Hiking a volcano in Nicaragua

The Cosigüina Volcano was once upon a time the tallest volcano in whole Central-America, from the size of it`s base, perhaps more than 3 000 m. It all changed one beautiful day, in January 1835, when the most violent eruption in the Americas, since colonization, blew most of this hot-blodded volcano away in one single blast. The eruption paved the oceans with pumice, left 3 countries in the dark for 3 days, and scattered ash from Mexico to Colombia. Today a beautiful lake fills the remains of the mighty volcano, and you can reach it on a 3 h. blistering, or more like scolding, hot trekk from el Communidad Potosi. To arrange the tour you can either go through Pure Planet travel agency, take the very bumpy 3-4 hour chickenbus ride from Chinandega to Potosi or do like I did; I went to Jiquilillo where I met William and Fabienne and I talked to them about it. They also wanted to see the lake in the crater of the volcano, so we had Nate contacting Tina to ask if she had some guests that also wanted to go. They had one guest that wanted to go, so we hired a guide, Eddie, (you have to have a guide, people have died up there) and a ride and left Nates ranch 5 am in the morning. Many roads in Nicaragua are not paved, so after 30 min. driving there was only a dirtroad, and because of the rain, it had all those small lakes. I was afraid that it would be to muddy or to deep for our van to pass through all theese "roadlakes", I would not want to get out of the car to step into  "puddle" with kneedeep wather. It seemed to me that we needed a car-boat of the kind the military use, or Austin Powers (if he has a car that can turns into a boat). But the locals here know what they are getting into, so they would not buy a fancy car that can not handle the obstacles of this country, so our little Toyota van, old and ratteled as she is, got us over to dry land again and again, and after crossing many "lakes" we climed a bit higher, and there were no more giant puddles! When we came up to el Communidad Potosi, also a natural reserve, a big delta and wetland area, teeming with birdlife.

The climb up the volcano was very hard for me, it was hot and a lot of wild wilderness to get through, I came up 2-3 min later than the others. Actually I almost wanted to give up when I was almost up because from below it does not look like anything special, but when I came up and looked over the edge of the crater I saw the most beautiful lake, with the clouds mirroring themselves in it. I was really happy that I had struggeled my ass all the way up, it was not the hardest climb I have done since it is not a very steep trail, but it was hard because of all the wilderness and the heat. I was glad I did not give up on the way up. My legs were sore and scratched from thorns, spines and malicious insects that bite and sting. The climb down was actually not easier, it was harder because of the power of concentration I had to put into it to not fall down and break a leg or an arm.

From the top of  the volcano, you can see Honduras and El Salvador on a clear day.

After the climb up we went to swim in this hot spring in the Potosi Community, the wather was not hot though, it was lovley refreshing. Underneath; a house from Potosi.

                 The local toilets. The pic under are from el Communidad Cosigüina, we stoped there for food, a                  local woman had made us each a traditional plate of chicken, rice, refried beans and eggs.

This is how it looked outside the car when we drove to and from Potosi.

William, Fabienne and I also went kayaking in Padre Ramos, it was a lot of fun. We went into the mangroove forest with a guide called David, who is a local of Jiquilillo. If you go without a guide you might get lost among the roots of the trees. During the kayaking it started to rain and a heavy thunderstorm was upon us, so we did a lot of kayaking in the pouring rain.