Concepción is the younger and more dramatic of Ometepe's two volcanoes, a near-perfect cone rising 1,610 metres straight out of Lake Nicaragua at the northern end of the island. It is still active, with eruptions recorded throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and an active vent that occasionally puffs steam visible from the lake shore. From a distance the symmetry is uncanny — a textbook stratovolcano with the lake lapping at its base.
Climbing Concepción is a brutal day. The trail starts in plantain fields, climbs through dry forest, breaks above the tree line into loose volcanic scree, and finishes with a steep scramble to the crater rim. Plan for ten to twelve hours round trip, take a guide (mandatory and sensible — the upper section is exposed and the weather changes fast), and start before dawn. The summit views, when the clouds cooperate, take in the entire island, Lake Nicaragua, and on a clear day the volcanoes of the mainland.