Hello, World!
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| On top of the volcano |
Well there's been alot going on in my life lately, and I haven't blogged in eons. So I've got three posts in the works that will come to fruition (hopefully) in the next week or two.
First, I owe the world a post about my Thanksgiving holiday. Yes, I know Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but technically we are in Central America, so it's still celebrated here, although it's not as big a deal. Our school had the weekend off and some friends and I took an epic trek to Nicaragua!
After school ended early on Wednesday, we had a staff lunch (turkey and mashed potatoes, although not as good as Mom's), then we hopped into a pickup truck and headed out! (Don't worry, we didn't just hitch a random ride - the high school principal and her husband used to live in Nicaragua so they were visiting their son and we rode with them). We started in the back seat of the truck but later rode in the back, which was much more spacious and oddly enough quite comfortable!
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| Yeah, that's a volcano!! |
The highlight of the days we spent in Nicaragua was definitely visiting an active volcano. We took a bus from Matagalpa, where the principal's son lives, to the village of Masaya (pronounced like
Messiah), which lies in the shadow of the Masaya volcano. We went to the volcano national park and ventured a long way up the mountain and right up to the crater. We were able to stand at the edge and look down about 300 feet into a steaming hole that smelled like sulfur and doom. It's an active crater that exploded a few years ago and was apparently due to explode again while we were there (oh, the suspense!) But it was mainly just steaming, no eruptions (this time...) There was a point to overlook the crater where a giant cross was built (something about ancient peoples sacrificing babies to the volcano and Catholics putting a cross there to ward off evil spirits or something totally not freaky like that...)
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| With fellow traveler Aussie Rob |
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| The volcano and the village |
As the sun started setting on the volcano, we didn't leave - oh, no, our day hadn't gotten epic enough yet! We stayed for the Night Tour, where a guide took us into some lava tube caves where we could see where ancient eruptions carved underground tubes in the earth, and another cave that was home to some thousand bats that had no better activity that night than to swoop threateningly yet harmlessly by the heads of flabbergasted travelers. We then went back up to the crater and watched the smoke rise and felt the comforting sting of sulfuric gas burning our lungs - what an experience! I can now say I've looked down into an active volcano!
We stayed the night in the village of Masaya and explored a nearby village called Granada the next day. Both are quaint, colorful little towns full of interesting cultural tidbits and locales. There are churches, parks, town squares, street vendors, people walking around (these may seem like simple things but they are all in the category of "Things You Don't See in Tegucigalpa"... so it was nice to enjoy some places that have them.) It was great to walk and explore the town and see what there is to see! You can see from the map that both Masaya and Granada are nestled in between Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua, and they are both within sight of the volcano that we climbed. There were lots of great views, including the one when we climbed the belltower of a church and could see the whole town.
We also got to practice our Spanish whenever we ordered food, bought souvenirs, asked for directions, or just felt like getting into a conversation! The Locals were very friendly and welcoming in all the places we stayed, and we met a few fellow travelers from around the world, including Aussie Rob who joined us on the volcano trek, and a couple of Frenchmen who were already at the top when we got there. Again, Tegucigalpa is not really considered a
tourist destination, so it was interesting to meet some world-wanderers from other parts of the globe.
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| Our route (click on the picture to make it bigger!) |
It was a great trip, and I would highly recommend Nicaragua to any adventurous travelers! The best part was that we had a small group of four and we didn't make a highly structured plan, we just used the Lonely Planet guidebook to find places to stay and eat, and interesting things to do. It made for less stress and more adventure!
Check out
Picasa web albums to see more pictures, and don't hesitate to ask me via Facebook, email, or Skype about this and my other adventures!!
First, I owe the world a post about my Thanksgiving holiday. Yes, I know Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but technically we are in Central America, so it's still celebrated here, although it's not as big a deal. Our school had the weekend off and some friends and I took an epic trek to Nicaragua!
The highlight of the days we spent in Nicaragua was definitely visiting an active volcano. We took a bus from Matagalpa, where the principal's son lives, to the village of Masaya (pronounced like Messiah), which lies in the shadow of the Masaya volcano. We went to the volcano national park and ventured a long way up the mountain and right up to the crater. We were able to stand at the edge and look down about 300 feet into a steaming hole that smelled like sulfur and doom. It's an active crater that exploded a few years ago and was apparently due to explode again while we were there (oh, the suspense!) But it was mainly just steaming, no eruptions (this time...) There was a point to overlook the crater where a giant cross was built (something about ancient peoples sacrificing babies to the volcano and Catholics putting a cross there to ward off evil spirits or something totally not freaky like that...)
We stayed the night in the village of Masaya and explored a nearby village called Granada the next day. Both are quaint, colorful little towns full of interesting cultural tidbits and locales. There are churches, parks, town squares, street vendors, people walking around (these may seem like simple things but they are all in the category of "Things You Don't See in Tegucigalpa"... so it was nice to enjoy some places that have them.) It was great to walk and explore the town and see what there is to see! You can see from the map that both Masaya and Granada are nestled in between Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua, and they are both within sight of the volcano that we climbed. There were lots of great views, including the one when we climbed the belltower of a church and could see the whole town.
We also got to practice our Spanish whenever we ordered food, bought souvenirs, asked for directions, or just felt like getting into a conversation! The Locals were very friendly and welcoming in all the places we stayed, and we met a few fellow travelers from around the world, including Aussie Rob who joined us on the volcano trek, and a couple of Frenchmen who were already at the top when we got there. Again, Tegucigalpa is not really considered a tourist destination, so it was interesting to meet some world-wanderers from other parts of the globe.
nice adventure-awesome narrative!
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