Mombacho Volcano is a great place to take kids  Nicaragua

We were up early this a.m. We were trying (again) to hike Mombacho Volcano. Our hotel rang the company that organizes the tours and we were told to be there by 9 a.m. So we took a taxi with so much excitement since we expected the day’s family travel to be fun-filled. It has always been my joy to create a smile on my son’s face through interesting single parent travel adventures like this.

Now, taxi’s in Nicaragua are not always just for you-you need to share with locals, as we did for the first part of the ride. perhaps this would be a shocker to luxury travel experts who are used to having a cab all for themselves.

When we arrived we were told the tour only left at 10:30 a.m. Great – not! Now we had 1.5 hours to kill. There is an orchid sanctuary with butterflies and they told us there was no charge so we headed there.

When we got there, the lady told us there was a charge. I am telling you – communication is not big in Nicaragua! So we told her, the man had assured us there was no charge, and she shrugged her shoulders and let us in.

Good thing. There were only 4 butterflies we could see. Not an orchid in bloom either.  Well, one!

We headed back to wait for the truck that takes us up the volcano. We were greeted by a friendly dog, that was so close to starvation – it was so sad. So Explorason decided his “Random Act of Kindness” was to give up his (or actually our) lunch to the poor dog. After ‘lunch’, he then shared the Pringles for ‘dessert’ so he tells me. One satisfied dog.

Along came some lovely girls and we got chatting. Then along came our friends again!

We piled into the newer of the 2 trucks. I wanted the old Army truck, but not to be.

Explorason was reading again. There he is going up the side of a volcano, and he is more interested in his book. I had to ask him to put it down and look around. It is not every day you 4WD up a side of a volcano!

It was quite a bumpy ride. We stopped first at an organic coffee farm. The coffee was absolutely fabulous. I shared an iced coffee whip with Explorason and was concerned he might get caffeine high, but he seemed OK.

We then decided with the other family to share a guide. I am so glad we did. We learned and saw things we would have missed if we just roamed ourselves.

Our guide showed us a HUGE worm – it was the size of a small snake.

We then wandered to a steam hole. The view was magnificent. There are 4 craters on this volcano.

The guide found holes in the ground and had us put our hands inside. As we felt the earth – it was super hot. The next hole was more of an angle and was boiling. The kids thought this was great, and learned about the heat inside the volcanic earth.

Our guide also pointed out this orchid. He tells us it only flowers once a year. It only flowers for one day. We felt pretty happy we got to see that!

We then went to another mirador. Here you can see where the side of the volcano collapsed and formed 365 islands in the sea. Many of these islands are now owned by the rich of Nicaragua.

On the way back I was pretty excited. In nearly 1 year we have not seen a sloth in the day. I had no idea what they looked like, and now there was one right above us.

Then the boys found a butterfly. My son loves to take time and have them crawl on his hand. I think this one was near the end of its life. It was very slow.

I am told butterflies only live for 2 weeks, so it may well be possible that this was its last day. The amazing thing was the metallic blue changed from a light blue to a bright cobalt blue.

We rode the truck back down the hill 3 hours after we had started up. The kids were starving. We were late to move on. The lovely ladies we met gave us a ride to the main road.

From there, we took a moto-taxi for $6 back to the hostel in Granada. The moto-taxis wait at the intersection, so there were a few to haggle with.

Back at the hostel, we took our last swim, said our goodbyes and moved on. We really enjoyed Granada.

Notes:

• Have you traveled to Nicaragua?
• Did you get to see the Mambacho volcano?
• Having read my article, do you think you can take your kids for a trip to Nicaragua?
• Do share your comments with us below.