"We looked into the mouth of hell...

and they told us to hold on to this pole." That was a quote from Sally after we had returned from the Masaya Volcano. We went there last night and it really was a great time. I had never been to a volcano so this was a new experience for me. It's a national park and a hot tourist spot--mostly english speakers and possibly a high school track team (actually it was probably a mission group) were there when we were. We drove up to the top of the volcano and walked up to a view point. A cross was placed there by the Spanish in the 16th (?) century and there's one there now--it's replaced every two years because the gases from the volcano corrode the materials. It was rather cloudy/foggy but you had a good view of the surrounding area and it was cool to watch the smoke and gases billow out of the mouth of the volcano.

We then hiked to the top of another hill to get a view of another extinct crator and also a view of Lake Masaya. Again, because of the cloudy conditions, we couldn't see much but the wind picked up enough that we could get a view of the lake.

Our next stop was the lava caves. We all put on our hard hats (you know how I love wearing a hard hat) and got our torches out and headed into the caves. You could feel the bats flying past your head. There were also examples of the 3 types of lava--Pahoehoe, Aa, and lava bombs.

Our final stop on our volcano tour was "La Boca de Infierno" where we put on gas masks and held on to a pole and looked down into the crater where we could see the glowing lava. It was completely and totally safe since we were holding on to that pole.

I believe we'll be visiting another volcano tomorrow but during the day. So things are good and I'm having a blast. I'm laughing hard with the other students and learning a lot. The spanish instruction can be exhausting but each day I feel like I'm picking things up a bit more quickly. This weekend we will be taking day trips on Saturday and Sunday. I haven't decided if I want to ride a horse to a lake or spend the day in Leon. Decisions, decisions...