Volcano Masaya

After Fuego had not given us any Lava when I was up on Acatenango I finally wanted to see some Lava. Masaya was a one hour busride from Granada and supposed to be easy to get to without booking a tour or anything. I took the chicken bus and got of at the main entrance. As the volcano is pretty active and might erupt anytime you are not allowed to walk in the park and up to the crater. But a guide who drives you up is included in the price. So when I got there my personal pick up truck was already waiting for me. The guide drove me to the visitor center first where they had a museum about Masaya and volcanoes in general. After I got back in the car we drove up to the summit. It's pretty strange as it's just a paved road through dry landscape and it doesn't feel like a volcano at all. The road ends on a parking lot from where you look over a stone barrier right into the crater!
At the bottom I finally saw some Lava bubbling and the sound coming from down there was impressive. Sulfurous gases rise above and leave a nice smell.
After my 10 minutes here were up (you are not supposed to stay any longer) I asked my driver if I could ride down on the back of the pick up truck and he actually took this as a reason to go down a lot faster than we came up - which made the drive a lot more fun.Read more