The Mombacho Cloud Forest Tour

After zip lining, our guide took us to the top of the Mombacho crater for a hike through the cloud forest. This is a tropical, high altitude forest, and is consistently moist and green. It was gorgeous. This was what I was hoping all of Nicaragua was like. To get there, we took a modified jeep up a steep (to put it mildly - I was wondering if the vehicles ever tipped over backwards on the way up!)paver/cobblestone road. We had to have a park ranger drive us that was experienced with the driving as they had had accidents in the past. That is one other cool thing about Nicaragua: they have a great National Park system with park rangers, tours, litter control, restrooms, etc. --very professional and nice.

 



Meesha -you would love all of the bromeliads. So beautiful. I will tell you right now, this post has just a fraction of all of the pictures I took. I kept getting struck with a huge tree all covered in epiphytes, or a view of the crater.

Here I tried to get a close up of a tree trunk. See how it is covered in moss, and being strangled by a vine, and has ferns and things growing out of it?

Backing up, you can see the many different plants growing on a tree trunk and branches. At one point our guide stopped us and pointed out a particular tree that scientists had counted 35 species growing on.

 



Near the start of the trail, our guide stopped to look for red eyed tree frogs, as he had found them at that point in the past. We didn't see any adults, but saw tadpoles in a small pool,

and eggs laid on the underside of a leaf. If you looked up close you could see the little frog babies moving inside the clear, jelly eggs. Maybe gross to some, but fascinating to us.

This is the trail we took: right around the edge of the crater. This meant that a different points you got a viewpoint down inside, but for much of it the jungle was too dense to see through. 

This was the first viewpoint. When we got there, there was no view! Cloud covered the crater area. But..

Within minutes it started to blow away..

leaving a perspective of the giant hole covered in trees, plants, and vines.

 

 



Me and Tia said multiple times that it was like Disneyland --only better. You could see they were trying to imitate this kind of thing on the Indiana Jones ride, the jungle cruise, etc., but Disney's was a poor imitation of the real thing.

 



Enchanting.

Along the way our guide told us...stuff, but I'm not remembering most of it!

This was a fault area created during the explosion of the volcano. It made a tunnel-like path for a couple hundred yards. Pretty neat.

Another view of the crater.

I mentioned earlier that although this was considered an inactive volcano, there were some vents and things still releasing pressure. These are called fumarolas. If you put your hand down this little hole, you could feel the heat and steam. You could see steam just looking at it...except when I shot the picture.

This is Tia leaning over another vent, hard to see it since it's just a black hole thing.

 

 

Near the fumarolas, you could see this beautiful view of Granada on the edge of Lake Nicaragua.

 



These are some of the many little islands in Lake Nicaragua (later we went on a kayak tour of them), called "daughters of Mombacho". When this volcano blew, it spouted lava and rock for miles, some of it into the lake, which became this chain of "isletas".

 

Looking in the other direction you can see the still active volcano Masaya. It's a ways out here, but do you see the plume of smoke?

Much of the trail is created from slices of logs. I guess when that's what's so abundant, that's what you use. I told our guide that in Utah we have...rocks. So our trails are made of those!

 



So many species of plants and trees I couldn't keep up, but I did remember this variation on bird of paradise -heliconia. Where I spotted this ended up being a landmark. When we got back to the lodge area, another park ranger talked about seeing an "oso perezoso", or sloth, right near this flower. We all trooped back and stared up into the tree tops. Finally, Jeff, my color blind guy, spotted it. We should have been able to predict that! They say that colorblindness has survived in the gene pool because those men (it's usually men with the expressed gene) are better at spotting animals in the wild (for hunting anciently). I took picture after picture, but the animal didn't show up very well. In reality we could see it eating, and got to see its little smiling face, and arms, and the mane of lighter hair on the back of his head. Here's a short video where you can at least see movement!

 



Tweet

Fireworks.

Checking out at Ream's, the teenage bagger asked me if I was going to go watch fireworks tonight. 

"I don't know," I said.  "Are there fireworks tonight?" 
"Oh yeah -- over at Ira Allen Park," he answered as he put my cherries in a plastic bag, not on top of the bananas (I watched).  "It's huge! Bigger than Stadium of Fire, and it's all set to music.  You just park your car there, and sit right under them". 
He lost me at "park your car".  I've been in more than one traffic jam on the 4th of July or 24th of July (we celebrate a fireworky pioneer day in Utah) that's lasted hours, and has left me with visions of myself in a tank running over cars in my path with a maniacal laugh.  Bad traffic's not a good situation for someone like me with little patience.  Dutiful mother that I am, I came home and told Jeff anyway, and we thought about it while slogging through the usual Saturday chores (sometimes I hate my yard).  9:00 hits and it's decision time.  "Why don't we go up Whiting canyon to that path we sled on in winter, and head south instead of north?" he asks.  "I'll bet we get a great view of them from there". 
I'm a little dubious when I look on the map and notice how far south the park is, but then, I'm often dubious with new suggestions so I keep my mouth shut instead of being a jerk.  Kai lays on the couch pouting. "I thought we were going to get close to the fireworks.  I don't want to go far away to see" he whines.
"It'll be great" I answer --the cheerleader now.  "Get in the car". 
The kids grab saltines, cream cheese, soynuts, raisins, and honeydew chunks.  I'm not exaggerating. "Do I need my water bottle?" Tia asks? "Jeez." Jeff says under his breath. "It's not going to be that long".  She grabs it anyway, making us wait for her again.  Lately, every time we go somewhere this seems to happen. Ominous foreshadowing for the rest of her teenage years. 
When we get to the horse trailer parking lot, Kai doesn't want to get out of the car. "What about wolves?" he says in a small voice. "Aren't there wolves up here?" 
"Yeah" Jeff says ("shut-up Jeff" I think), "but not right here". 
"We'll walk with Daddy in front and you kids go in the middle and I'll be in the back" I say.  "If wolves come they'll eat us up and you'll be fine. Seriously, Dad and I run and walk up here all the time.  There aren't any wolves".  Are there? I wonder.  They're endangered and stuff, so I'm pretty sure there aren't... 
We walk in the dark, and every other minute, we see a firework explode in a different part of the city spread out below us.  I'm pretty sure none of them are from Ira Allen park.  There's not a real path, just little mini clearings we thread our way through, trying to get near the edge of the mountain to get the best view. 
Ari asks if she can wear my headlamp once we stop to wait, sure now that we're just too early, and the "real" fireworks will start any minute. 
"No I say, we're going to leave it off now until it's time to walk back."  I'm always shutting her down, and feel slightly guilty until she asks if she can wear it on her head anyway and I hand it over.  I doubt I'm the best mother for her.  I turn on my phone and surf food blogs (mother of the year I know) while waiting for the start of the show.  Jeff walks off to see if he can find a better spot, and a few minutes later we see his headlamp bobbing back through the dark towards us.  No luck.  It's after 10:00 now and I'm pretty sure they've started and we're missing them, but I don't say anything.  Jeff says he's going to try the other direction, and Kai goes with him, which I can tell cheers Jeff up a little.  We all eventually migrate over to where they stand, but don't see much, and Ari's started shivering in the breeze. 
"Well, should we go?" Jeff asks.  "Yeah" I say, "maybe we can still find them if we go over by Brandie's neighborhood".  I lead the way without any real idea of where I'm going, just a general direction, but get lucky, and we stumble back to our car.
"Are we going home or are we still trying?" Jeff asks as our headlights sweep a circle around the edge of the parking lot and turn down the mountain. 
"Let's still try" I say, typing a new blog address into my phone.  It doesn't take even a quarter mile before we start seeing big flashes off to the left.
"There they are! Kids! Look!" Jeff says, passing an open field.  Huge sea anemones of pink and purple, and jets of white light fill the sky.  The bagger was right.  These are some serious fireworks.
"I'm tempted to just stop right here to watch" Jeff says, and slides the car over to the side of the road.  We watch for a while. 
"That kind" Ari says. "That's the kind I mean that's my favorite". 
"This must be the grand finale" I say as flower upon flower explode right on top of each other in the sky.  A few minute later I say it again.  Then later I think it finally must really be the grand finale.  I can't believe the money they put into this show. 
"I'm ready to go home" Kai says. "Aren't you liking it?" Jeff asks. "yeah, but I'm getting sick of it now" he answers.  Jeff laughs. "Man I love you bud" he says.  Kai's a crackup sometimes.  The sky goes dark, and through the open car windows we hear clapping from the dark front yard of the house next to our car.  I had no idea anyone was there. "woooo!" I yell --just so they know we're there too. "woo hoo!"  they yell back, still clapping.  "Wooo hoo hoo!" I say, and Jeff laughs as he pulls the car away from the curb.  "I'm so glad I'm married to you" he says.  "You're so fun". 

Tweet