Day 21: One man and his machete (Ometepe)

As well as being home to two volcanoes, a bucket-load of wildlife and more adventure pursuits than you can shake a stick at, Ometepe is also the place to find ancient petroglyphs.

After the waterfall hike the previous day, I thought a little meander down the road to see some of these 3,000 year old images carved on rocks spewed out from Maderas volcano millennias ago, would be a nice change of pace.

I chatted to Ryan, the owner of Finca Mystica about my plan and he suggested I go with a local guide, Simon, and cheerfully, a great Canadian couple I'd met, Kristina and Cavan, said they'd come too.

Alarm bells should have rung when Angela, Ryan's wife, suggested bug spray and good shoes. Yep, this was no saunter, it was a three hour hike through dense woodland, where I ended up dodging termite mounds, giant spiders (it's tarantula season!) and the odd ferocious looking butterfly.

Simon brought along a machete, which at first I thought was a bit overkill for a lovely woodland trail, except it ended up being less a 'trail' and more Simon hacking at the undergrowth like a trooper so we could squeeze through after him.

My favourite moment had to be when Simon stopped to dig in the dirt with the machete, he was there for about 30 seconds as I stood behind him wondering what he was so keen to dig up.

I wish I could have seen my own face when a giant SCORPIAN jumped out the hole.

Simon thought it was hilarious anyway. It's scorpian season as well apparently!

We continued hiking upwards through the forest, checking out the cute howler monkeys as we went, before coming to a clearing where we had an excellent view of the Conception volcano and a panarama of our little side of the island.

On the way back down, Simon showed us the petroglyphs carved into various chucks of volcanic rock which were scattered across the landscape. It's really hard to grasp that these things are 3,000 years old and they're just sitting there casually in a field waiting for you to find them.

The images were mainly of animals, those you'd expect - turtles and monkeys - and those less obvious - elephants - although maybe Simon was taking his interpretation skills too far here!

It was a great little hike and I enjoyed spending time with Simon and the opportunity to practice my Spanish a little bit.

Ometepe is incredible and I'm only experiencing a tiny little portion of the island. You could stay here a month and make beautiful new discoveries every day, I'm sure.

Travel tips:

1 Finca Mystica arranged for Simon to be our guide and he charged $20 between three of us for three hours.

2 Simon told us he also leads trips up Maderas four times a week, so if you're feeling brave, he'd be an excellent choice!