Hiking Volcan Concepcion

Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua

The Island of Ometepe is located in Lake Nicaragua and is home to two volcanoes – Concepcion & Maderas. Concepcion is still considered an active volcano with its last full-fledged ash eruption in 2010. While travelling around on the island, it’s incredibly difficult to not gaze up at the immense mountain in awe.

For some reason, Mac and I convinced ourselves that it would be a great idea to hike up this volcano. Concepcion has a height at the summit of 1610m (~ 1 mile above sea level). We had seen in our research online that Concepcion was the harder of the two volcanoes to hike, but once we committed to the idea, there was no going back. In order to hike the volcano, you are required to have a guide.

The tour company we went with (Willy Tours) was very knowledgeable and told us about the different routes available. The first one leaves from the town of La Concepcion (aptly named). Willy  informed us that this route was the most difficult with the majority of the hike occurring above the tree line leaving hikers very exposed to the sun and wind. The ground is also less ideal being mainly gravel. The second route leaves from just outside the town of Altagracia in a place called La Sabana. This hike is supposed to be the ‘easier’ of the two with more foliage along the path and an easier trail to manage.

A shuttle picked up Mac & I as well as our two fellow hikers from our hostel in Moyogalpa. From there it was about a 40 minute drive to La Sabana. We picked up our guide, Donald along the way and he led us 30 minutes from the taxi to the entrance of the volcano path. Along the way we passed a huge plantain plantation – I  now know why they are so popular here! After a quick break to gather ourselves and realize what exactly we were getting ourselves into, we were off!

Donald was a trove of information on our journey. He pointed out several different types of plants and listed off all of their medicinal properties and mentioned how a large portion of them are still being used by island inhabitants to this day. Several plants had leaves that could be brewed into a pseudo-tea that can help manage diabetes. Other plants had bark that could be scraped off and meddled into a sort of salve for insect repellent. Other plants were just plain weird looking.

We also saw quite a bit of wildlife – including parrots, mice and monkeys!! We actually heard the howler monkeys long before we saw them – their howls travel far! Donald whipped out a stellar howler imitation and soon we had a whole crew of them looking down on us. Including one that threw a piece of fruit down!

I wish I could wax poetic about the fantastic journey that occurred on our hike to the summit, but I can’t. This hike was hard. It was also easily one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. Given that there are no real mountains in South Western Ontario, it’s kind of difficult to prepare physically for a hike of this nature. The trail has no switchbacks or hairpin turns meaning that you are essentially hiking up 35-45 degrees the whole time.

We left the entrance to the trail at 7:45am. After hauling our bodies up the side of the volcano and taking multiple breaks to catch our breaths, we finally made it to the summit at 11:30am. Being that the volcano reaches so high, it was 100% covered in clouds. The ground is all volcanic rocks & ash making your footing rather unstable. Looking into the crater of the volcano was definitely eerie. You couldn’t see more than 10 feet down and staring into the unknown sure gave me the heebie-geebies.

After stopping for a few pictures and grasping the fact that we had indeed made it to the summit of the volcano, it was time to make our way back down. If I thought that going up was hard, going down was near impossible. After sliding down the volcanic ash near the summit, we had to trudge through the muddy conglomeration of rocks & tree roots trying as hard as we could to not fall flat on our backs (or faces, depending on our balance).

One great thing about the way down is that the clouds that had plagued our ascent in the morning had all but cleared in the afternoon giving us an amazing view of the rest of the island and of the other volcano Maderas.

We arrived back at the trail entrance around 3:15pm. Our total hiking time was about 7.5 hours. Considering most guide books estimate the Concepcion hike to take between 8-12 hours, I’m really pleased with how we did. Especially considering the near-emotional breakdowns I had along the trail. We got the taxi back to our hostel and promptly inhaled every morsel of food in sight. Showering immediately was a necessity – not only because of the sweat, but also because of the dirt. Those are not tan lines folks, those are dirt lines.

Reflections

The days that followed the hike were extremely painful as our quad muscles tried to figure out what we had put them through. We’ve had several people ask us if it was worth it. Given my emotional state immediately afterwards, I hesitated in saying yes, but now that I’ve had a few days to look back & reflect, I can say with full confidence that it was totally worth it. The times since the hike that we’ve driven by Concepcion still make me gawk with awe, but I now have a whole new respect for the volcano. The fact that I pushed my body and my mind to its limits (and didn’t die in the process) is something I’m insanely proud of. It’s also not something I’ll see myself doing again in the near future, but at least now I know I’m capable.

We spent our time after the hike traveling around the island and stubbornly considering what it would be like to hike the smaller volcano, Maderas. Fortunately we came to our senses and decided to save that hike for another time (most likely, in our dreams).