Hiking Volcano San Cristobal

Now that I’ve been in Corinto for more than two weeks I feel more like this city is my “home”, which is a nice feeling to have. I’ve made some friends (all high schoolers, but hey, they’re fun too) that helps me feel like I have some sense of belonging here. Work is starting slowly. I’ve realized that my counterpart isn’t much of a “helper”. This is a little frustrating but now that I’ve realized this I know that I have to take initiative instead of waiting for her to show me things. That’s what I did this past week when she wasn’t around, I went around Corinto introducing myself to some people that I think I might work with in the future (ie. Youth Center and Women’s Center). I think I will start giving classes about HIV, teenage pregnancy and self esteem to sixth graders next week. This will start giving me a routine, which I am anxious to start having here. Also, I have been looking for a house to rent here in Corinto. I currently live with a host family which is working out really well, but after more than three months of living with host families, I’m ready to have some privacy and independence. Finding a house to rent has proven to be more difficult that I thought. Things are either too expensive or way too run down. I may have found something today that I can rent for a good price and it’s small but very nice. It would be close to where I am living now so I could maintain the same friendships easily. We shall see.

Anyways, this past Sunday I went with some other volunteers to hike Volcan San Cristobal. This volcano is about an hour drive from where I live and you can see it looming in the distance from Corinto. It is the tallest volcano in all of Nicaragua at 1,765 meters high. We started on the trail at 6am and got to the crater at 11am. The top was more amazing than I had imagined with made the very difficult/hot hike very worth it. Plus, being that it’s Nicaragua, we were the only people hiking the volcano, so we had it all to ourselves all day on a beautifully hot Sunday afternoon. We spent about an hour on the rim of the crater eating lunch and exploring the crater a bit. Then we descended for the next 4 hours finally arriving at our truck parked on the dirt road at about 4pm. I haven’t done an all day hike in a long time, I forgot how exhausting they are! But it was by far one of the greatest hikes I’ve done. Interestingly enough, usually hikes are great because of the view from the top of the surrounding area. This hike was great because of the view of the actual top of the volcano, the crater.





This is a picture of us hiking up the volcano. It was starting to get very steep at this point...and very hot since we were past the tree line.


This is my friend Travis, right on the edge of the crater. As you can see there is tons of sulfur gas coming out. The outer crater is very big and wide, but then if you hike down in you can see a smaller (but still big) opening which is where Travis is standing.

This is what the top looked like right before we got to the crater. It was loose volcanic rock with lots of cactuses. We all got a little cut up in there. Plus that was the view...it was a little cloudy but still beautiful.
This is an attempt at a shot of the crater. Again you can see the gas coming out. It was too big to get the whole thing in the photo.

This is the group of volunteers I went with. The man on the left is the host dad (nicaraguan) of the guy in the Alma shirt. We are standing on the edge of the crater of the volcano. On the left is down the volcano, and to the right is the crater.






Sunday night, after the volcano hike, I went to a variety show that my host sister was participating in to benefit the Old Folks Home here. There were some young people, like my host sister, participating but the majority of the singers were men or women between the ages of 60 and 70. I wish I had a video camera with me. I’ll just say this, one the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life is a 70 year old Nicaragua woman dancing provocatively on stage to a Daddy Yankee reggaeton song. To make it even better, halfway through the song a random 75 year decrepit man jumps on stage to dance with the old Nica woman. Priceless.

Anyways, thats all from me right now, I hope everyone else is doing well, keep me updated with your lives! Until next time...