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¡Buenas!
So while we were at Laguna de Apoyo we went on a quick day trip to Volcan Masaya, a fairly small but most definitely active volcano just outside Masaya. There are very few countries that would let you just drive up to the crater of a volcano like this, but lucky for us Nicaragua is one of them. You can just walk right up to the edge and peer into the crater, which is continuously spewing out plumes of gas and heat. There are several bizzare regulations there that are presumably to offer some token protection, like you must park your car (sitting 2 metres from the crater edge) facing the exit, and don't stay up here for more than 20 mins... basically I doubt if any of these things would improve your lot if the volcano did decide to blow with you up there.
Amazing place. This was the first volcano I'd ever seen (only Maccers' second one), and it was great to see one up close and personal like that.
In contrast, on another day trip from Granada, we went to the much larger Volcan Mombacho to trek around the crater edge up there, and it was much less impressive. Obviously, being the wet season, it had a massive cloud sitting on top of it, so all of the viewpoints seemed a bit farcical, but it was also very expensive and didn't like good value for money. Our guide spoke in fast Nicaraguan Spanish, so we only understood the odd word and spent most of our time nodding blankly at him. The volcano used to have a lagoon in the crater which was home to a whole ecosystem, but in 1570 or so there was a massive tremor and one side of the crater slid off, draining the lagoon and wiping out an indigenous village below.
Further down the volcano we tried a bit of zip lining (canopy tours). It was cheap and great fun but not very dramatic. We'll be doing much more exciting canopy tours in Costa Rica very soon I'm sure!
R&M
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