Volcan Masaya – impressively active!

Nicaragua is a country of volcanoes and right now, 5 of them are a lot more active than normal.   The closest one to the Spanish school is Volcan Masaya – somewhere between 5 and 8 km away (as the crow flies) depending on whose map app you choose to believe (we had a couple of people on the job after dinner one night).

This is Volcan Masaya as seen from the lookout behind La Mariposa at dusk.

Doesn’t look too active… but apparently it has been churning away steadily for over 170 years.  But when taken at night (facing a little more towards the left to where it dips down):

Parque Nacional Volcan Masaya is currently closed due to the increased activity but aparently the whole bottom of the Santiago crater is full of lava.  There has been at least one video taken from directly above the volcano — pretty impressive!

Part of me would LOVE to see this in real life!   Then the other part of me reminds me that I’m scared stiff of volcanoes and they give me nightmares 🙁  Besides – it’s illegal to go near the volcano at this point…

Bit of a difference from when I was here 2 years ago and visited the Volcan Masaya on the night tour as one of the school activities!   This was the view from the rim of the Santiago crater – lots of gas but no lava…

I’ve felt one earth tremor ~4 on the Richter scale due to the activity (nothing like what I experienced in Chile).   Fortunately the main flow of lava (if it happens) will be away from where I’m staying, though we would be heavily affected by ash fall if such a thing were to occur according to this diagram that was in the paper.

Even so, fingers crossed the Volcan Masaya doesn’t actually erupt while I’m here!