Nicaragua Day 8

We set out from our Hotel Paradiso in the morning and headed to the Mombacho Cloud Reserve. Once at the base of the mountain, we paid for our tickets to ride up to the top and another for the guided tour. Our ride up was in the back of a safari style diesel truck. The truck was annoyingly loud as it lugged its way up the extremely steep switchbacks. At the top we met our tour guides who split us up into groups of eight. I wanted to be in a group with the professors, just to listen to them talk about what we were seeing. As I had learned before, the tour guides in Nicaragua may speak sufficient English, but they are not always correct in their knowledge or translating. Unfortunately the professors group was full so I had to join another group, however I should have joined them anyways because my group had nine people. I was in the last group and probably the slowest group, but I decided that I would make it a good experience. Going slowly is not always a bad thing, especially on a tour in a cloud forest. I was able to take more time looking for wildlife along the trail. Once again I was disappointed, because there was very limited wildlife to be seen. The loud trucks running up and down the mountain side must have scared them away. We saw mostly beetles, butterflies, some howler monkeys, and of course plants which are immobile. The group I wanted to be in saw some green tree frogs. We circled the top of the mountain, which is actually a chain of volcanoes that have been created due to the movement of the tectonic plate over the top of a magma chamber. We had some cool vantage points from being up that high. I was able to capture some images along the way, but many shots came out blurry. My camera struggled this day due to the poor lighting conditions under the forest canopy. Even with all of the letdowns, I enjoyed the hike. The remainder of the day was spent relaxing at the hotel and exploring part of the city of Granada.

Mombacho Cloud Reserve