Concepcion is located on the nortwest part of Ometepe Island with it's smaller brother, the Maderas volcano. Concepcion, which translates into "Conception", is a quite active stratovolcano and it's errupted 24 times in the last century, the last time was in 1986, usually with medium-sized explosions. It periodically spews out smoke and ashes on the residents of the island. There are some active fumaroles near the summit of the crater, 1.5 kilometers above sea level.

Maderas, also a stratovolcano, doesn't attract much attention because it's a lot smaller than Concepcion and it's been dormant for 10,000 years. Maderas, which forms the southwest end of the island, is covered in a beautiful dense tropical cloud forest.

Ometepe Island is formed by a two volcanoes, Concepcion and Maderas, and narrow bridge between them and takes up an area of about 160 square kilometers. The native Indians who originally populated Nicaragua considered this island to be sacred and left thousands of statues, rock carvings, and artifacts on the island. Ometepe's name comes from the word "ometeptle" which means "two peaks" in the Nahuatl Indian language. The island is populated by about 30,000 farmers who grow fruit, cattle, and coffee and tourists sometimes hike up Concepcion's flanks. It's located in Lake Nicaragua, an enormous freshwater lake that supports much of Nicaragua's economy.