RIP Ometepe Ferry

I realized today that I had promised a ferry story in my previous blog and failed to deliver. Ometepe is a reasonably big island made out of two volcanoes in the Lago de Nicaragua. To get their you have two options; medium sized boats used by fisherman, or lanchas, and the ferry. The second time I went to the island Heather and I took the lancha back because it suited our schedule. Later, several Nicaraguans nodded in approval of our transport choice saying that if the lancha was damaged, it wouldn't sink because it was wood, whereas the ferry goes straight to the bottom since it is made out of metal and considerably larger. I, at least, laughed it off as more off beat comments Nicas had made to me. Until I found out that, at the beginning of February, the same bad weather that stranded me on a Caribbean island had also created waves so big in Lago de Nicaragua that the ferry had sunk!! When I went back a couple of weeks after this happened the billboard with the times for ferries 1,2 and 3 had a giant magic marker X through ferry 2. So it goes.

Rest in Peace, Ometepe Ferry.

Also, to preface the post below, a quote from Wikipedia: "Quinceañera" is also used to refer to the young woman whose 15th birthday is being celebrated (analogous to the word cumpleañera for "birthday girl"). Other cultural equivalents to the quinceañera in the United States are the Bar or Bat Mitzvah celebrations for Jewish boys turning 13 and girls turning 12, the debutante ball, the cotillion and the sweet sixteen birthday parties.

When I asked why the age of 15, I was told she would probably be pregnant at the age of 16. Sadly, there is some truth to that...