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Off the Beaten Path Stories
| Ometepe Island, Nicaragua |
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| By Lauren Scharf | |||||||||
Page 1 of 7  Anchored by two towering volcanoes, Nicaragua's Ometepe Island is paradise found. In just a few days, you can climb a volcano, take a trail ride on horseback, kayak through a tropical bird-filled river estuary, stroll along a beach at sunset and much, much more. While the world abounds in gorgeous waterfront vacation spots, they usually have a serious price tag attached. Not so with the Nicaraguan island of Ometepe, located in the southwestern corner of the country on the western side of Lake Nicaragua, one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world.
The name Ometepe literally means "land of two hills," and life on the 106 square mile island still revolves around the dominating presences of the twin volcanoes of Concepcíon (5,200 feet) and Maderas (4,500 feet), which are connected by a narrow beach-filled isthmus.
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The lake's indigenous Náhuatl name of Cocibolca translates as "the sweet sea," a description that found favor with 16th century Spanish explorers and still applies today.