So we are traveling around Nicaragua with our son TK and his wife Jenny. We had achieved a wonderful surprise by showing up for her birthday, and now we were taking a few days to look around the country and enjoy some time together.
Our destination this particular day was the crater of the Masaya Volcano with a promise of viewing flowing molten lava up close and personal. Not exactly sure HOW close, but we were going to find out.
This small Central American country of Nicaragua is full of volcanoes. They seem to be everywhere, about one every twenty miles, and many are quite spectacular.
On the way, we had coffee with a local contact regarding the Nicaraguan business climate and local opportunities. Then we had to wind our way through hills in a quest for the restaurant with a wonderful view of the crater, where we had a late lunch. You can see the crater in the background of the picture below.
In other words, we took our time making our way to the crater with a few stops, we were not in a hurry. This turned out to be a mistake. Even though this is a major tourist site in that country, they have some rather unusual hours.
We got there around 4:35 in the afternoon. And there were a bunch of cars and buses in line, and the gate was closed. What? This is like a national park, why would they be closed? So we got in the queue and shut off the rig and waited.
You have to wait a lot in developing countries. For manic Americans, you really have to throttle back on the pace of life and just roll with it. Everything takes a long time. Waiting is not a strong suit of mine, not in the top ten of my premium personality traits.
I finally walked up to several people who were milling around and asked in my broken Spanish - "what's going on?" Well, they close down between 4:30 and 5:30 to ... adjust their prices ... !
If you get there before 4:30 you pay like two bucks. After that, you pay ten bucks. Blatant exploitation of tourists! C'mon man! So we sit there and wait, and the line of cars gets real long. The sun goes down (this is the tropics - the sun sets every day at 6:00).
So, with my amazing skills of discernment, I come to realize that apparently, the lava looks better in the dark, and so you have to wait for it to get dark and they charge you more money.
Except, well, they don't open up until way after they said they would. The whole thing seems kinda dumb. If they want you to pay more money, I sorta get that, but why do they make you wait, along with a whole bunch of other cars and buses and minivans, motorcycles, etc.
So they finally open the gate, and proceed to collect money from each and every vehicle (this is gonna take a long time!) and explain the ground rules.
Here are the rules:
- Wait until you are allowed to drive up to the crater
- Then you will be admitted with several other vehicles
- Then you have 15 minutes to view the lava
- Then you have to leave
What kind of rules are these? So you wait for over an hour so you can pay more money to go up and see the lava and then you have to rush off? Pretty bad system if you ask me.
So we do what we're told, (again, not a strong suit of mine) and go up and see the lava. Frankly, it was underwhelming. There were only a few precious spots where you could look down and see the bubbling lava, and everyone was kinda throwing elbows to get a view. Couldn't really see much.
And then the guides starting blowing whistles and yelling! It's time to leave! Hey, we just got here! What kind of natural wonder is this? Super lame.
So you start off down the side of the crater, and there is the next bunch of spectators coming up the one lane road in a mad rush to get their 15 minutes of viewing time.
All in all, it was a disappointment. If you were going to rate this kind of thing, what kind of score would you give it? On a scale of ten, I'd give it maybe a seven - I mean, the lava was cool (actually really hot, pardon the pun) and the nighttime glow was interesting.
But the whole operation was very poorly run. This is not a thrill ride at the local carnival, it's supposed to be a wonderful spectacle.
Couldn't even get a decent picture. We left scratching our heads, there has to be a better way to do this.
Our destination this particular day was the crater of the Masaya Volcano with a promise of viewing flowing molten lava up close and personal. Not exactly sure HOW close, but we were going to find out.
This small Central American country of Nicaragua is full of volcanoes. They seem to be everywhere, about one every twenty miles, and many are quite spectacular.
On the way, we had coffee with a local contact regarding the Nicaraguan business climate and local opportunities. Then we had to wind our way through hills in a quest for the restaurant with a wonderful view of the crater, where we had a late lunch. You can see the crater in the background of the picture below.
In other words, we took our time making our way to the crater with a few stops, we were not in a hurry. This turned out to be a mistake. Even though this is a major tourist site in that country, they have some rather unusual hours.
We got there around 4:35 in the afternoon. And there were a bunch of cars and buses in line, and the gate was closed. What? This is like a national park, why would they be closed? So we got in the queue and shut off the rig and waited.
You have to wait a lot in developing countries. For manic Americans, you really have to throttle back on the pace of life and just roll with it. Everything takes a long time. Waiting is not a strong suit of mine, not in the top ten of my premium personality traits.
I finally walked up to several people who were milling around and asked in my broken Spanish - "what's going on?" Well, they close down between 4:30 and 5:30 to ... adjust their prices ... !
If you get there before 4:30 you pay like two bucks. After that, you pay ten bucks. Blatant exploitation of tourists! C'mon man! So we sit there and wait, and the line of cars gets real long. The sun goes down (this is the tropics - the sun sets every day at 6:00).
So, with my amazing skills of discernment, I come to realize that apparently, the lava looks better in the dark, and so you have to wait for it to get dark and they charge you more money.
Except, well, they don't open up until way after they said they would. The whole thing seems kinda dumb. If they want you to pay more money, I sorta get that, but why do they make you wait, along with a whole bunch of other cars and buses and minivans, motorcycles, etc.
So they finally open the gate, and proceed to collect money from each and every vehicle (this is gonna take a long time!) and explain the ground rules.
Here are the rules:
- Wait until you are allowed to drive up to the crater
- Then you will be admitted with several other vehicles
- Then you have 15 minutes to view the lava
- Then you have to leave
What kind of rules are these? So you wait for over an hour so you can pay more money to go up and see the lava and then you have to rush off? Pretty bad system if you ask me.
So we do what we're told, (again, not a strong suit of mine) and go up and see the lava. Frankly, it was underwhelming. There were only a few precious spots where you could look down and see the bubbling lava, and everyone was kinda throwing elbows to get a view. Couldn't really see much.
And then the guides starting blowing whistles and yelling! It's time to leave! Hey, we just got here! What kind of natural wonder is this? Super lame.
So you start off down the side of the crater, and there is the next bunch of spectators coming up the one lane road in a mad rush to get their 15 minutes of viewing time.
All in all, it was a disappointment. If you were going to rate this kind of thing, what kind of score would you give it? On a scale of ten, I'd give it maybe a seven - I mean, the lava was cool (actually really hot, pardon the pun) and the nighttime glow was interesting.
But the whole operation was very poorly run. This is not a thrill ride at the local carnival, it's supposed to be a wonderful spectacle.
Couldn't even get a decent picture. We left scratching our heads, there has to be a better way to do this.
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