Granada: Finally Splitting from the Black Rats

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Day 118 – Sunday 15th January 2006

It had to happen eventually. I had to leave the Black Rats behind. We had left two of them in Utila the week previously, and there remained Angus, Ryan, Rivo and myself. They were not going any further south than Nicaragua and I obviously needed to get to Panama, so the day came when I needed to get a move on and do some sight seeing before having to make my way south.

Such was the draw of hanging out with the guys that I didn’t make my mind up about leaving until I picked my bags up, checked out of the hostel and walked to the bus station. I had been with them since 19th December, so virtually a month, and we had travelled from Antigua to Lake Atitlan to Rio Dulce to La Ceiba for New Year, to Utila, Tegucigalpa, and finally to Granada.

Walking to the bus station was pretty strange, as I had mixed feelings about being on my own again for the first time in quite a while. When Tom and Ben left the group I had a strange feeling in my stomach like I was envious of them for going home, and that I have another 6 months of travelling which at that moment felt like a hell of a long time.

I got on the bus and saw one of the guys who was in my hostel so I started talking to him to take my mind off things, and it turned out we were heading to the same place, the island of Omotepe. We got a bus and took a taxi to the dock where the boats departed for the island.

When I had left Granada it was a lovely sunny day, however two hours later as I stood on the dock, the winds were blowing and and clouds came over. The lake was really really choppy. So choppy in fact that just before we arrived the other ferry taking cargo to Omotepe had set off, but hadn’t made it very far. About three metres to be exact, before it capsized. The poor buggers were unloading the ship of it cargo, mainly bananas. The sad thing was they were having to do it banana by banana.

As we boarded our boat we were a bit apprehensive but as we got under way it seemed everything was ok, and in fact the further out into the water we got, the calmer things became. The clouds lifted and we were able to get our first look at the island of Omotepe, made up of two volcanoes linked when one erupted, making a causeway between them.

We decided to go to the village of Charco Verde and we were joined by two Argentinian lads who were travelling together. They were pretty cool guys and were just what I needed, rather than being stuck alone for the night. I wasn’t really in the mood for partying, so when they all started drinking, I decided to call it a night, read and get an early one.