a retention wall

We then continued our tour of the island, missed a turn and ended up on a dirt road with not only more animals but gigantic holes filled with water from the rain and many rocks. The driving became extremely challenging to say the least. After a while, we finally admitted that we were on the wrong road and had to drive all the way back to the correct road. 

The last town we visited was Altagracia. When we arrived there, we knew that an important event was taking place in the town - It turned out that Daniel Ortega's electoral campaign crew was there talking to a large crowd gathered near the square

 And now the election campaign cars....nicely decorated! Enough to make both Clinton and Trump's campaign managers jealous. Election campaign money is always wisely used....:))

This concludes our scooter day on the Ometepe island. 

We made it!

I know you like faces so here are a couple others....when I do not like the price quoted to me in cordobas or dollar and I have no other choice but to bargain

"You really are as old as you feel"