Lava at Telica Volcano

December 14^th, 2014

Being on a tight time schedule to get to Costa Rica to meet my family for Christmas, I decided to kill two bucket list items in one day and I signed up with Marjorie for an afternoon/evening hike up Telica volcano, supposedly the only one in Nicaragua where you can see lava in action.

After volcano boarding I had a few hours to wander around Leon and have some lunch.  I found the prettier side of town including the Leon Cathedral which happens to be on the 100 Córdoba bill (worth about $4).  Which, on a side note, I found it interesting that the Nicaraguan currency is named after Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba, the founder of Nicaragua, however there is not a single picture of him on the latest set of bills that were released in 2009.  There’s no portrait of anyone on any bill…which is actually rather refreshing.

The Via Via restaurant/bar where I was staying in Leon:

The streets of Leon:

Knuffle found some new friends:

The Leon Cathedral:

A "Victoria Frost" beer, and what a treat having a frosted glass!

Okay, back to volcano action, which seems to be the theme in Nicaragua.  I hopped back in the truck at 3pm and was joined by an American from the DC area, Michael, and his Indian girlfriend Roshne sat in the cab.  We stopped at a gas station on our way out of town which is where our dinner for the tour was purchased by the driver Jorge…oh, we’re classing it up tonight!

It was a long and bumpy ride out to the volcano and it soon became apparent that it would be after sunset before we would begin our hike.  In the dying light we marched 45 minutes up to the lip of the crater, arriving by flashlight.  Peering down into the cone we could see glimpses of red lava when the smoke cleared a bit but it was so far away that they appeared as mere dots, almost like red stars.  The lava was probably 800-1000 meters down.  I chucked a few rocks over the edge and it was a good 3-4 seconds before I would hear them hit the wall.  We would get the odd sulphur smell from the fumes but what I found strange was the sound, it was almost like rushing water, like a mad river, which was caused by the escaping gas.  We were treated to an amazing sky too thanks to the lack of light pollution and no moon.

That's where we're headed...you can just make out the smoke at the top:

On the way up:

Finally we have arrived...ready to hike:

Can you see the lava?  Spectacular isn't it?!?

Okay, it wasn’t quite the view of lava I had hoped for but I’m guessing you need to be a volcanologist to get up close and that’s not happening anytime too soon.  So I’ll take what I can get.

Seeing lava…check.