Volcano Time!

               There are three fault types of plate tectonics, but there is only two fault types boundaries in Nicaragua.  A convergent boundary and a transform boundary.  Convergent boundaries don't slide against each other, or pull away from each other.  They collide.  And transform boundaries slide across each other.This is why Nicaragua has so many volcanoes, mountains and earthquakes.  Nicaragua is actually the one country in the word with the most volcanoes.  There are 19 volcanoes in Nicaragua (and lots of earthquakes too!) , all along the Pacific Coast.   Weird huh? This is because of the Cocos Plate and the Caribbean Plate pushing and sliding against each other forming these volcanoes.

               Nicaragua is on the Ring of Fire.  It is a "ring" of volcanoes that stretches around the edge of the Pacific plate.  There is also a lot of earthquake activity on the Ring of Fire.  Where I am in Nicaragua is practically on the Ring of Fire.  I, thankfully, haven't had any earthquakes here.  Nor has there been any eruptions. There is, however, 2 active volcanoes.

               A couple of days ago I visited the volcanic tourist attraction, Volcan Mombacho.  Mombacho is dormant, and it's last eruption was in 1570, but that doesn't mean it couldn't make an appearance in 2014.  My family, my mom's friend, and our driver/guide took us up the volcano and we walked around the rim of one of the 4 craters.  Mombacho is a stratovolcano.  This means that is has been built up with layers upon layers of magma and ash.  We yelled across the crater to hear our echoes.  It was really cool to hear our voices on the whole other side of the volcano, like someone was repeating what we had just said all the way across the volcano.  As we were walking, we saw fumaroles.  Fumaroles are vents that emit volcanic gases including: Carbon Dioxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Hydrochloric Acid, Hydrogen Sulfide, and Steam.  These fumaroles are a result of an active magma chambers.  These fumaroles were the coolest part of the volcano.  Other than the amazing panoramic view!

               Laguna de Apoyo (Lake Apoyo) is a really cool lake where an extinct volcano blew up 23,000 years ago, creating a huge 6 kilometer (3.7 feet) long crater.  Eventually rain and subterranean waters filled it up.  There are six species of native cichlid fish in this lake.  You will only find them in a couple of other volcanic crater lakes in the area.  This lake also has (volcanic) pumice stones.  They float!!!  They are really light compared to regular rocks.  When I threw one into the water, I expected it to sink(like a normal rock).  It didn't, it was floating.  I also expected pumice to be black.  but they are almost pure white!  The bottom of the lake was really rocky (lots of pebbles), but if you dug your hands past those pebbles, it was really warm.   Laguna de Apoyo is located in between Masaya and Granada.  The road to get there is really long and all up hill.  It took approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes to get there from our house.  It was a long day, but the beautiful view and experience was worth it. 

Floating rocks in Laguna de Apoyo. 

Halfway Through the Trip

               We delivered the baseball gear last week to a local little league program. We brought; bats, balls, gloves, batting gloves, cleats, pants, shirts, catcher's gear, hats, and trophies.  The trophies were the biggest hit though! They loved them.  All of this equipment was donated by friends, family and many Rye community members.  We brought it to a restaurant called Burrito Bandito.  The owner's wife helps coach the local team in the town of California, Nicaragua, and they desperately needed equipment. They only had 2 balls. We arrived at Burrito Bandito and there were already fifteen kids all waiting for the equipment.  When we brought all the bags out of the car, they were so excited!  They looked so happy with all the donations.  We had enough to outfit the whole team in gear and still some left over to share with other teams.

                Yesterday we went to one of the team's baseball games.  We did not get to see it because a soccer game had just started. Their field down the way had not been cut, so they moved their game to the little league field.  I was disappointed that we were not going to see them play!  They did not get to play on their field, but they started playing a game on the narrow, dirt streets!  It was so fun to watch!  When we arrived to see the game, we saw all of the kids that we gave clothes to in their new uniforms.  Some of them even had Pink Sox uniforms!  The soccer team had just began their game as we were arriving, and the game would last another two hours before the baseball team could play.  We ended up watching them playing in front of the little houses lining the streets as we sat on the boulders and the curb to see them play their little scrimmage.

               Yesterday we went to Los Cardones for lunch.  It's about 15 minutes away, and on the beach.  Los Cardones is in this secluded area of Playa San Diego, Nicaragua.  Los Cardones is an eco lodge on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.  There, they have no electricity, they care for sea turtle eggs until they hatch(then they take them to the ocean),  their kitchen in solar powered, they compost, recycle, there is no iguana hunting(which is very common here), and they serve local foods only.  On our way, we saw an oxen cart carrying water to Los Cardones,this is because they do not allow truck to drive on their roads because it will impact trying to keep the land "undisturbed". And we also saw a ton of iguanas bathing in the sun.  Theses iguanas are VERY safe here.  The owner does not allow iguana poachers to kill the iguanas on this territory.  The poachers will cook the iguana and put in on a stick for sale.  Los Cardones is a pretty cool place.

               My family and I went to an amazing restaurant called Hotel Summer.  They had good local food.  But on our way back, my mom stopped at a little market on the side of the road.  They had fresh veggies and fruits, and most importantly....... drum roll please..........SUGAR CANE!!!!  So my mom got out of the car to get her veggies, and my sugar cane.  I got some sugar cane, and my sister did too.  On our drive back, we saw that it was sugar cane harvesting time around here.  There were huge cane trucks blocking the road as they tried to get onto the fields.  The cane was piled high up onto the trucks.  One of the main crops here is sugar cane.  There may be more jobs for Nicaraguans, but the giant trucks going down the narrow dirt roads, kicking up dirt, gives the kids chronic coughing.  I feel bad for the little toddlers who just cough, and cough, and cough because they cannot get the dirt out of their lungs. Also, the Nicaraguan Sugar Cane Company are putting chemicals into the sugar cane that is cleaning it and exterminating the "bad insects", but is ruining the land.  A significant number of the workers in these cane fields are slowly dying of kidney failure because of the horrible chemicals in these fields and the calcium int their drinking water.

Adiós for now,
               Addie