Ometepe

La Isla de Ometepe is about an hour´s ferry ride from mainland Nicaragua, and a world away. The ferry was pretty small, with three decks for passengers, the largest not more than 200 square feet, and room for two or three trucks and a couple of cars. Under one truck, the driver had slung a hammock and was napping for the duration of the ride.

When we got off the boat, my dad found a taxi-driver and we headed for his car. The taxi turned out to be a red pickup truck, with an extra railing around the bed, at about the height of the top of the cab, and a wooden plank laid across the sides of the bed, as a bench. Dad rode in front and practiced his Spanish, while Mom and I rode in back with the luggage.

The ride across the island was like a jump back in time. We quickly left behind the requisit backpacker ghetto of Moyopgalpa and sped along a perfectly paved road, passing bikes (each with one or two extra passengers balancing on the crossbar), banana-farmers on horseback, oxen and horses pulling wooden carts, and recommissioned Bluebird school-busses serving as public transportation. Pigs, chickens, and goats wandered alongside the road.

Any vehicle will pass any other vehicle, motorized or not, at the first possible opportunity - and may drift into the oncoming lane two or three times to check if it´s safe to pass. You soon get the idea that there is no "right" or "wrong" side of the road to drive on. Everyone stays generally in their own lane, unless there´s someone slow in their way (which is about 15 percent of the time) or a pothole (about 20 percent of the time); at which point they swerve into oncoming traffic without a second thought.

Drivers in Nicaragua also use their horn as often as possible. A honk might mean "get out of my way" or "I´m about to pass you" or "stay on the sidewalk." Sometimes it means "I´m coming up to the intersection" or "I´m about to round the corner, so you´d better get back on your side of the road," and sometimes its just a greeting. Its never an angry or blaring horn - just a light tap as a matter of course.