Mombacho Volcano

As the book says, 'this volcano is unavoidable, it towers over the southern horizon, lurks around every corner, creeps into your panoramic photos.  In Granada, you are living in the shadow of a giant; fortunately the giant is very gentle ( I wonder where the gentleness was when we were hiking, sweating and catching our breath)?

It's lovely and cool under the canopy but goodness did I sweat!  At the end when we had a rest stop it was most difficult to pull my clothng back on, everything was wet and sticky! Inside the forest it's misty and cool, wild orchids bloom freely and we were about 850 meters above sea level.  The forest is protected as a nature reserve, it's about 700 hectars of park rising to a peak of 1,345 meters.  The land is rich, full of nutrients, and there is flora and fauna that never ceased to amaze me; it's stunningly beautiful.

Orchids grow wild and sadly my telephoto function on my camera isn't working so I'm not able to capture them to show off their finery!  There are hundreds bromeliad species, tree ferns and old growth cloud and dwarf forests.

If you take a look at my Facebook you'll see a few little videos.  Unfortunately I'm not able to load them here, no idea why but I'm still in the learning stages ))

Even when our guide mimicked the  call of a monkey no one returned his call.  There are however three species of monkeys, 168 different species of birds etc. and there's talk of a very secretive cat too!
As we were waiting for our lift up to the top, a group came down.s   They had spent an overnighter there and said it had been lovely, mystical and they'd like to do a repeat; maybe I'll tackle this when I return to Granada.

As I was returning home I could only think of how good a cool shower and air-con room was going to be but this was to wait for later.

Workers were taking care of some updates in my room; a screen on my bathroom shower stall, etc.

Lise and I went out to dinner and imagine our surprise when we  later saw Lise & Wayne meandering about looking for a restaurant too.  They joined us and we  enjoyed some of the street youth, they can twist their bodies inside out.

Dinner was great and since Don Luca's was closed I wonder if we'll get there before we leave?

The shower was delicious and my knees can still feel the trip back down Mombacho.

And the end to another day in paradise.

Winn

...............scroll down to view some photos.