Saturday, June 16, 2007


Overlooking one of the volcano calderas at Masaya National Park, outside of Granada. This was Nicaragua's first National Park, created in 1979. What looks like a cloud, is actually sulfur dioxide gas and stream rising from the volcano. At one point while we were hiking, we had to turn away because the gases were so strong you couldn't breath and had to cough. In 1991 Masaya erupted in this Park injuring tourists with gases and blast eruptions. There are no homes in the vicinity of this volcano because of all the gas that it emits and because of danger of further eruptions.

There is a large flock of Long-tailed Green Parakeets that nest in this caldera; they have somehow successfully adapted to life in a cloud of sulfur dioxide.
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