Two days last week were filled with the
volcano near here. On Thursday night, I was sitting in my room
reading and I heard them call my name, which is Maria here. They called it twice so I came out of my room and they were all were pretty excited speaking quickly about the volcano nearby. They kept saying “incendio” and I wasn’t sure what that really meant in terms of a volcano so I decided to just join them and ask no questions. I threw on pants and real shoes and minutes later we were in the pick-up trip. On the way there I realized what we were actually doing. We were driving to Masatepe, a nearby small city, where there are views of the Volcano. One of my host sisters was called by her friend that the volcano was on fire. We went to the church in the center and climbed the steps to see it better. At this point, all of us were unsure if it was a manmade fire or volcanic activity. We then drove to a better look out point to see the volcano. Along the way, we asked around and people had mixed opinions about what was happening. Then we saw someone with binoculars and he said it was just on fire. It still was pretty amazing to see. These towns are pretty small. On our small trip, my host family saw their uncle and also many coworkers. Everyone was out in the street, I thought I might see another aspirante but I didn’t.
reading and I heard them call my name, which is Maria here. They called it twice so I came out of my room and they were all were pretty excited speaking quickly about the volcano nearby. They kept saying “incendio” and I wasn’t sure what that really meant in terms of a volcano so I decided to just join them and ask no questions. I threw on pants and real shoes and minutes later we were in the pick-up trip. On the way there I realized what we were actually doing. We were driving to Masatepe, a nearby small city, where there are views of the Volcano. One of my host sisters was called by her friend that the volcano was on fire. We went to the church in the center and climbed the steps to see it better. At this point, all of us were unsure if it was a manmade fire or volcanic activity. We then drove to a better look out point to see the volcano. Along the way, we asked around and people had mixed opinions about what was happening. Then we saw someone with binoculars and he said it was just on fire. It still was pretty amazing to see. These towns are pretty small. On our small trip, my host family saw their uncle and also many coworkers. Everyone was out in the street, I thought I might see another aspirante but I didn’t.
On Saturday, we had classes at the Volcán
Masaya tourist area and then we had some time afterwards to drive up to the
crater. Unfortunately, since they just were able to put the fires out Saturday
morning, some of the paths were not opened. But we still got to drive up to the
crater and see what everyone talks about.
The picture below is from the visitor center.
To give you some background from the
guidebook, “The Spaniards said this was the gate to hell… Volcán Masaya is the
most heavily venting volcano in Nicaragua, and in a more litigious nation there
is no way you would ever be able to drive up to the lip of a volcanic cone as
volatile as the Santiago crater. There is always lava bubbling at the bottom
and a column of sulfurous gases… in 2001 an eruption hurled heated rocks 500m
into the air, damaging cars and narrowly missing people.” – Lonely Planet
They do suggest that you park your car in
the direction the exit in case you need to exit quickly.
We did not get to see any bubbling lava due
to sulfurous gases but we were able to see the incredible views both into the
crater and the surrounding area. It was our first time really seeing tourists
too. A lot of them go see the Volcano since it’s close to many towns that
tourists visit, such as Masaya and Granada.
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