Finally after some gentle prodding from a friend who said “you’ve been leaving Granada for days, where is Panama?” I am moving on with my vacation blogging to Panama City.

We stayed at the Playa Bonita Resort & Spa outside of Panama City. It was a lovely setting on a private beach. It’s an all-inclusive resort which means all your meals and most drinks are included. When we checked in they banded our wrists with a bright blue non-removable “bracelet,” for identification since there were some guests who were not on the all-inclusive plan. It felt more like we were being admitted to a hospital ward or a prison. I mean, seriously, they were ugly! Some people were lucky enough to have them put the band on rather loosely and were able to slide it off when they were tired of wearing it. Mine was not loose enough to get off so I was stuck with it. I did at least make them move it from my right wrist to my left so I could at least wear all the pretty bracelets I had brought with me.

The hotel was very nice and the grounds were gorgeous and well cared for.

We got lots of exercise walking to our room and down to the lobby since our room was on the 4th floor all the way out on the end of one of the hotel’s wings. The jungle started right behind the hotel. (And this is where our “nature” walk took place that will be coming as an entry soon.)

From our balcony we could see the ships on the horizon lining up for entry into the Panama Canal.

These lovely butterflies loved to hang out early in the morning on the tree in front of our balcony.

I thought I had taken more photos of the grounds but I guess I really didn’t. And, there are two reasons for that. The first reason is that is was so humid that every time I took the camera outside the lens would fog up and pretty much stay that way. The second reason is that except for the day the photos in this entry were taken (and was also the day of the nature walk) we had tropical downpours complete with horrendous thunder and lightning for hours and hours each day. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. If you look at my header above you can see the skyline of Panama City and how dark the sky is with the approaching storm of the day. The hotel had beautiful pools but I never got the chance to swim and it was way too hot (and humid) to sit out tanning poolside.

Another wife and I took a walk along the beach. Not a great beach for swimming, but a wonderful beach for shelling!

Can you see the little crab in the middle of the photo? These little crabs were all over the place, scurrying around with their shells on their backs. Before I realized this I picked up one of the shells up thinking to add such a perfect specimen to my collection only to be rudely pinched by its inhabitant! Scared the life out of me and I quickly dropped it back to the sand. Once we knew what to look for we realized they were hundreds of them. At times it looked like they were having a relay race, but when we got close to them they withdrew into their shells. We spent a good deal of time watching them and trying to get good photos of them. I guess it doesn’t take much to entertain us!

There’s one in this photo too, can you find him?

And here is the best close-up I managed to get.

I brought back quite a few of these pretty pink shells.

We walked all the way down to the end of the beach. Look how far away the hotel is!

This oyster catcher was looking for a meal. I did not have my telephoto lens with me so I hope you can make him out.

On our way back we noticed this “sand art” created by digging crabs. The beach was peppered with these interesting holes. We never saw the crabs that were making them but someone else told us they were small and red and made it pretty impossible to spread a blanket on the beach!

 

Here are Sweetie and Charlie, resident parrots at the Hostal Casa San Francisco where we ate two delicious meals.

We leave Granada now for Panama. I made these notes on my iPad regarding the things I will remember about Granada.

The morse code of the bells in the church tower that we never could figure out.

The clip-clop of the horses’ hooves from the horse-drawn carriage and carts.

The smell of wood smoke.

The occasional startling firework being set off around the square.

People hawking their wares: cashews, tours, ceramics, hand-embroidered aprons, various forms of artwork.

My little old lady with her food cart.

And last but not least, the noisy birds in the square in the evenings and mornings. (I am attaching a video here that was taken from our balcony so you can experience them for yourself!)

 

 

 

Finally I have put together this blog entry on our walk around the rim of a “somewhat” dormant volcano’s rim. It’s going to be a long one so I hope you’re in a comfortable position to read. You might also want to grab a drink of your choice and settle in.

Volcán Mombacho sets a beautiful backdrop for the city of Granada. It also gave Lake Nicaragua Las Isletas, a 365-island archipelago formed by its volcanic eruption of over 10,000 years ago. Its lower slopes are home to thousands of coffee trees, while its upper slopes are covered with a protected reserve of a lush cloud forest. The last event for the volcano was when it’s second rim, which held a very large lake, collapsed and swept away an entire village downslope from it.

Here is Mombacho as seen from Granada’s main square. You might want to refer back to this photo as we go along.

When we showed up at the tour office promptly at 8:30 a.m., we learned that the man behind the desk in the office was going to be our personal guide. We were the only ones going on the tour—personalized service at its best! We hopped into the four-wheel-drive vehicle and sat down on one of the bench seats that ran on either side of the back. Our guide asked us if minded picking up a few passengers on our way that needed a ride. We stopped at a small convenience kind of store and added several women (one carrying a small child) and a large container of water and a few other miscellaneous things.

Our guide chatted away telling us about the many different people that make up Nicaragua. I had no idea that in the northern parts of Nicaragua the people are of German and Polish descent and they even have incorporated the polka into their music. He also talked about the political side of things as they are right now and we got the impression he didn’t agree with it. It sounds shaky to me.

We bumped and jounced our way up a tiny one lane road until we got to the park entrance where we picked up a few more passengers. By this time we had no more room for anyone else to join us. I had no idea where these people were going since we kept passing small outcroppings of houses without doors or glass in the windows. The road was paved with paving stones except for a few spots where it was dirt. Bounce, bounce. Jolt, jolt; climbing all the time.  Coffee trees looked like they were growing wild in with all the other natural vegetation. (It wasn’t until further on in our trip when we took a coffee tour in Boquete that I realized this is how coffee is really grown. Not in straight rows like a vineyard.)

We arrived at the house pictured below which we were told was a coffee plantation; hence all the coffee trees we’d seen on the way up. Now all the people we had given a ride up the mountain to made sense—they all worked on the plantation!

Inside we had a complimentary cup of coffee straight from their “fields.” Delicious!

While we sipped our coffee we took in the view from roughly half-way up the volcano. The weather had certainly changed from what it was down below and the difference was refreshingly cool.

Even though in this photo these look like basketball or tennis courts, this is actually where the coffee beans are spread out to dry, weather permitting.

After our coffee is was time to head on up to the top. The going from here on would be steep and mostly on a 45-degree incline, winding around switchbacks. We crawled up the road in low gear and Rick and I had to hold on to our seat or find ourselves sliding to the back of the vehicle and possibly straight out the back door! I couldn’t take a photo because I didn’t dare take my hands away from holding myself back. Right about then we could have used all those extra bodies we had just dropped off at the plantation to help us stay in place! It’s a good thing the road is only one-way and everyone radios to the top when they start up.

We arrived at the ranger station at the top about 15 minutes and a world apart later. Up here the wind was blowing and it was cloudy and cool. At times the clouds obscured the view as they scudded across the tops of the peaks. Eerie. Our guide told us it was always like this up there, but too bad it was windier than normal because the monkeys tend to go down into the crater to escape the wind. There are two trails at the top and we would take the shorter, less difficult one—Sendero el Crater, about an hour and half trek around the volcano’s 4,411-foot-high rim.

The first thing we noticed were all the bromeliads in the trees. They must be beautiful when they are all in bloom.

Our guide told us that they can be very detrimental to the tree’s health as they can become so numerous on the tree that their sheer weight will bring the tree down. This one has quite a few as you can see!

The trail had several view points. Here you can see Las Isletas (the islands created during the eruption) far down below.

Lush jungle! You can see how the crater just drops off, and trust me you want to stay well away from the edge!

The air was like liquid. It felt like a mist on our exposed limbs. (Or was that just the glow of sweat?) Forget about trying to keep my hair from frizzing and curling! The trees pretty much drip moisture all the time. Moss covers most surfaces.

 

Plants that we consider “house” plants are everywhere only three times the size! Here is an “Adam’s Rib” that is about to bloom.

We didn’t see any birds or monkeys on the trail. The vegetation is so dense it would be hard to spot anything unless it walked right out in front of you, which is just what a scorpion did with me. I didn’t even see it and Rick (who was behind me) told me to watch out! that I had almost stepped on it. It was about five or six inches long. Yikes.  The trail at first went mostly down, through dark, dense jungle.

And through an old lava chute.

At times the clouds covered everything creating an eerie feel to the landscape.

There were a couple of pretty orchids blooming along the way.

 

The trail finally came out into a much different and drier climate. The view was spectacular!

 

 

Here is a closer look at what all those orange flowers are. They are tiny orchids that our guide called “hummingbird” orchids because that’s what they look like when you hold the petals together. I doubt that is their real name, but that is what the locals call them. I had a hard time getting a good photo because of the wind.

Also in this area of the volcano’s rim are several fumaroles putting out a lot of steam. Our guide referred to this volcano as “dormant,” meaning I guess that it has not erupted for a very very long time, but anything that can put out steam like that is not “dormant” in my book! When I stuck my arm into this fumarole in the side of a hill it felt like a sauna! The photo is a little blurry due to the steam that was pouring out of it. It’s a strange feeling to stick your arm into something like that, connected to the bowels of the earth.

What comes down must eventually go back up!

After arriving back at the ranger station, we hopped back in our four-wheel-drive vehicle along with what looked like lunch for a crew of people. Were they providing us with lunch? No, darn it! Not our lunch ...

We hadn’t gotten very far on the steep one-way road when a strange sound stopped our driver in his tracks. Howler monkeys! he proclaimed. We got out of the vehicle as quickly as we could and looked up in the trees to see a band of howler monkeys on the move. There must have been at least twenty of them. I scrambled to change lenses since we could not stop for long. These were the best shots I could get since they were constantly in motion and back-lit, but at least they are something. And no, monkeys are not shy about their private parts.

 

 

Seeing the howler monkeys was a perfect ending to a great walk in a cloud forest around the rim of a somewhat-dormant volcano with a knowledgeable guide. How many people sign up for a tour and end up having the guide to themselves? The next day he was back in the office again! And oh, I almost forgot. The lunch was dropped off at the coffee plantation and with some workmen at the park entrance gate. It looked pretty good I must admit ...

While I am preparing the next rather large blog entry on our walk around the cloud forest, I am offering photos taken around the city mostly to show how colorful it is. Some of the color choices are interesting.

 

 

 

 

And to end this post, a couple of churches.

Antiguo Convento San Francisco

Iglesia Guadalupe

One of the tours we took was a late afternoon trip to see Volcán Masaya, an active volcano.  It’s the only volcano in the western hemisphere where you are able to drive right to its rim. At the entrance to the park we stopped to look at the lava field left by its big eruption in 1772.

Its latest eruptions have been in 2000, when it hurled huge boulders down on people and cars in the parking lot; and in both 2004 and 2008. The Spanish called it “the gates of hell” and and the local Chorotegas tribe called it “the mountain that burns” and made human sacrifices in the hope of averting an eruption.

After a short, steep climb the road led to the parking lot at the volcano’s rim.

These were a little scary.

Just in case you need to make a hasty exit! They say the volcano gives no prior warning, it just erupts when it feels like it. But, the volcano behaved itself for our visit. It was putting out a good bit of sulfurous gas and steam though. Such a big, deep gaping hole!

More parking lot warnings!

Next, we climbed the 184 steps to the top of the observation point.

The view was great from above!

 

 

We found two videos on YouTube that people had made in 2008 when it last erupted. One can be found here and the other here. Both are worth watching and I highly recommend you follow the link. The second video is funny because they are talking about whether or not the volcano is dormant or active when it erupts. In both videos the people are on top of the observation point and have to hurry down the 184 stairs to reach their vehicles in the parking lot.

Afterwards we watched the sun go down. Here in the far distance you can see the hazy outline of another volcano that is still active (in fact they harness the gas and steam to produce power), Momotombo. I just love saying that name. Momotombo. It’s hard to see, so I’ve outlined for you just in case. It’s never blown its top like Masaya has so it still has its classic conical shape. The cross in the foreground was erected by the Spanish Conquistadors as they begged for the Volcán Masaya to cease its eruptions in 1529.

 

 

After the sun went down we drove to another spot in the park and met with a park ranger. We donned helmets and flashlights and headed off down a path to a underground tunnel formed by lava streams. Lots of little fruit bats and very interesting rock formations. It seemed like we walked and walked down that dark tunnel before we reached a spot where visitors can not go beyond. Our ranger made us turn off our flashlights and take in the total darkness. Creepy. And not a place for people who don’t like bats since they whizz by, barely missing you. I don’t mind the bats.

The last and best stop on the tour was the viewing point on the opposite side of the crater from where we were before to look directly down into the crater and see red, glowing lava. It was a little scary since there was no guard rail. Nothing but two pieces of wood crossed over each other to stop you from falling. in. I got just close enough to the edge to see the red glow, but not too close. This crater opening was recently formed during its 2006 eruption and is located deep down in the crater and can only be seen at night. The volcano was putting out more gas and steam than it was when we visited the rim earlier and our ranger said that was a sure sign we’d be able to hear the magma exploding—and we did! It sounded like grumbling thunder, only coming from deep in the ground instead of the sky. It’s something neither one of us will ever forget.

Here is a link to a short video Rick made although it does not have the drama of the two videos linked above!

Side note added: If you want to see Part 2 of the first video of the volcano erupting as they drive down the road it is here. Trust me, this bus is going very fast down this steep road! Obviously the driver is thinking “get these tourists outta here—fast!”