A Visit to the Masaya Volcano

Because a youth group had booked the dormitories at Oasis, I had to find another place for a couple of nights. I checked out a couple and, unintentionally, booked what was probably the worst one.

After an exhausting tour of Masaya, the Kalala Lodge didn't seem so bad the first night I stayed there. A dorm bed was only $5. Granted, the lockers, located across from the front desk, were only about 12"x12", and the mattress was almost wafer-thin. But since I had left my backpack at Oasis in anticipation of my return, and had the six-bed dorm to myself, the first night was tolerable. I was able to close and lock the door. Although the Kalala Lodge advertised that it offered free internet access, it did not. The woman at the desk said, "Maybe tomorrow." Right! Even so, I was able to watch a documentary I had downloaded to my laptop, and found a way to accommodate my bones to the metal bars beneath the mattress. Sleep came easily enough. The second night was hellish. All five other beds were occupied. Every time the person in the bunk above me shifted position (which he did often because of the mosquitoes that had easy access to the room through the open door and joyously feasted on us all night)the metal bed creaked ans swayed.

On Tuesday I went on a tour to the Masaya Market and the Masaya Volcano, and went 35 metres below ground into a bat cave. Our guide, Oscar (with Nahua Tours), was wonderful. He was an endless font of local knowledge. At the volcano, we were provided with respirators (because of the toxic fumes emitted from the crater). Oscar told me that people living near the volcano experience many health problems from breathing the fumes. When I asked why they don't move away, he explained that they have been living there for, perhaps, a thousand years, and wouldn't have any idea where to go. They accept their fate, which includes blindness, respiratory ailments and, of course, early deaths.

The market has a wonderful variety of locally made goods for sale at amazingly low prices. These include leather goods, cigars and coffee (some of the best in the world), beautiful paintings, weavings and ceramics, Unfortunately, I have no space in my backpack for anything more than what I'm traveling with now; but I bought a couple of things anyway -- a couple of dolls dressed in Nicaraguan costumes for my granddaughters, and some organically grown coffee beans. My first purchase from a street vendor was an oddly-shaped ceramic piece similar to those sold by the hundreds in all the markets an on La Calzada, but signed by the artist and especially attractive. Peter from Kelowna, who is also staying at Oasis, calls it "the vessel. Some items currently taking up space will have to be sacrificed to make room for these things.) I hope to travel this way again, so after I've left my winter clothes behind in Bolivia, I'll have space for more.

The bat cave was amazing. For this part of the tour we were equipped with flashlights and hard hats. The bats that live there are ordinary bats -- much appreciated in Nicaragua, since they eat mosquitoes. We descended 35 metres below ground to a world of stalagmites and stalactites. Oscar explained that this cave was used as a camp by US-supported dictator Anastasio Somoza's army in his fight against the eventually victorious Sandinistas. The Masaya volcano was also the horrific scene of Somoza's death squads dropping the dictator's political opponents into its mouth from helicopters. So many beautiful places in Central America have such bloody and barbarous histories.

I was happy to get back to Oasis and chat with friends, use the internet and take a nice swim in the pool.