More Volcanoes and Lakes

Worrying about a volcano erupting must be akin to worrying about an earthquake temblor. If and when it will happen is anyone's guess and worrying about it just leads to undue stress. Therefore, people live their lives next to volcanoes throughout Central America without much thought to the potential devastation and destruction. Instead, volanoes are tourist attractions and everyone wants to climb at least one while visiting these countries. I'm not sure how many I have climbed now, but the novelty is slowly wearing off. Despite this, I still enjoy a good hike and lookout points of the country.

The other day, I was driven straight up to Volcano Masaya, one of the few volcanoes in which people can drive up to the crater. Looking down, I could see the stream of volcanic smoke and steam billowing up. Strangely, parakeets live in the crater and seem to be immune to the sulfurous environment. Also, human remains can be found. Locals now don't think much of the volcano erupting, but early indigenous people often feared an eruption and would leave beautiful young women as sacrifices to the volcano god. Not sure if that worked.

Later, I went to visit Laguna de Apoyo, the cleanest water in all of Nicaragua as well as the lowest point in Central America at 200m. Laguna de Apoyo formed tens of thousands of years ago in the middle of the now dormant Volcano Apoyo. I am told that this Laguna has both fresh water and sea water.

I stayed at a lodge on the water's edge and met 12 other solo female travelers. I thought I had joined Girl Camp and loved every minute of the female bonding moment. The 44 yr old owner, Ann from Vancouver, started her business 3 years ago and has traveled all over the world. She even spent 2 years in Africa 15 years ago traveling solo. I also met Karen, a 49 yr old Danish woman who first set foot in Nicaragua in 1979 and traveled solo throughout the country for 6 months. Guide books had not entered into the backpacker scene and she just showed up in each town and asked around on where to sleep. I admire these brave souls and enjoyed meeting the other younger women traveling solo. We are everywhere.

During my time on the Lake, I helped nurse newly born baby squirrels with an eye dropper filled with milk. The squirrels kept falling out of their tree and so Ann decided to just feed them herself. I also swam under the almost full moon and chilled on a floating dock. The rest of my time, I caught up on life at home and am thankful Snowball is here to connect me.