Isla de Ometepe

Surprised no-one mentioned Hacienda Mérida. A stone's throw from the lake shore under volcán maderas, they offer bike hire, kayaks, horses, walking up the volcano or to the waterfall of san ramon. It's reasonably priced, very relaxing and friendly. They have free internet and good food. The owner (think it was Alvaro) speaks english and is very helpful and knowledgeable about Nicaragua. The chicken bus (to San Ramon) will drop you there. You're guaranteed fantastic sunsets.
Have a good trip

Thanks for all the advice.

Hi,

A warning to anybody planning to stay in Posada Chaco Largo whilst in Chaco Verde. There is a high risk of theft on the premises, especially if staying in the dorm room which faces the beach. After speaking to locals we realised this happens very often (that room in particular), and a group of four of us were unfortunate to have many items stolen three nights ago including a laptop, two digital cameras, two mp3 players and the majority of items in our day packs. The owners of Chaco Largo are extremely unhelpful and deny that this is an existing problem (claim this was the first time), even though police and other locals say this happens many many times. They then started accusing one of my friends in the room of being suspicious because he went for a walk shortly afterwards to ask around the town and claimed they saw him waiting for a bus to go to the ferry terminal (he lost the most out of all of us, it was ludicrous for them to say such a thing). The police may also be part of the problem, we're not completely sure.

If you choose to stay in Chaco Verde, stay next door at Hotel Venecia. Despite not being their responsibility whatsoever they drove us to the police station and back, to some restaurants and houses in the area to ask locals and finally to the ferry port on the other side of the island to get a boat, and asked for nothing in return. Their environment is far nicer, it will cost slightly more but you will have the assurance of a security guard on the premises, not having to deal with lousy staff, not having the high possibility of having your items stolen and much more accomodating staff. All of this happened in the middle of the night whilst we were all sleeping with our bags right next to us.

I hope other travellers considering staying here can read this before going and can avoid such an unfortunate incident from occuring to them. Final point...Do NOT stay at Posada Chaco Largo!

Justin

Thanks for the warning Justin, I am surpirsed to hear this on Ometepe.

You can arrange the various lodges to meet your ferry, they will ask you sall them from San Jorge prior to getting to the ferry, there are some small cargo/tranpost offices on the road, and they charge like $1 to call for you a number and tell them your name and what ferry your on, or maybe your taxi driver will use his cell. Its not cheap tough to arrange a pickup for Villa Parriaso, I recall it was $40 eachway in 2004 for 2 people. Though the lodge, rooms and location is a great, with easy access to either volcano base for hiking, and you can charge the transfers, excursions and room too, but if your on a budget, and have 4 days, take the bus, or stay near ferry and rent a bike, there are few cars/trucks on Ometep, the roads are mainly locals walking or on bikes, its a very relaxed and super slow paced island, 4 days you will decompress to barely getting out of a hammock :)