Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

Having made a visit to an active, dry volcano in the evening yesterday, I decided to visit a dormant, wet volcano in the morning today. After breakfast, I headed out with a tour group to Volcán Mombacho. The slopes of this volcano are planted with coffee, up to the edge of the Natural Reserve. The summit and craters are a protected cloud forest.

The cloud forest lived up to its name in the morning. There was a blanket of fog, and everything was dripping wet. There were viewpoints into the crater, but it was impossible to see anything other than the wall of cloud. After a short hike among trees covered in beautiful mosses, ferns, and epiphytes, we made our way to an overlook that gave a view down off of the mountain. It was a gorgeous day, with clear vistas of the city of Granada, Lake Nicaragua, Las Isletas (365 small islands, created by one of Mombacho's eruptions), and hazier distant views of Volcano Masaya and Lake Managua. On the way back in, we found that the clouds had cleared, and we could see down into the crater.

After getting back from the volcano hike, I spent the day wandering semi-aimlessly around the historic center. I think I'll end up doing a more focused walk tomorrow.