volcano bombs

so i hefted my body straight up a volcano yesterday. truly, since they don´t build switchbacks here...just straight up and up. but the first half is a pleasant jaunt through organic, shade grown coffee groves and then shade grown cocoa trees. halfway up the 5km trail the clouds move in and it´s a cloud forest, complete with drippy, mossy trees, jungle vines, mud holes, and the occasional box turtle (which we placed on a rock for its viewing pleasure). at the very top you descend this steep bank to get to a crater lake. again, it was shrouded in misty clouds, so i half expected an indigenous tribal chief to float across the pond in his pontoon boat and offer us McDonalds hamburgers.

i was in a pretty large group, along with a band of mischievious gun-toting and bomb-toting nicaraguan men. they set off two bombs...one at the halfway point up the trail and one at the crater lake´s edge. well, when i say ´bomb´i´m more likely thinking an M-80..or one of colin´s homemade bombs. and actually they were just really powerful mortars. but other than that, it was a nice, knee'crunching time to be had.

now i´m just relaxing on this huge porch in a hammock and hopefully my body will repair itself with all this mango and pineapple juice i´m drinking. later today me and a few fellows are moving to the farm next door where they have homemade bread (no more hot dog buns for bread!), peanut butter, chocolate, and free bananas. i have yet to eat a banana here. strange.

then on thursday i catch the ferry boat and take an overnight trip to the east side of Lake Nicaragua, where i take a public boat downriver to Boca de Sabalos and stay at the Sabalos Lodge ecolodge (google it).

signing off,
Charlos (it´s about as close to Charles as the Nicas can manage)