Day 8 - Recreation Day

We enjoyed a nice recreation day with the Mingo family. Our day started with a false start at Fortaleza el Coyotepe, but there were several school bus loads of students. So we headed to the Masaya Volcano.

We made a stop at the visitor center which was quite good. Then we made the steep drive up to the crater's edge. It's way closer than we can get to Mt. St. Helens crater. It's a steaming & smoking cauldron. Note that cars are parked facing away from the crater for a quick escape!!






There's also a 177 step staircase to the highest point where we took more photos and had our photo taken by a Belgian tourist.

Leaving the volcano, we headed for the fort. This fort was built in colonial days to defend Managua from invaders. In more recent times it was a prison with torture chambers. It was a very sobering tour. It's now owned by the Nicaraguan Boy Scouts who operates it as a tourist attraction.





We also saw many bats and one very venomous spider.


Our lunch stop was at the MetroCenter mall.

Heading back to camp, we took a side trip to Ticantuepe trying to find a waterfall and some parrots. However, the road required a 4 x 4 vehicle so we didn't complete that trip.

So it was then a damp ride back to camp where we sat with the Mingos and chatted. For the Bowman's it will be an early 7am flight to Miami. The others will head for the beach with the Mingos.