Dancing Disco at the Gates of Hell
Trip Start
Jan 23, 2007
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Trip End
Dec 24, 2007
Volcan Masaya,
Nicaragua
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Writing this about 15 years after uploading some of the photos, so probably just for our own sakes here!!
Had a very enjoyable end to this weekend, when we went up an(other) active volcano on Sunday afternoon with, as it turned out, half the volunteers we work with.
Thankfully, this time we were driven straight to the crater rim instead of having to go through the usual painful climb, although despite having such a huge crater, Volcan Masaya is decidedly squat at only 632m.
The view into the crater was impressive to say the least, with great billowing clouds of noxious sulphurous gases continually wafting up and out, with sheer walls dropping at least 100m to the crater floor
01. My favorite photo - Sam humouring me!
. One clever volunteer observed that the crater walls looked like a giant concrete tiramisu - little wonder then that hundreds of parakeets make their homes there (we wouldn't mind living in a giant tiramisu either), despite the noxious fumes (which incidentally is amazing, as in theory, nothing should be able to survive the constant poisonous gases).Unfortunately, we caught a fair wiff of said noxious gases, and coughed and spluttered our way to a vantage point, where the early Spanish inhabitants of Nicaragua had erected a cross to ward off the devil that was believed to reside in the bowels of the volcano. Seems rather arcane and quaint when you think about it now, but I guess if you had never seen glowing, boiling lava before, which the native people regularly tossed human and animal sacrifices into, it wouldn't seem beyond the bounds of possibility that the devil did dwell in those fiery depths!
Having decreased our life expectancies by a good couple of years, we clambered back into the vans, and made our way around to other side of the crater, where we donned safety helmets (sorry, Sam couldn't resist the obligatory YMCA montage - see the photos) and walked a short distance to some caves that had been created by lava flows cooling around gaseous tubes.
Apart from the natural wonders of the lava formations, which included seeing lava that had cooled into drip shapes on the ceiling of the caves, the human history of the caves was equally interesting, with stories of illegal distilleries and guerilla hideouts among others
02. Victoria - fellow health team member
.However, the main reason for visiting the caves was seeing some of the 20,000 bats that call them home. Standing at the mouth of another cave with our lights off., neither of us felt particularly enamoured toward the humble bat(s) - no doubt subconcious fears arising from too many bad horror movies being largely to blame - but upon hearing the bats here eat 10 tons of mosquitos every night, our fondness for them increasing many-fold (still won't be getting a bat for a pet though!).
Thankfully we were standing in the 2nd row at the entrance to the cave, as some of the bats tearing in and out of the cave brushed a few cheeks in the front row!!
Back at the van, we reluctantly gave back our safety helmets (just in time for the others, as Sam would have had to bust out 'Macho Man' or ' In the Navy' had he had to wear one for too much longer) and drove the short distance to the crater rim, where, with a complete absence of safety railings or any of the other usual OSH requirements (yet we were made to wear safety helmets??) we peered down into the depths of the crater, where we could see the dull glow of the lava boiling away.
The night finished up with a hearty feed at a local restaurant frequented by the other volunteers, and a couple of quiets before heading home.
Comments
Ours 2
In full agreement Frances. It's lovely to see your cheery physogs. the $11,000 smiles we miss in person. how we wish you were in hugging proximity! Love from all.
A jolly green chuckle
They say that 'a cheerful heart does good like a medicine' so I just have to say that if down in the doldrums ever, this page of photos is a great medicine. There's something about the tall top knots that somehow creates an impression of the doubling height of foreheads (one in particular) A sort of Star Trek type mutation! (Pardon me while I stifle another chuckle or 2. Loveya