More volcanoes in our travels through Central America. This one, we didn't have to hike up to. We just drove up to the edge of the caldera and waited for sunset. We did hike around a bit to see the different calderas and the views from several sides of the volcano before it got dark.
The big letters of Volcan Masaya beore the entrance to the park.
This view of a lake with a volcano in the background is common here.
The eastern wall of the caldera of the Masaya Volcano in late afternoon. The park has a weird policy that if you come before 4:30 PM and want to stay to see the lava after dark, you must pay again to see the volcno. We just parked outside the park entrance until 4:30, then paid once to get in and see the volcao caldera in the daylight and nighttime.
Smoke and gas come out of the crater al the time.
You can see the gases and smoke from the caldera from a distance.
Unusual composition of a rock in a side of a hill at the volcano.
Jason in front of the caldera in the fading light of the afternoon.
The countryside around the Masaya volcano. It's all part of the National Park.
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The sign at the top of the volcano. The stairs to the cross at the very top were closed off.
Karen at the far lookout with caldera behind her.
Layers of sand and pebbles of lava form the sides of part of the caldera.
Jason at Masaya.
The afternon sun turned the slopes a bright golden hue.
A little different light and from the GoPro
Tiny ferns unfurling in the cracks of the hill around the caldera.
We noticed the color changing as we waited for the sun to set.
Almost sunset. I figured the smoke and gases would make a colorful sky.
You can barely make out the lava in the caldera from the lookout . It's not yet dark enough to be the spectacle we came for.
This is as much of the laava lake as you can see from so high above it.
The lava gets brighter as the sky gets darker.
Zooming in just seems to make the lake blurry.
Karen selfie at Masaya. The lookout is waaay above the lava lake.
The view from the lookout at resolution.
Sunset colors not getting much enhancement.
About as bright as it gets unless a bubble or fissure acts up.
Our final view before heading back down the road just before they closed the park for the night.
Final sunset colors. from Masaya.
Final shot from Jason's GoPro.
As we left the parking lot at the top of the caldera, our carbon monoxide/smoke alarm went off. The loud screeching and calls of 'Fire, Fire" were unnerving. I had to climb in the back, pull the alarm off the wall and hold my finger over the speaker to keep from going insane. Pushing the 'Hush Mode' only worked for about 2 second and then it started wailing again. I held it out the window the whole way down the volcano road. There was only one tunoff and Jason tried unsuccessfully to stop the noise, too. We endured the alarm until we got out of the park gate and then Jason parked and held it in front of the air conditioning vent. Finally, it seemed to have gotten enough fresh air to stop squallering! We think the gases from the volcano, one of which is carbon monoxide, may have set the thing off. We had no fire.
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