The Bat Cave

The thing I liked best about Nicaragua is that Granada, one of the main little towns in this country, has no gift shops, no souvenir shops and only one tour operator in the entire town. Perhaps because people still think of Contras and Sandinistas and poverty when they think of Nicaragua. I think of volcanos and lakes and Tona beer that's so cold you get a beer brain freeze.

We had spent the day climbing and exploring Mambacho, the largest volcano in that area. Mombacho is impressive and still considered active but no lava and no sulphur. I want my volcanos to be all hellish with fire and lava and acidic steam. I love volcanos. Obsessed with them. I wanted more. As we passed the tour operator on the way back to the little lodge we were staying at, I noticed a sign. This sign to me like probably heroin to an addict. The sign simply said - See the Bats and Lava at Volcan' Masaya at Night. OK - we had been to Masaya volcano already - impressive in that it was very active and stank of sulphur and everything around it was dead because of the poisonous gasses. But we hadn't seen lava and we hadn't seen bats. I was in! Jack opted to go to the little pool and have a caprihiana. Most people would have agreed with his plans.

So I get on a bus, myself. The lone female american tourista off to see the bats and the lava. We stopped at the Masaya Market (a traditional place where you can but everything from fruit to fish to clay pots to god-awful fake Mickey Mouse Pinatas) and picked up some more americans - mostly missionaries that took the evening off from feeding orphans and preaching gospel to see some real fire and brimstone and creatures of the night.

Masaya Volcano is more impressive at dusk. There are three craters and a large cross off to the side. The cross was put up because the volcano is believed to be the gateway to hell and that is supposed to stop the devil from burning the local villages to the ground. The cross has been replaced several times after eruptions burned it to the ground. I'll let you form your own opinion of that. The most active crater spews out toxic sulphur and it's recommended you stay only 15 minutes by this crater. The air is moist and stinks and it's hard to breathe - it's awesome! But in this poisonous atmosphere life finds a way. Parrots live in the walls of the craters. They go out foraging all day and at night they come back to their toxic home. And sure enough we hear in the distance the caws and screams of hundreds of birds. And in an instant as if on cue, they fly past and into the small holes in the side of the crater.

We then trek up to the other crater - past a DANGER FALLING ROCK sign. This is Nicaragua and really, if you fell into a volcano would anyone know? No. No safety rope, no signs. I love this.

And then time to see the caves and the bats. Which is interesting becauce it's night. And pitch black. And we have to climb DOWN a tree to get down to the caves - which are wet, slippery and pitch black. We are given flashlights and then told to shut them off and stay still. You cant see the hand in front of you. It's that kind of dark that hurts your eyes.

And then...we feel them and hear them. Whooshes right near your ears. Little screeches. Then more. Then hundreds of little bodies that go at you in kamakazi fashion and veer off to the right or left at the last second to avoid a head on collision with you. Thousands of little bats - not seen but felt, heard. This must be what it feels like to have a bullet whizzing by you. the rustle and wind of tiny wings flying by your ears. I take a single flash picture and when I look at it afterward, there's a dozen bats in front of me - small, furry yellow bodies, red eyes, leathery black wings and smiling fanged grins - amazing. What an experience.

As for the lava? Well, in for a penny, I guess. I was the only one who wanted to still see the lava after being shown where it was. Walk in the pitch blackness to the end of the crater. There's a stick in the lava. Hold it and lean into the crater - be careful - that's 50 ft. down and the lava is about 450 degrees. Hey - I drive in Miami - this is way safer. And I am rewarded with the soft glow of fire. Lava at last.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foOfC52WiDM