Ometepe is the land of spirals. Many of the petroglyphs are of the meandering type seen on the right.

The petroglyph on the left shows signs of being chalked. Chalking accelerates the amount of environmental degradation a petroglyph might suffer, and hampers dating techniques as well. Visitors to the petroglyphs are advised not to chalk or scratch the grooves of a petroglyph.

"Enhancing" a petroglyph by means other than altering the light that falls on the surface of a boulder (or by the use of special development techniques for a photographic negative or the use of software enhancement of the scanned image) is usually detrimental to the work. See our Photographic Techniques page for more.