Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Volcan de Masaya

From 3-8-2012
After having made two new friends the day before, we decided 
we were ready to get out of Managua but only for the day. 

We decide on going to the Volcano in Masaya, another 
touristy kind of town close to Granada. Initially we though 
we could bus it but after some much needed research we hire 
one of the hostel taxi drivers to take us around. This end
up being a great idea, not only because of the 15k walk up 
to the volcano but also because he is like a Nicaraguan 
history book. (Good thing the girl I had invited with us 
the day before spoke Spanish as her first language. 
We were set). We start at the visitor's center for the 
National park where the volcano and craters are located. 
I was really impressed by VC there. Every sign there had
a translation in English and there were great visual 
qualities as well.

Also included in our entrance fee, was a cave tour. 
It was really interesting.  (Not quite Carl's Bad 
Caverns but still quality). We were given flash 
lights and hard hats as we entered the cave. I wasn't 
sold at first because I could hear the bats flying 
around us. I would say we were definitely intruding. 
We only walked a third of the cave is what the guide 
said. Being that my flash light was on its let leg I 
was more worried about getting left behind with the 
bats then how far into the cave we were.

We stopped in an opening in the cave. We were told 
this is where the indigenous people used to make 
their sacrifices. Although there is little remnants 
of those times, it was still very interesting to hear 
about the cave explorations still being done today. 
Then we got to my favorite part of the tour...please 
turn off your flash lights. Hello, did anyone see that 
movie where the women to spunking and those weird cave 
craters kill them all? I say, get me out!

On on top of solid ground, we started up to the 
crater/inactive volcano. At the top, I felt like I
 was on top of the world.  It was one of the most 
amazing views of my life. It was also incredibly windy; 
we had a hard time standing up. We snapped a few pictures 
and we were out. Only to realize, we still had to walk 
up the 177 steps up to the volcano overlook. That was 
so incredible. It was really acidic though. We all had 
a hard time breathing so we be got the quick history 
from our driver, Roberto, and we left for lunch. 

After having such a long day hiking we chilled out 
at the pool for the rest of the afternoon.

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