A Visit to a Closed Volcano - Friday, November 5, 2010

The day started out delightfully with another hot shower! Then we all went to Managua to visit some of Mario's family. We didn't stay long, but left Mario and his sister-in-law's house. 

From there, we went on to Masaya to finally got and see the volcano. It cost $20 for us all to get in, and when we got to the visitor's center then they informed us that the park was basically closed, which would explain the lack of cars and people along the way! I guess the best time to visit is in April.  I tried to get them to give me a free pen since we'd paid to get in to what was essentially a closed park but it didn't work! I went ahead and bought the pen anyway. But one of the crater's was open to visit and it was an easy drive up there. This is what we saw when we got to the parking lot.

It's an active volcano, as you can see by all the smoke spewing out. We did hear a bit of a rumble too, and after that rumble a lot more smoke started rising. We climbed up to where that cross is on the hill. The Spanish baptized the active volcano "La Boca del Infierno" or "The Mouth of Hell". They planted a cross, "La Cruz de Bobadilla" (named after Father Francisco Bobadilla), on the crater lip in the 16th century in order to exorcise the Devil.

Here's a view from about halfway up the 177 steps to the top of the hill where the cross is.

And then we reached the top and took some more pictures.

We weren't there a really long time, but enough to say we've seen an active volcano! We were all a bit tired so we didn't climb up another path they said we could follow to an inactive crater. Didn't seem worth the effort!

From there, we went back to the market in Masaya and spent the last of our money! So we're officially done shopping now - unless they take credit cards!!

It was dark by the time we got home and time to just eat dinner and call it a day.

Mario Jr. was a little busy during the evening as you can see. That's one of those sticky mouse traps complete with little mouse! I saw another one when we were eating dinner so Mario's work is not done yet!

Tomorrow, will likely be our last day out in service here. Hopefully I can take someone on the calls I need to turn over. It's hard to just give someone the address since there aren't any street names or numbers. I have to actually take someone there so that they can write down a description that they'll understand of where the house is!

That's all for today. Until tomorrow.