Telica Volcano

Day 2 in Leon was spent climbing to the top of the Telíca Volcano. It is an active volcano about 30 kilometers from León. 

Telica became active again in 1999. Recently, in the afternoon of May 7 2015, Telica increased its volcanic activity, with explosions and low-intensity earthquakes and these explosions produced gas emissions and volcanic ash. On the night of May 10, the volcano let out a loud explosion and spewed fiery rocks and gases, dusting nearby towns with ash.

The volcano is just over a kilometer high and has a huge crater: 120 meters deep and 700 meters in diameter.

Nicaragua is a key piece in the Pacific Ring of Fire, and has an arc of between 18 and 50 volcanoes. (Only a handful of these are considered active today). Many of these are a short hop from Leon.

Once we reached the top of the crater, the sulphurous gas pouring out was extremely strong...it made you cough and burned your throat. The crater itself was deep with ragged edges and scary sharp drop-offs extending far below us...there is no fence or barrier so we crept as close as we dared to the edge to peer over and admire the grumbling smoky pit below us!

The most incredible, surreal, and frightening part of it all was the sound. You could hear the innards of the volcano rumbling away. It was super creeping and ominous!. I will never forget that sound.

Once the sun set and it was dark, we hiked back to the crater to see the lava!

It’s not like a river or a lake or a pool of molten rock. You creep to the edge, peer down into the dark smoky crater to see spot that are a deep and ominous red glowing like embers of charcoal underneath the grill of a barbecue. It was so surreal and fascinating!

We also went into a bat cave where we were surrounded by 100's of bats flying around and watched a glorious sunset...from the top of Telica, you could see the sun setting into the pacific ocean.