Isla de Ometepe: Beautiful, for some

Our adventure to Nicaragua started on the largest freshwater island in the world, the Island of Ometepe. It is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua and is home to one of the world’s most perfectly conic volcanoes, Concepción, and a volcano boasting physical evidence of its destructive power, Maderas. While we were on Ometepe we hiked Maderas, toured coffee plantations and saw ancient petroglifs telling of eternity. With all of our newly given free time, our hectic lives seemed to peacefully slow down on Ometepe as we experienced the spiral of eternity for ourselves.

The hostel we stayed at here, Hacienda Merida, was nothing short of picture perfect beautiful. It was located right on the lake with a view of both volcanoes and many sunsets, it was also a prime location for swimming, kayaking, stargazing and banano coco batidos. While many of us were blessed enough to enjoy every moment of beauty that Ometepe had to offer, the majority of our group was not so lucky. After the ferry ride on day one, a virus attacked its first of many victims. We are a close bunch, living and traveling together, but also sharing much food and water. This is great most of the time, until the germs take off like dominoes.

In total, over 20 students came down with the virus, one professor, one administrator and our intern. It was like a game of Mafia, each morning we’d discuss who else had been “lost” in the night. I was lucky to be apart of the third that made it out virus free, though the fear for your health and concern for the others still had quite an effect. Finally, after the vomiting and nausea surpassed and the hospital trips and quarantine were no more, we were all united again - just in time for a long travel day north to Granada.