My first full day on the island I spent climbing Volcan Conception, which is a 
nearly perfect conical volcano. I hired a guide and got a private tour up the mountain. After close to 2 hours of strenuous hiking, we reached the lookout point for a beautiful, sweeping view of...gray. Lots of gray. Turns out it´s just about always cloudy up there, especially in the rainy season (which is now). We were also treated to a good bit of gale force winds, which nearly blew me off the mountain a couple of times. Admitting defeat, we descended the mountain at a near run (it´s easier like that, I swear). We shaved a good 45 minutes off the usual hike time, since I was eager to get to the top as early as possible (hoping to miss the clouds), and just as eager to get back down. The wildlife on the trail was pretty cool, though. There were lots of howler monkeys (which sound like a mix between a T-Rex and a really big gorilla) and beautiful birds. The second day I decided to tour the island by renting a dirt bike ($25 a day!). I 
had an awesome time with it, and ended up riding for about 10 hours. The roads on the island were abominable. There was one paved road, connecting the two major cities, but it only serviced one half of the island. The whole half of the island with the other volcano on it had terribly rutted, rock (and boulder) strewn dirt roads. It was slow and rough going, but a lot of fun. For about 5km I got to ride on a wind swept deserted beach. I then had the pleasure of getting stuck several times trying to get off the beach up the soft, sandy, hill (good thing dirt bikes are light!). My first stop was to la Cascada de San Ramon, a waterfall that was a 3 km hike
from an eco-reserve. Turns out there is a road that goes up the first two kilometers of the hike, and the owner invited me to take the bike up there. The "road" was some serious rough going. And I thought the island roads were bad. This thing had a super steep grade, loose rocks, and plants growing all over it. It was certainly a test of skill (and hey, I only laid the bike down once, that´s not too bad, eh?). As I was going up these hills I was thinking to myself (too late, of course), am I ever going to get back down this?? The 1km hike turned out to be a pretty tough one, and after losing my way a couple times I finally found the 35m waterfall. Taking stock of the situation, I was over an hour´s hike from any form of civilization, on an island, in the middle of Nicaragua, and was covered in sweat. So, I did the only reasonable thing: got naked and took a shower in the waterfall. Good thing those two large groups I passed on the way back down weren´t a little quicker... 
The next stop was to see the Petroglyphs, 4000 year old remnants of the indiginous culture that once inhabited the island. When I finally found them, they were on a random farmer´s land, under his mango tree, and absolutely covered in mango splatters and bird poop. He was actually using one of the petroglyphs as a place to store his saddle, when not in use. Following the Petroglyphs was the Ojo de Agua (a volcano fed clear water spring), and the Punta de Jesus Maria (a narrow black sand peninsula that juts out into the lake), before returning to town. A full day of sight seeing, and I think I hit all the tourist points on the island.
Now I´m in Granada, realizing for the first time that only having 4 days of my trip left leaves some logistical challenges for fitting in about 6 days worth of sights before heading out.
Looking back on my trip, I had some of the toughest and most uncomfortable experiences of my life...but also some of the most exhilarating. New friends and and old (thank you to all my visitors, I'm not sure I could have done it without you) defined every city and country I visited. And as much as I enjoyed the wild-and-craziness of South America, I realized I really do love the good 'ol US of A.
