10,000 miles away - Masaya, Nicaragua

On the very first official day of our trip we figured out that Nicaragua is land of volcanoes, lakes and revolution. After a lazy breakfast at home, we headed out to our first stop - a shooting range. K and I have never held a gun before and here we were shooting .22 rifle and 9mm pistol. And managing to hit the targets (more with the rifle and less so with the pistol). Guns are a popular hobby in Nicaragua thanks to its revolutionary past and especially the Sandinista movement in the late 1970s leading to independence from Somozoa's US-supported dictatorship on 19 July 1979.



Our second stop was Volcan Masaya. It's active and spewing hot gases that you can smell the stench of sulphur and if the wind subsides a little leading the smoke into a steady stream, you can see the bright orange coloured, agitated lava. The walls of the crater are blackened but one of the outer sides still holds greenery in a dramatic difference. Also because it is a young volcano, it's pretty short and flat so you can drive up to the crater. Apparently there are also night tours where the illuminance of the lava is more assistant and beautiful.

Our final stop for the day was a lagoon or a Laguna. You can see Laguna Masaya from the top of the crater. It's crescent moon shaped lake because it keeps getting filled up from one side every time Vulcan Masaya erupts. However that's now that lagoon we went to. We went to Laguna de Apoyo which is in a sink hole of sorts of an extinct volcano, so essentially it's a lake with high walls which now support a lot of greenery. It's a very picturesque place for a dip and given it's depth, people can go scuba diving. We didn't go for a dip though. This is where JR came as a child to play.

We stopped by JR's family at a traditional Nicaraguan home with a little garden in the courtyard of the house and though we didn't speak their language we played with JR's nephew.

Comments

  1. hey where is this shooting range and prices? and also are you able to rent guns there and what types?

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