Hiking a Volcano, do's and don'ts

Rush hour on Ometepe

Ometepe Island gets its name from the Nahuatl word that means "two mountains."  There's the big volcano on the larger island called "Concepcion" and the smaller one on the other island called "Maderas."  We decided to hike the smaller one since we were staying on that end of the island.  We found a guide named 'Abel' who was recommended to us through the restaurant owner at Cafe Campestre.  You don't have to have a guide to hike here but it seems like a good idea, the area is covered with trails and it's easy to get lost and the guy was $20 for the day so why not.  Abel turned out to be a great guy with lots of good information and he definitely knew the mountain.  If you're in the area look him up.  We asked him to come up with a circular route so we wouldn't just go up and back and he gave us a fine tour.  We left a bit after 8am from Balgue and hiked up the road to Finca Magdalena.  You have to hike across their coffee plantations at first so we paid a buck and a half for the priveledge.  There were big groups of howler monkeys howlering back and forth in the morning light and we watched a little howler crawl all over its mom and then on to the rest of the family.  For little monkeys they make one hell of a racket.  After about one hour we stopped to eat some breakfast burritos that Cafe Campestre had made for us the night before.  It was a needed burst of energy.  Maderas is covered in jungle and rock all the way to the top so you never really get to an outstanding viewpoint and the terrain is like a 4 hour stairmaster covered in 4 inches of axle grease.  Technically it's not a difficult climb but it does kick your butt.  Once we got to the top you have to hike another 20 minutes into the caldera.  This part is so steep you will need to go into full on spider monkey mode and there are chunks of rope in some places that you can grab for support but it's still not that bad and certainly not a "roped climb" as some guide books might say.  If it's a clear day the caldera bottom is a gorgeous meadow with a little lake.  We were lucky to have clear weather and we ate another burrito lakeside.  It was howling wind the whole time though so i didn't go swimming.  It took us another 3 hours to get down being very careful not to slip and fall in the mud and trying not to step on the leaf cutter ants that travel in long lines beside and along the trail.  We came out of the jungle overlooking the village of Santa Cruz and Concepcion which was a great viewpoint and then we walked through several fields of plantains before we hit the road.  A few beers and advil later and we were good to go.  If you do this hike you definitely need 1.5 to 2 liters of water per person, some breakfast burritos, and shoes that can handle mud.  I wore my running shoes and they will never be the same.  If you go with a guide try to find Abel and if you go alone take a gps or compass, if it fogs in you won't be able to see 6 feet in front of you.  There are vultures in the area for a reason people.



Inside the caldera of Volcanoe Maderas