El Volcán Masaya

Sorry for not posting yesterday. The power went out for most of the day and we had a busy evening of shopping, dinner, watching a concert and dancing. More to come on that in the next post.


Wednesday evening, we went on our first excursion to the Masaya Volcano. It was an incredible adventure. After entering Nicaragua's first national park, we spent a half hour learning about the volcano at a museum. Next, we drove to the top of the active crater. It was a long way down to the hole of fire! A guide from the park joined us as we walked to a summit overlook (the cross). The views of the craters and countryside were incredible in the waning sky. On the way down the wind shifted and we raced to the bottom, coughing, to avoid the sulfur-laced smoke. We climbed to the highest crater for more views and explanations of the area.


On to the caves we went. After getting geared up, we climbed down in a lava tube. We made it to 200 vertical feet below the surface. Roots from plants were still growing, seeking out moisture and bat poop for nutrients. We went to another lava tube that is closed to human traffic. We took turns entering the mouth of the cave. As night fell thousands of bats flew out over and around our heads. There are some incredible pictures to see as the bats came inches from us on their way out.


By now, the dark of night was well upon us. We went to another overlook to see the active crater hole. We could see the large glow of lava and smoke directly below us as we clung to a cement pole. Unfortunately, pictures of the lava didn't come out. However, we did post many more pictures from Wednesday, so be sure to take a look.