You remember, years ago sitting in front of the television watching a Mickey Mouse cartoon on a Saturday morning. Goofy is stranded on a volcanic island. He thinks that he is in paradise; he sways and sleeps on a hammock all day, with an angry volcano spewing ash in the background. Eventually, the natives capture Goofy, thinking that he is a White God whose purpose is to be sacrificed. To appease their gods, the natives swing Goofy and toss him into the volcano. As he falls in, he still has his goofy smile. You laugh so hard that cereal and milk squirts out of your nose. But you are not laughing now. It is plus 35 degrees Celsius and you have goosebumps. And you wonder why Disney sanctioned Goofy being tossed in the volcano as a human sacrifice. This, at one time, was Ometepe. Despite the man-eating alligators and erupting volcanoes, the natives never wanted to leave the island – it was a paradise (and still is). They felt they could only survive by gratifying the volcano’s hunger for their people; the role of the most beautiful women and the strongest men of Ometepe was to produce children for sacrifice. After walking through the jungle, you arrive at Charco Verde’s lagoon. The water is algae-infested and remarkably green. Legends say that this is the place where gods and sacrificers would pee ( Xistletoet in Nahuatl) before making their way to Concepción Volcano.
On the shore, you see tourists practising their yoga poses; Ometepe is also known for yoga retreats. While having dinner or taking a stroll, you will always be bothered by expat yogis and their pamphlets: Partake in daily Naam Yoga in beautiful Ometepe, one of Central America’s finest and majestic landscapes! You take a step back and look at it all. Nodding, you will say: this is perhaps one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been in all of my life. But how could anyone find serenity with the volcano’s humming noise in the background or the subtle creepiness that crawls behind your neck, or a man-made mudslide that will eat you in seconds or an angry Alligator God who is about to latch onto your ankles and drag you into the depths of Lake Nicaragua?
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Andres U Bautista
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