Day 16 - Volcan Mombacho

The volcano is only about 10 kilometers from Granada. It is a nature reserve covered with so-called cloud rainforest. A considerable part of the rainforest in Nicaragua has been deforested in the last 20-30 years. Like everywhere else in the world.

You can book this excursion with one of the numerous tour operators in the city or take public transportation. I had done some research beforehand. Besides, you can ask anyone for directions: the woman selling homemade goods on the street corner or the cool guy standing in front of the store selling electrical accessories, from which the current Latino disco music blares at infernal volume. They all willingly and kindly help. That's how we easily find the bus station, even though it was recently relocated.

Bus rides in Nicaragua are loud and crowded: the engines of the old American school buses are audibly struggling. The windows are open. Sometimes the bus driver has turned up his favorite radio station, drowning out the rest of the noise. We are told when we have to get off. We immediately meet a man who works in the reserve and informs us. What did I say? The Nicas are super helpful. It is a kilometer uphill to the entrance of the reserve. Then you have to decide: walk 5 kilometers uphill or take a modified truck. The latter. The road is steep, narrow, and winding, and Maggie is a little nervous. After visiting the outhouse, we go on a guided hike up top. Unfortunately, we don't see many animals, no monkeys, no sloths, no green frogs with red eyes, only a few butterflies and scavenging birds circling above us. Mennooooo...

There are 3 transmission towers at the summit of the volcano, not so nice. But somewhere the Wi-Fi has to come from.

The friendly gentleman takes us back (see above). Then another kilometer to the bus, this time with tuk-tuks circling around us, small taxis based on a scooter. No, thank you, we'll take the bus. This time it only costs about 25 cents, on the way there it was twice as much, go figure this pricing policy.

Conclusion: it was nice, with a few nice views from the summit, but not as spectacular as expected.

Oh, by the way, I didn't go dancing last night. At 9 o'clock there was nothing happening, so I preferred to go to bed early, had to get up early this morning.

Sky clear, wind calm, temperature high.