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Published: June 23rd 2017
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Geo: 12.8654, -85.2072
Blogging time has been limited, in part because of limited wifi and in part due to a lack of writing time. Our first day has given us a small glimpse of Nicaragua. The city of Managua has been noted as one of the more dangerous areas and not a real tourist destination. With that said, we left the city on the first bus we could. Off to Masaya we headed, in search of our first volcano. A city famous for its artisan market, we stopped to check out the city. The market is housed within the ancient walls of an old fort whose stone walls protected the people. small in comparison to other Mercado's, it held the crafts of local artists as well as mass produced tourist items. The hand crafted item that stood out the most to me were the hand woven hammocks. Beautiful but much to large to carry in my backpack. A couple cervezas later and a quick lunch of chicken and beans and rice and away we went. Next stop Laguna De Apoyo. Exiting the bus on the side of the road, we quickly found a taxi for hire and directed him to the lake.
still not knowing exactly where we planned to stay, we were dropped in the street and started walking in search of our place to stay for the night. Checking the Monkey Hut, we were told the were fumigating and would be closed for the night. Next door was a hotel that featured scuba diving in the Laguna. Within minutes of entering, we knew this was our place. Called the Africa room, we were very excited with our room. The room was basically a tiki on stilts, with a thatch roof, bamboo walls on 3 sides, and am open air unubstructed view of the lake. The decor was straight out of Africa, leopard print sheets, gazelle skin format, and a animal skin on the wall. This was a paradise designed special for us. While this was an incredible room, hanging out was not in our plans. What was next? A hike up to the rim of Volcano Masaya. This volcano is the only one that you can drive all the way to the room. Not having a car of our own, we decided to walk the 5 Km to the top. About 3/4 of the way up, the skies opened up
and we were forced to take refuge under the thick jungle canopy. Fortunately, not long after the local park employees stopped next to us and gave us a ride to the top. Knowing this was an active volcano and even seeing the danger signs, really didn't prepare us for what we were about to see. Smoke billowing out of this enormous hole in the earth! The smell of sulfur, and the spewing of hot lava everywhere. Well, not really the last part. It was an awesome sight. Limited to 5 minutes due to the dangerous gases, we left the immediate area for a hike up another crater. The clouds soon rolled in and covered most of the view so we're headed down. Once again we were picked up and given a ride y to the bottom. We returned to the hotel fulfilled and tired and crashed after dinner.
Oh, so why did the chicken cross the road? Because the kid carried it!
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An African tiki on stilts sounds like my kind of bedroom! Rawr!