OMETEPE 2026 – Nicaragua is humble (not arrogant or self-important). At times I can be far less than humble (while I am not self-important, I am definitely arrogant). I, however, do not aspire to be anything other than me; maybe that is why Nicaragua feels like one of my soul places. It is very relaxed without all the persistent time constraints and urgency of the US.

Horses can still pull wagons on the highway; my taxis were older, dusty & lacked infotainment screens; & people can still ride in the back of pickup trucks without incident. The petty & debilitating rules of the US are abandoned.

On the island of Ometepe, it is even more real as many roads are not paved but cobblestone; you are not going anywhere fast. Each village has its own school where primary students attend in the morning and high school students attend in the afternoon. If you need emergency services on the mainland, you would be taken by ferryboat ambulance.

The Islands beaches, due to its volcanic nature make it very windy, and although Nicaragua is very hot, Ometepe is cooler due to all of this. I have been to beaches all over the world, but the beaches on Ometepe are fascinatingly wild & serene. Due to the booming volume of the wind & waves one might think that they are at the ocean, but alas, it is a freshwater lake.

Nothing begins on Ometepe till the sun comes up; one morning while the sun rose, I sat on the windy beach & watched a man who had camped on the beach have a cig, get naked & bathe in the lake with his dong swinging around.

For this is a place to exist without chains; his expression of freedom brought me overwhelming emotion. To know that such a place exists is wonderous and exciting when we live in a world that demands every fraction of our animal nature to be suppressed at all times for the comfort of others.

Besides running the race, I did not do much of anything but enjoy existing in this place for the minute that I was able to. I ate real food, ran cobblestone roads, sat on serene beaches, road in dirty Taxis and watched the sunrise on the volcano and then watched the day turn to night.

My hotel was called Xalli Beach Hotel and it was incredible. I had my own cabin with plenty of space. There were beautiful gardens and it sat on a bluff overlooking Lake Nicaragua in the area of Santa Domingo. There was a restaurant with real/whole food; local coffee and meats, and it was all divine. Unlike much of the hotels, this one had hot water and also filtered water for you to drink.

If I could choose a place to take my last breath, I would choose Ometepe.

Being a Thug on the ferry boat