Our trip up Volcano Masaya from Granada was pretty cool. First the tour took us to a market and we spent too much money on clothes, but we bought some nice shirts for ourselves. Then we drove up to the top of the volcano and met up with a larger tour group. The volcano was smoking like crazy. The picture on the bottom is at the top of Volcano Masaya. Then we went for a walk into some caves and saw lots of bats. It was dark when we came out and we could just make out the glow of lava down in the crater. Apparently it's usually a lot brighter, but there since there was so much smoke coming out, it obscured the light. Still, it's cool to know that there was lava running under our feet.
Monday we took a boat from Granada to Isla Ometepe. The boat ride was 3.5 hours and was pretty good. We sat outside and read books. Ometepe is an island made up of 2 volcanos, one active, Conception, and one inactive, Maderas. The picture at the top is Ometepe from the boat. We hired a guide for Tuesday to take us up Maderas, his family owns the hotel we are staying in. His name is Guillermo (spanish for William) and was a riot, the guy was funny. The hike up and down Maderas is 7 hours ( 4 hours up and 3 down) so we had to get up at 4am to catch the 4:30am bus. The bus ride was 1.5 hours and bumpy and very very slow. Most of the roads on Ometepe are dirt and full of potholes. At times I was sure I could walk faster. Oh well. From where the bus dropped us off, we had to walk 1 km to Finca de Magdelena, a farm and backpackers hostel and aslo the starting point of the trail up the volcano. We had breakfast and headed out about 7:3oam. The climb was crazy! The first half was like any other hike up a mountain, steep in some places but ok. For the second half of the climb, we got up in the clouds and it got wet. It didn't rain, but it was so crazy muddy. I was slipping and sliding. Guillermo had to catch me a few times, but at least the mud was soft if I did take a tumble. Finally we made it to the top and decended into the crater. We found a turtle on the way down, the hike must have taken him months! We had lunch beside the lake in the crater but it was too muddy and cold to swim. The decent was pretty fast. Again, in the real muddy spots, Guillermo had to catch me again from sliding down on my bum. The picture of us in the forest is about two thirds the way up, and the other one is Volcano Conception taken from about half way up Maderas. When we got back to the Finca, we washed off our shoes and rewarded ourselves with some nice cold beers. Then took the long bus ride home. Maderas is almost 1400 meters high, the distance to the top was 5 Km from Finca Magdelena or 6Km from where the bus dropped us off. Needless to say I'm feeling very sore today. Although thanks to Guillermo, not so much. He went to massage school for a bit and offered me an hour massage for $10! He ended up going for an hour and a half so I gave him $15, and it was worth every penny.
That night we had drinks with some guys we met on the volcano who decided to stay at our hotel. We stayed up late playing cards and drinking rum and coke. Apparently after we went to bed, one of them caused some problems and broke some stuff. Crazy. Glad we weren't around for that but they left today and calm has returned. We had plans for today but they've been pushed back to tomorrow as we are a little hung over and very sore from the day before.
Tomorrow, Guillermo is going to take us to some spring-fed pools and to see some petroglyphs. Then Friday we're off to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific coast to buy some surfboards and get back in the water. Yay!
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