Nicaragua 2015 ~ Masaya

After church we headed to Masaya for the day with Lois and Marcos. Our first stop was a delicious, popular, Nicaraguan restaraunt. Then we headed to the Masaya Volcano to look around. Nicaragua is a land of volcanoes and I wasn't sure what to expect. After all, I currently live in a land of volcanoes, but they are snow-capped and not smoking.

In the map below you can see the country of Nicaragua and two lakes on the western side. The smaller lake is Lake Managua and the city of Managua is just to the south (the orange area). Masaya is a city about 3/4 of the way between Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua (the bigger lake). 

This is a national park and we stopped in the visitor's center to look around.

It was a cloudy day (thank goodness because it was in the high 80s and sun would have made it really hot) and the volcano was very smoky. Some days it's not and you can see into the crater. I really liked the dramatic effect caused by the clouds and the smoke.

Jonas and Barbi were telling us how they used to come here and the wall had not yet been built. You could just walk right up to the edge of the crater. You also used to be able to walk up to the cross, but the path has been damaged and is now closed.

looking down at the parking lot and the crater behind 

looking the other way at the road we drove up

There was a trail on the other side of the parking lot that we went up...you can see other volcanic peaks in the distance

This is another crater that is less active and has quite a bit growing inside

After the volcano, we headed to the market in Masaya. This market is known for featuring more indigenous crafts. We got there shortly before it was closing so many stalls were packing up.

As were were driving there were so many things I wanted to stop and photograph. I was in the back of the truck and it was so bumpy so most of my photos didn't turn out well.

a beautiful girl standing outside the market

After the market we drove through Masaya to visit Maria...this was Jonas and Barbi's maid when they lived in Nicaragua. She's much older now and lives with her family in a very poor area. At the time I wondered if Compassion had any projects in Masaya and I've since learned that they do.

Maria

Being in Maria's neighborhood and home was a great experience. It was an introduction to the poverty we would see and experience the next day with our sponsored kids. And it was lovely to see the connection Jonas and Barbi had with this dear woman. It was obvious they cared about one another deeply.