"MASAYA VOLCANO" - Lava’s Holy Grail of Great Nicaraguan Volcanoes
I wouldn’t call Masaya Nicaragua’s Greatest Volcano even most of the visitors believe in that title. The greatest Nicaraguan volcanoes should be either Momotombo Volcano or San Cristobal Volcano – however talking about popularity Masaya does not have competition in this category between volcanoes of Nicaragua.
Masaya Volcano was the most visiting place in Nicaragua during my winter trip “Expedition: Nicaragua”. Volcano was open for public during the day time session form 10 AM until 3:30 PM and than for night session from 6 PM – 8 PM. Particularly for Night Session one has to be there early and wait by the gate for hours in line of cars stretching for kilometers.
View in the day time but particularly during the night time is mesmerizing – mainly because Masaya hosts active lava lake deep in the crater. Lake is partially visible only during night session and for most tourists it is Holy Grail of their trip to Nicaragua because of lava viewing is quite unusual experience and in majority of cases require extraordinary effort to get on the top of active volcanoes.
In Case of Masaya Volcano edge of the crater is easily accessible from parking lot which is distant only some 100 meters.
The problem mainly during the night session is that time of viewing is limited to only some 10 minutes since during 2 hours of the daily night session up to thousands tourists is coming to see active volcano in close range. Masaya is definitely easiest accessible Lava lake in the World.
Volcano Discovery: Masaya volcano 25 km SE from Managua is one of Nicaragua's most active and usual volcanoes.
In contrast to most other volcanoes in subduction zones, it has been erupting mainly fluid basaltic lava. Already at the time of the Spanish Conquistadors, it contained an active lava lake and it is reported that there were attempts to extract the volcano's molten "gold."
Masaya is a complex consisting of a 6×11.5 km large caldera with steep, up to 300 m high walls, and a group of young cones at the NW end including Nindirí and Masaya volcano proper. There are multiple summit craters including the currently active Santiago crater, the site of the current activity.
Enjoy and don’t get scared!
Cheers
Jiri
