Volcano's, Floods, and Santo Patrinales

This has been an interesting weekend to say the least, full of firsts for me. I know right, but surprise that I’m experiencing things for the first time in a new country. But I’m 95% sure that one of these three experiences is completely unique to Nicaragua, and I’d be astounded if it did exist anywhere else in the world. Real strange stuff, so keep reading.

The Cross is the top of the summit

 So the first new experience was a trip to one of the many active volcano’s in Nicaragua, although it’s now the one you can “surf” down. That will have to come sometime in the future. I’d like to say the view was breath taking, and that I could feel the heat, but I just didn’t have that kind of experience. At the base, I’m looking around the landscape, and thinking to myself, “We got a nice relatively clear day, should be quite a view at the top.” So you literally hike up to the top of the volcano’s crater, or drive if you’re pressed for time, and look down at the lava and whatever else is in the crater at the top of a volcano. But we weren't lucky

enough to see that because of all the moisture and rain. I’m not going to get all scientific with you (mainly because I don’t know why it happened) but between the natural vapors of the volcano and the light to heavy rain that was going on during the day, the visibility was pretty poor. Depending on the wind, you could see for 100 feet, or a couple 100 yards. Once we reached the summit, we got maybe a five second window where we were able to see fully across to the other side. So while the view was hardly breath taking, the smell certainly was. As I’ve (now) experienced first hand, high levels of sulphur are emitted from volcanoes along with steam and 

other things, and breathing becomes a little hard. Your throat gets a little soar, and it felt like I perpetually had a lugie lodged in there, so I was mildly uncomfortable. But I consider myself lucky, as some of my compadres couldn’t even leave the bus, or their asthma started acting up. I guess I'm lucky in that regard, huh?

The Gang at the top.  A rare moment of Clarity.

But Right back to the Fog of obscurity

Numero Dos was a flash flood in the streets of Masaya. Unlike back home Nicaragua only has two seasons: the summer, or dry, season and the winter, or rainy season. And I can say that the rainy season is not upon us in full force. I don’t love it. It can be a clear, sunny day, and five minutes later you’re just absolutely drenched from a pouring rain. One of these occasions happened as I was trying to leave the market of Masaya this past Saturday (after I picked up a new leather belt and my first hammock for a whopping 200 cords, or 10 American dollars). The skies opened up and in a matter of maybe 10 minutes, the streets of the market were flooded. I literally watched the street in front of me turn into a small river, raising to the level of about a foot deep at some points. I think back home a state of emergency would have been declared, but it’s just another rain storm down here. Despite there being a small current in the streets, no one considers it really out of the ordinary.

But the wildest event had to be our neighboring town's Santo Patrinales, a celebration of the town’s patron saint. So this meant two things for the pueblo of San Juan de Oriente a four day street party and the traditional one on one fighting with bull dicks. Literally bull dicks, including the continuing tendon. They're like 3 foot long whips. Children, girls, men, and women alike (all close to blackout drunk) are fighting in the streets whipping each other, and then once they're done, they start dancing, hug it out, and continue celebrating. It's super barbaric, but super entertaining to watch. Not expecting to run into anything like that, I actually had forgotten to bring my camera. But luckily my buddy Zac had his, and he managed to take a couple video, which you can find below. The video’s do a better job of describing the event than I could in a million years, so check it out:

                                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqnVsirsGYg&feature=related

So that’s been it these past couple of days, and I’m gonna leave you with a video that I just found on Zac’s youtube account of yours truly and the rest of the gang at the Laguna de Apoyo. See if you can spot me enjoying a nice mango on the beach!

                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtHgFaKqDas&feature=related