This one appealed to me as apparently you can drive right up the crater's edge ie no walking. In true central American style it wasn't quite the cruisey afternoon I was expecting. The volcano is the most heavily venting volcano in Nicaragua. In 2001 an eruption hurled heated rocks 500m into the air - hitting cars and narrowly missing people. This probably explains why you now have to park facing the exit - ready to drive literally for your lives ( where was Ryan Gosling's character in drive when I needed him). The other surprise at the volcanoes edge was the issue of gas masks. My god and if they'd have been effective they would have been great. The very free flowing sulphur gases were very strong, choking in fact - you can stand about 5 minutes but that's about it. We did a few hikes around the crater, saw sunrise and then headed underground to explore some of the lava tubes 50m underground. We saw some sleeping baby bats ( surprisingly cute at 2 weeks old). We also sat in the dark at the exit of a cave home to 35,000 big adult bats. You could feel them rushing past your heads.
Eugh.
Now I truly feel I'm probably at my volcano limit - I don't think anything will ever top the Aeolian islands off the northern coast of Sicily. Their volcano errupts sending lava into the air every night. A pretty nice natural fireworks display from a sailing boat. I admire Nicaragua's effort in trying to beat mighty Sicily - but so far it's failing.
Our next destination - Isla de la ometepe - is am island which has not one but 2 volcanoes on. Let's see what kind of show they put on.
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