Our time in Costa Rica was short as it was mostly a visa run to renew our C-4 visas. We were required to stay 72 hours, but stayed until Mom and Terry had to fly home.

Costa Rica Summary:

Length of Stay: 10 days
Average Cost per Day for Two People: $52.68 CAD
Cities Visited: 5
Distance Traveled: 788 km in 10 automobiles
Days Sick: 0 for Ashley, 0 for Mike
Number of Items Lost: 1 PADI bag with all our divemaster books & slates – stolen while on a bus
Biggest Tourist Traps: Everywhere we went, it was very touristy
Exchange Rate: $1 CAD = 520 Costa Rican Colones

As always, you can check out all our stats on our stats page.

Sunset in Playa del Coco

Our Route:

Nicaragua border – Liberia – Playa del Coco – Monteverde/Santa Elena – Jaco – San Jose – Nicaragua border

Highlights:

• Seeing wildlife like sloths and armadillos
• Monteverde Cloud Reserve
• Canopy Tour with Tarzan Swing

Landscape near Monteverde

Lowlights:

• Getting robbed twice in a week
• The cost of everything… nothing comes cheap here

Monteverde Cloud Reserve

Surprises:

• How dangerous it is – we assumed that since it was the richest country in Central America, it would be the safest… not so!
• This might sound silly, but I pictured the whole country as one big jungle. It’s not.
• They don’t have street addresses.  Anywhere.  You try to find the hostel that’s one block west and two blocks south of the Burger King.
• The buses were really nice here… we didn’t see any chicken buses!
• There’s a lot more English spoken here than in other CA countries.

Mom & Terry, Sunset in Jaco

Lessons Learned:

• You should heed the advice given to you about travelling in specific places.
• Don’t put bags in the overhead compartments of buses.

Fishing at Playa del Coco

Costa Rica Journal – Where Did We Spend Our Time?

Liberia – 1 night
What we did here: Not a heck of a lot. We stopped to break up our travel time enroute to the beach. Our timing was just a little off, as they had a major local festival starting the next day.

Playa del Coco – 2 nights
What we did here: We were still sunburned from a previous beach encounter in San Juan del Sur, so we played it pretty lowkey here. Walked through town and along the beach, played cards with Mom and Terry, and cooked some great meals!

Santa Elena/Monteverde – 3 nights
What we did here: We had a busy time here as there was lots to see and do… ziplining, a night walking tour, and exploring the cloud forest in the Monterverde Cloud Reserve.

Jaco – 2 nights
What we did here: More beach… more relaxation. We played in the warm surf, sent a few postcards home, and I helped my mom go souvenir shopping.

San Jose – 2 nights
What we did here: We explored the parks and downtown on foot, eating some tasty street food. Then we let Mom and Terry treat us to a Chinese food meal-for-four and said our goodbyes to them, before catching our bus back to Nicaragua.

Sunset in Jaco

There’s A LOT to do in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Especially if you’ve got the cash. You can do a canopy tour, rappel waterfalls, hike up mountains, swim beneath waterfalls, ride horses, tour coffee and sugar cane farms, wander (and wonder) through cloud forests, go bird watching (or sloth watching or monkey watching) by day or by night, check out a cheese factory, or visit the insect house, the frog house, the butterfly house, the snake house, or the orchid house.

To give you an idea of the per person costs… park admissions for the reserves cost between $15-18 USD, cheese tours and animal houses were about $10 each, canopy tours were in the $30-50 range, coffee tours and bird watching were about $35-40.

We, on the other hand, don’t have a lot of cash. Luckily, we found a hostel in Santa Elena (which is also called, Monteverde) for only $7 USD per person, breakfast included – which is cheap by Costa Rican standards. Mom and Terry stayed just up the street from us, and we all got together to experience some of what the area had to offer through a few guided tours, despite the cold (the elevation of Monteverde is such that it is significantly colder than other areas of the country… Mike and I are used to 30°C, so temperatures in the low 20’s are quite chilly for us).

In addition to what we did, Mom and Terry did an early morning bird watching tour and an afternoon coffee tour (both of which they really enjoyed).

Heads up, the photos with a big play button in the middle of them are actually movies!  Click to enjoy.

Canopy Tour

Costa Rica is world famous for its ziplines and Monteverde is where it all got started. So not doing a canopy tour was not an option. We booked our tour with a company called Aventura. It cost $35 USD per person and included transportation to and from our hotel, 16 platforms including a Superman line, a 15 m rappel, and a Tarzan swing. With a bit of coaxing, even my mom joined in the fun. The first few lines were to practice braking (we had to brake ourselves by pressing down on the line with our thick leather fortified gloves) and then it was smooth sailing from there. The guides were great, and helped out anyone having troubles. The views were spectacular!

Ziplining

Mom had a little trouble with the braking

The rappel

View from one of the platforms

Mike on the Superman line

My graceful Superman entry

Terry on the Tarzan Swing

 

Night Walking Tour

A lot of the wildilfe in Monteverde is nocturnal, so a night tour just seemed to make sense. We paid $20 USD per person for a tour of Finca Santa Maria, which included transportation, lights, a guide, and a two and a half hour walk through the forest. I must admit, I was a little skeptical about whether the tour would be worth its pricetag, but I was happy to see my doubts fade away. The tour was easy walking and our eagle-eyed guide spotted an owl, a pit viper, a huge tarantula, fireflies, click beetles, may beetles, a huge stick bug, leafcutter ants, tink frogs, a couple of two-toed sloths, a couple of coatimundis, and an armadillo. I think I was most blown away by the armadillo, but the whole experience was really interesting and informative.

Click Beetle

Can you spot the huge stick bug?

Coatimundi

Walking to the Middle of Nowhere

The afternoon of the night tour, Mike and I set out to find the Monteverde Cloud reserve. We figured we could just walk there (or at least part of the way there) and see how pretty of a walk it would be. We set off with the little map we picked up at our hostel. Unfortunately we misread where the bus stop was and headed off in the completely wrong direction.  Luckily for us, the walk had some of the most beautiful vistas we saw while we were there.

Walking through the Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde

After our failed attempt the day before, Mike and I set out for the Monteverde Cloud Reserve once again. This time, we planned to take a bus there to save our energy for hiking the trails in the reserve. Despite the fact that all the schedules said there was no 7:00 am bus running on Sundays, the seemingly knowledgeable young man at our hostel assured us that there would indeed be a bus. As it turns out, he was wrong and we ended up sharing a cab to the reserve with another traveller for $3 USD per person (instead of the $1.25 USD pp the bus should have cost).

The entrance fee to the reserve was a hefty $18 USD pp. You could hire a guide for another $15 pp, but we opted to explore on our own. The reserve’s workers were very helpful, providing a map of the trails, and a suggested route for the time we planned to spend there.

We spent most of the day wandering the trails (we had the place nearly to ourselves it seemed) and covered nearly every path in the park (about 14 km or so). We brought a picnic lunch of crackers, cheese (we actually found decent cheese made at the Monteverde cheese factory just outside Santa Elena), and salchichon (garlic sausage).

At about 2:00pm, we were ready to head home. There were still no buses running and we couldn’t find anyone else to share a cab with. We decided to walk the 7 km back to Santa Elena, stopping at the cheese factory for some homemade ice cream. We didn’t really see much wildlife (one rodent in the reserve and a lot of insects), but the cloud forest was so impressive we didn’t leave disappointed.

Mike and I consider ourselves to be fairly intelligent human beings.  But we’ve recently come to the realization that we’ve got nothing on the average Central American petty thief.

If you recall, back in September our camera was pickpocketed in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.  It didn’t matter that we were told not to take anything with us to the fair except for the money we absolutely needed to get through the day.  More specifically, we were told that the money we take should be stuffed into my bra, not left in a pocket.  Being the smart ones that we are, we ignored that bit of advice,  figuring that the camera would be fine in a zippered front pants pocket.  We were wrong.  Some clever fingersmith outsmarted us and got a camera out of the deal.  Lesson learned.  Right?  Well… not quite.

Mike and I were relaxing at the hotel room we shared with my Mom and Terry in Playa del Coco, Costa Rica when there was a knock at the door.  There stood Mom and Terry in only their bathing suits – no shirts, no shoes.  “We were robbed!” my mom explained.    Mom and Terry had left their Merrell sandals, Terry’s shirt, and Mom’s sarong that she purchased in Cozumel earlier this trip sitting on the beach and went for a walk.  A 45 minute walk.  They thought it would be fine.  And, like us with our camera, they were wrong.  You see, every beach we’ve been to in Central America we’ve been given the “watch your stuff” warning.    In fact, at most beaches, we’ve been given the “don’t even take a bag to the beach” warning.  Guess those people giving the advice know what they’re talking about.  Now the lesson should be learned.  But….

A mere four days after the beach incident, we were all on a chicken bus from Monteverde to Puntarenas, en-route to Jaco, Costa Rica.  I’d be lying if I said that we hadn’t been been told on several occasions to never put anything in the overhead compartment of a bus.  Can you guess where this is going?   Since leaving Utila, we were carrying two extra bags that we received as part of our divemaster course.  One was full of food (so wasn’t really an extra bag, as we often carry a food bag with us).  The other was full of divemaster books, slates, and underwater camera enclosure weights that we didn’t really need but figured we should send home with my mom.  We put these bags in the overhead compartment, figuring that they were pretty disposable anyway.  Still, we kept our eyes on them during the crowded trip.  When we got off the bus, the bag with all the divemaster books was gone.  The funny thing is, Mike spent most of the trip trying to figure out how he would say “Hey, that’s my bag.  Give it back!” in Spanish if someone did try to walk off with something of ours.  Once again, we were outsmarted.  Maybe there was something to that advice after all.

So, what have we actually learned from all this?  A few things.

1.  When advice is given to you by locals and other travellers, it is usually warranted.  Listen to it.  Even if it means the inconvenience of carrying your shoes at the beach or holding an extra bag on your lap on the bus.

2.  We felt absolutely no emotion over our dive bag being stolen.  I think that’s a good indication we didn’t need to send it home in the first place.  I guess we are still working on breaking our attachment with stuff.  I would have liked to see the thief’s face when he opened the back to discover that what he probably thought was a laptop was actually a bunch of PADI books.

3. While petty crime is prevalent throughout Central America, it is rampant in Costa Rica.  We were robbed twice in the course of a week.  This kind of took us by surprise, as it’s the wealthiest Central American country.  However, nearly all the travellers that we’ve met that have had problems with crime in Central America have had those problems in Costa Rica… backpacks taken from the storage bins below the bus, bags taken from overhead compartments, thefts on beaches, robberies at gunpoint, etc. etc.  We recently met a local woman in Somoto, Nicaragua that described Costa Rica as a beautiful country, but one that was too dangerous to visit.

Let us know… have you had any problems with crime in Central America?  If so, what happened?

We met up with my mom in Nicarauga, and made a speedy path through the country.  We might have lingered longer, but our C-4 visa which covers Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua was just about expired after our lengthy stay in Utila, Honduras.  We had to get to Costa Rica to reset it, but even so, we left the Nicaragua on the last possible day, taking in as much as we could.

Nicaragua Summary:

Length of Stay: 16 days
Average Cost per Day for Two People: $31.80 CAD
Cities Visited: 7
Distance Traveled: 779 km in 12 automobiles and 2 boats
Days Sick: 0 for Ashley, 1 for Mike
Number of Items Lost: 0
Biggest Tourist Traps: The beach at San Juan del Sur was full of touts hawking everything from jewellry and sunglasses to wooden bowls
Exchange Rate: $1 CAD = 23 Cordobas

For more great stats, check out our statistics page!

Tree in Granada park

Our Route:

Managua – León – Las Peñitas – Granada – Isla de Ometepe (Moyogalpa, Merida) – San Juan del Sur

Highlights:

• Seeing my mom!!!
• Full moon lava hike at León
• Beautiful sunset walks at Las Peñitas
• Fried yuca at the market in Granada
• International Poetry Festival in Granada

Lion guarding the León Cathedral

Lowlights:

• The food at Hacienda Merida on Isla de Ometepe (it was exceptionally tasty, and expensive to match.  The alternatives were likewise cheap, and not so delicious)
• The “typico” Nicaraguan meal from a mall food court in Managua… should have known better
• We couldn’t stay in Granada long enough to experience more than a night of the International Poetry Festival
• Nicaragua didn’t enamour us the same way as other Central American countries have – probably because we had to move too quick to let it

View from the rooftop of León Cathedral

Surprises:

• Nicaragua is supposed to be the poorest country in Central America, but we didn’t really get that impression… there were a lot of cars everywhere we went.
• We had heard Nicaragua would be cheap.  While the prices were definitely reasonable, it wasn’t as cheap as we were expecting.

Lessons Learned:

• Travelling quickly through a country makes it difficult to fall in love with a place.  We easily could have spent more time at nearly every town we were in, but were limited by our visas.
• Always reapply sunscreen after playing in the surf.  Ouch!

Sunset at Las Peñitas

Nicaragua Journal – Where Did We Spend Our Time?

Managua – 1 night
We didn’t really see much of this place… it was just a meeting point with Mom and Terry.

León – 2 nights
León was a beautiful city with lots to see and do.  We took a tour of the Cathedral, wandered around an art gallery, and explored a strange folklore museum housed in a former prison.  The highlight of our time here was the full moon lava viewing hike on Volcan Telica which we did with Quetzaltrekkers.

Las Peñitas – 2 nights
This quiet black sand resort beach was a great place to relax after our all night hike.  We napped, swam, and walked the beach at sunset.

Granada – 3 nights
Granada was probably our favourite city we visited.  We joined Mom and Terry for a horse and carriage tour of the beautiful city, explored the graveyard where the first president of Nicaragua can be found, wandered the parks, went to a chocolate museum and caught the start of the International Poetry Festival.  We watched the performance of Nobel Prize winning poet Carlos Martinez Rivas’ work and took in the free Katia Cardena concert.  Mom and Terry did a boat tour of Las Isletas, while we wondered the city getting Mike’s glasses fixed.

Moyogalpa, Isla de Ometepe – 1 night
This town was where the ferry dropped us off.  It was almost sunset when we arrived, so we decided to stay the night before moving on.

Merida, Isla de Ometepe – 3 nights
We stayed at a hacienda just outside this small town.  The location was beautiful, but food options were limited.  The hacienda had stellar food, but a small and expensive menu.  Some of the best food we had here came from the Valentine’s Day festival in town, which included some bull riding.  We went horseback riding to San Ramon waterfall, walked to some Petroglyphs, learned how to make tortillas and hung out in the hammocks at the hacienda.

San Juan del Sur – 4 nights
This was a touristy beach town.  We played in the waves until our blistery sunburns kept us out of the sun.  Spent some time relaxing, reading, visiting with Mom and Terry, and catching up on the blog.

Hanging out in the lobby of our hotel in Granada

Bird on Isla de Ometepe

Butterfly in our hotel in Granada

For more of our Nicaragua pictures, check out our gallery.

One of the things that Mom and Terry wanted to do on their journey with us was go horseback riding. Now, given my propensity for falling off things and my slightly irrational fear of riding horses (stemming from my first ever attempt to ride by myself – I was about 13 or so – when my trail horse took off at a gallop along a busy highway and I couldn’t do anything but hold on for dear life), I was a little less than gung-ho about the whole idea.  But I figured now was as good a time as any to try to get over it. Especially since one of Mike’s biggest goals is to ride horseback across Mongolia.

Thought I’d practice “riding” this wagon before getting on a horse….but it didn’t do much to bolster my confidence

We decided to rent some horses near Merida on the island of Ometepe and ride to the San Ramon waterfall.

Isla de Ometepe, formed by two volcanoes

The trip took about four hours in total, including a short hike on foot up to the falls and some time to relax and possibly swim under the waterfall (well, stand, really, since the pool beneath it was a shallow).

At the last minute, Mike decided to stay back at the hostel and try to beat the cold he had been getting. Truly, I think he was feeling sicker about the cost of the horses (a hefty $8 USD per person per hour), but we let him stay behind anyways.

Mom, Terry, and I set out with Harry of Harry’s horses and his helper, Carlos at about 1:00 pm. Five minutes in, Harry was telling me my form was good but I needed to loosen up. I tried to untense my muscles, but it just wasn’t happening. Every part of my body was clinging on for dear life.  Fifteen minutes in, my entire body seemed to be cramping up.  I was looking at my watch thinking How the hell am I going to make it four hours? This is painful!. I continued checking my watch every 3-5 minutes for the first hour, thinking this was some sort of crazy torture and wondering if I could just jump off my trotting horse and walk beside him. Given what I figured was the high probability of falling or being dragged from this action, I decided to power on.  Then, something changed. Despite my sore butt, I felt like I fit better in the saddle and could finally relax my aching muscles. When we broke into a canter on a flat stretch, I actually couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

Terry’s horse, checking in at the entrance to San Ramon waterfall

After about an hour and a half, we tied up the horses and hiked a short but steep path to the waterfall. Since the horses had brought us most of the way up, I didn’t find the hike so bad, but I had a few volcano summits under my belt. Mom and Terry struggled up the path behind me, unaccustomed to the steep slopes that you can’t find back home in Saskatchewan.

Me and my horse, Pinto

Finally at the waterfall, we took in the beauty of the spot.

The sun even came out from behind the clouds to show us the rainbow in the falls.

Mom and Terry rested, dreading the hike back down, I think.

Tired out from the hike

Back at the horses, I slid into the saddle and felt immediately comfortable. I was given the option to go ahead with Carlos, while Harry stayed back with Mom and Terry’s slower horses. The two of us cantered and galloped back, slowing down to give the horses a break, to check out the amazing views, and to chat in Spanish (much needed practice for me after so many months in English-speaking Utila – I believe I told him I had been married for 27 years before correcting myself).

So was it worth the cost? The jury’s still out. At $32, I found the price tag quite a bit higher than I would have liked. If seeing the waterfall was my only goal, I would have been just as happy hiking there. And there’s cheaper horseback riding options in other parts of Nicaragua. But Harry and Carlos were great with us novices and I gained a newfound confidence on horseback. I was really happy to get past the discomfort of the first hour with the longer ride, though Mom and Terry (and their butts) would have been happier with a shorter ride. Would I do it again? Probably not ($32 can go a long way on living expenses here), but I don’t regret it at all.

I still have a long way to go before riding across Mongolia, but I’m getting there. As I told Mike after… I’m still not sure that I like horseback riding, but at least I can now see how people might like it. That’s definitely progress.

Pretty flowers on Ometepe

Before we ever left home, my mom and her boyfriend, Terry, told us they were planning to meet up with us for the month of February.  They had already booked the vacation time and were anxiously waiting to find out what their destination would be.  You see, they were willing to be super flexible and show up wherever we were at the time.  The problem with that, as anyone following our journey probably knows, is that we typically don’t know where we’ll be in a week, never mind a year.  We originally told them it would probably be Chile and Argentina.  Then we said Peru or Ecuador.  Then Panama.  Finally, as we were still in Utila, we settled on Nicaragua.  (Even with this plan, we ended up skipping the rest of Honduras and El Salvador to meet up with them on time, so we are currently backtracking a bit to see some of what we blew by).

As the date got closer and closer, I was more and more excited to see my mom.  Seven months of Skype conversations over sketchy internet connections are no replacement for seeing a loved one in person.  I expected that we would have an amazing month together.  And we did. But not without a little drama.

First night with my mom in Managua

You see, the truth about travelling with mom and Terry is that we simply have different travel styles.  While we are budget backpackers out to get great value for our money and willing to sacrifice a few creature comforts to save a buck, they would rather fork over a little more cash for some “necessary” items.  We are looking to immerse ourselves in the culture and food of smaller communities a little off the beaten track.  They are looking for – as Terry put it – a beach with a 7/11 around the corner.  And so be it.  This was their vacation too, and we wanted them to enjoy every minute of it.  We never expected them to travel like we did.  But we also coudn’t just sacrifice a month of our budget for their comfort.

Trying to make a plan that suits everyone

So we compromised.  Where possible, we tried to find accommodations which would fit everyone’s needs (typically dorm rooms for Mike and I and a private ensuite room for Mom and Terry).  When this wasn’t possible, we stayed in separate places, trying to keep them as close together as possible.

For food, we had one to two meals together a day and the others apart.   Mom has kidney disease and can’t eat much salt and Terry doesn’t like onions, peppers, or really much for veggies.  This made finding suitable restaurants difficult at times.  They wanted a lot of burgers and fries.  We stuck to local set plates and street food.  They went to Subway a few times.  We didn’t, having vowed never to eat at a multi-national North American chain outside of North America.  Terry liked meat and potatoes.  We tried to limit our meat consumption to one meal every day or two.

Our kind of lunch!

It’s hard to travel with a group.  As a couple, Mike and I have pretty much figured each other’s preferences out (and, thankfully, they’re remarkably similar), but it still becomes difficult to compromise day in and day out.  We share one plate for most of meals out, which makes every meal a compromise.  Just trying to decide what to order can be a challenge after eating out a few days in a row, nevermind deciding where to go next, how long to stay, and what to do when we get there.

Mike, Mom and Terry

Throw in another couple with different travel preferences and you’ve got a challenging situation. Communication is key.  We struggled with communication at the beginning… for example, Mom and Terry told us they all they needed for accommodations was a private room.  A private bathroom would be nice.  After a while, we realized that they actually wanted a private room with a private bathroom, at least a fan, and windows with good light; hot water and air conditioning strongly preferred, and a television would be nice.  There’s nothing wrong with this list, but knowing it from the start would have made searching for hostels/hotels a lot easier in the beginning.

Not exactly the type of place Mom & Terry wanted to stay at.  But at only $12 a night for a private room with wifi in San Juan del Sur, we couldn’t pass it up!

In the end, it was absolutely worth every challenge we had just to have my mom around.  I loved being able to sit down to breakfast with her, chat about things going on in our lives, share the experience of exploring new cities and foods (one of their favourite foods in the end was fried yucca in Granada), and playing cards while chatting the evenings away.  They treated us with a couple of meals that were beyond our price range and we were able to cook one of our favourite splurge meals of spaghetti bacon carbonara (complete with red wine) for them.  It was sort of a cheer-them-up after they were robbed at the beach (more on this later).  They were great sports about some of “challenges” of backpacking through Central America… I got to see my mom ride in a chicken bus with standing room only, complete with a chicken!

Mom and Terry treated us to an early 5th Anniversary dinner

Mom… I know you are reading this.   I love you and miss you and can’t wait for our next adventure together! I’m so proud of everything you tried and opened yourself up to on our trip (I still can’t believe you went ziplining with us.. awesome!). Enjoy every minute of every day and I’ll see you soon on Skype! And please wipe those tears away… we’ll be together again before you know it! (I wonder where?)

My mom

Welcome to the zombie march! If you don’t know why we call it that, you soon will!

Sometimes the best moments of a journey come from being in the right place at the right time…

We arrived in León, Nicaragua with little plan of what to do. We had just met up with my mom in Managua, and León was the first city on our agenda. She wanted to travel like we do, which for us often means arriving in a city and letting it tell us what sights to see once we get there. We knew we had to check out the Cathedral de León, a UNESCO world heritage sight. As we sat down on the sidewalk outside the cathedral to contemplate our next move, we ran into a couple that we had dove with in Utila. They told us all about a full moon lava-viewing volcano hike they were doing the next night with one of our favourite Central American organizations, Quetzaltrekkers (we had hiked with them before in Xela, Guatemala and were already planning to check out what they had to offer in León).

This sounded too cool to pass up, so we ran over to Quetzaltrekkers to sign ourselves up. At this point, we still didn’t even know the name of the volcano (Volcan Telica, as we later found out) and didn’t care. We paid our $30 USD each (normally $35, but there is a discount if you’ve hiked with them before) for guides, return transportation, supper, midnight lunch, breakfast, snacks, and water; and headed back to the cathedral to check out the almost-full moon.

Almost-full moon through the window of the Cathedral

The next night, after a full day of walking and museums, we met with our guides and sixteen other full moon hikers at Quetzaltrekkers at about 9:30 pm. We sat down for a huge meal of spaghetti, rice, and vegetarian tomato sauce and after a quick ride in the back of a pickup, we arrived at the the trailhead.

The start of the hike

We started hiking at 11:30 pm. The trail was fairly easy and flat, though there were lots of loose stones to deal with. The full moon was often obscured by clouds, so we relied on our headlamps a lot.

Full moon

Near the end of the hike, the trail started getting quite a bit steeper. The guides wanted to keep the group together, so there were lots of breaks and it was an easy ascent.

Full moon over Volcan Telica

At about 4:00 am, we reached the summit of the volcano. We dropped off our gear at a camping spot, and spent 15 more minutes walking to the crater’s edge. As we approached the crater, wafts of sulfur invaded our nostrils. It made our eyes water and our throats burn, but there was nothing stopping anyone from crawling up to the edge to see the glowing lava.

Lava!!!

I don’t think I could find the right words to truly describe how incredible it was to see and hear the lava, and our pictures definitely don’t do it justice. We could hear it roaring below us and the pools brightened and darkened as the lava moved and cooled. It was seriously one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced.

We didn’t stay long at the lava. Despite it’s awesomeness, the chemist in me knew that the burning in my eyes, throat, and chest was from the sulfur dioxide in the air reacting with the water in my lungs and throat to create highly acidic hydrogen sulfide. Not wanting to subject my body to these conditions for long, we took in the sights and sounds and returned to camp for a “midnight” lunch.

As we sat finishing our lunch of cream cheese and veggie sandwiches, with the guides working hard to keep people from nodding off, the sky began to brighten. We climbed up one last hill to watch the sun rise over several volcanoes in the distance. The view kept getting more and more spectacular and, despite the fact that most of the hikers around me were complaining about being tired and cold and wanting to get back, I felt re-energized. This was the first time I have ever just watched a sun rise in its entirety and it was beautiful.

Sun rise

We watched the sun until it was completely up (the camera battery died at the start of the sun rise, which allowed us to watch it away from the viewfinder) , turning around every once in a while to watch the full moon set over the volcano behind us.

Full moon setting behind us over Volcan Telica

We hiked back to the entrance and, looking around me, I understood the zombie march reference. A lot of hikers looked like they were having a hard time staying upright, but as I said, I was invigorated from all that I just experienced and really enjoyed the early morning hike. We returned to the starting point at about 9:30 am, and were back in León celebrating our experiences with a tasty breakfast of yogurt, fruit, and granola by 10:00.