29 July - Volcan Masaya

Today we walked up to Diria, a town overlooking Laguna de Apoyo, along with our teachers, as the last activity with our school... Diria originates in the preColombian era and it´s name (like that of Ometepe and others) comes from the native language (not Spanish). It has a nice big church, older than white settlement in Australia.

we then proceeded on a BIG transport day... many phases (they aren´t modes for all those people concerned with the apostrophe ¨´s¨ debacle - which remains unresolved) of transport

1. From Laguna by LandRover to base of the crater.
2. Foot to Diria
3. Bus to Masaya
4. Taxi to Laguna then to Masaya
5. Bus to Volcan Masaya
6. Bus with Puerta Rican Missionaries to the top of Volcan Masaya
7. Foot around the bat caves and Santiago Crater
8. Someone´s jeep when we hitched down the Volcano
9. Mini-Bus to Managua
10. Mini-Bus to Leon (balancing packs on laps)
11. Taxi to Hostal (to find it was full)
12. By Foot in drenching rain to a second hostal.
13. Sleep

Volcan Masaya

A really impressive active volcano with the active smoking Santiago crater. We were first impressed by the lava-strewn landscape solidifed into a bizarre rocky world...
There are two active volcanoes with 5 craters between them. We were impressed by the signs asking people to park their cars facing downhill, ¨for a quick getaway¨ in case of eruption, or requesting that people ¨hide under their cars¨if the crater starts spitting out rocks... this is one ACTIVE volcano.

We then went with a guide down a lava tunnel (or Bat Cave). Interesting formations, loads of stalagmites and -tites and hardhats with headlamps which barely lit the way.