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 ...