Nicaragua is filled with volcanoes, both active and not.
While we were in Masaya, we visited one of Nicaragua's most active volcanoes, Volcan Masaya, which erupted just a wee bit in 2008. Check out this footage!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaChWgbn18Y&feature=related
Cars must park facing out for a quick get away. We were up at the very same spot where this video was shot. Only noxious sulphur billowing up on the day we were there. They say that in 2001 there was an eruption that threw out a boulder which crushed a car in the parking lot (couldn't find any video of that)
There are actually 3 craters within a short hike of each other and we had a look at 2 of them. Masaya, so they say, is extremely dangerous because the layer of earth covering the lava is very thin. It looked very peaceful on the day we were there.
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| Masaya Crater |
Nindiri and San Pedro are both constantly spewing sulphurous gas. It's fine when the wind is blowing it away from you but is hard to take when it's coming right at you.
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| Nindiri crater |
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| Climbing to Bobadilla cross |
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| Bobadilla cross |
This has always been a fairly active volcano and the natives used to offer sacrifices to appease the devil that they belived lived in the crater. In the 1500's a priest erected a cross to exorsise that devil and, I imagine, as a way of stopping the sacfifices.
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| Nindiri Crater |
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