Jess and Stacey’s Travels

Volcano Pictures-click on photo for more pictures

We elected to act as tourists one day this week . We took a guided tour of the Masaya Volcano.  The tour left from Granada around 4 p.m.   We traveled by minibus through Masaya and arrived at the volcano about 4:30 p.m.   Our official park guide was a bit late so we just wondered about for a bit.   We saw a lot of gases emanating from the bottom of the crater.   We could also hear a lot of birds coming from somewhere inside the crater.   The birds actually nest in the interior walls which is interesting as the guide will later tell us that the gases erode everything in sight.  These birds appear to be black while in flight until you get a closer look when they angle off and we find they are green parakeets.

Our guide ‘Oscar’ arrived and gave us some history. Seems the locals used to believe that the volcano was a god and sacrificed virgins and small children.   Oscar took us to several vantage points that overlook the crater, two other craters,Masaya and the surrounding areas.  Nice views as the sun was setting.  When we hiked back down it was getting dark and we were given hard hats and flashlights for the next part of the tour to visit the caves that extend out from the crater walls.   We entered one of the caves from about 400 meters from the wall and go in about 180 meters.  Oscar told us that we can go no further because it becomes too difficult to traverse and oxygen becomes scarce (a minor issue).   The whole time we are in the cave we can hear bats fluttering around and see some hanging from the ceiling and walls.   When we turn off all the flashlights and remain silent, we can hear that there are more than a few.   We are glad they have good sonar.   Surprisingly, we are able to take some good pictures in the total darkness.   I hung back to get some photos as we retraced our steps to exit.   The photo of the bats-in-flight was taken as I stood alone in total darkness.  We walked back to the van and relinquished the flashlights and hard hats.

The van took us to a vantage point where we saw the bottom of the crater.  In the dark, we actually saw lava.  The lava appeared to be pool of liquid fire at a rapid boil.  It would have been nice to have those flashlights as we are trying to get close to the edge for photos and there is no barrier at this location.  While we were taking photos of the lava, the wind changed direction and the sulfur smelling fumes hit us with a vengeance.   Only then did they give us masks!  Too late for some folks who started coughing.  We made quick departure, ending the tour.

The bus returned us to Granada about 7:30pm. Our group of 7 (mostly from the US, one from Canada) decided to have a beer(s) and eat dinner.  Really a nice group of folks and a good time was had by all.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 20th, 2007 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.