It’s been a while since Part One, I apologize, it’s been a bit of a hectic wind-down of my time in Nicaragua and moving back to Canada. Part Two of this journey is short and sweet.

Nicaragua is known as the “Land of Lakes and Volcanoes” primarily in part due to the string of volcanoes along the Pacific side of the country. Most of these volcanoes are dormant – whether in the form of filled in lagoons, or dormant hills that have never erupted or have not erupted in many years. Two of these volcanoes (Volcan Concepcion and Volcan Maderas) form the island in the middle of the largest lake in the country, Lake Cocibolca (also known as Lake Nicaragua), and more photos that feature those two volcanoes can be found on the previous entry which focused on Ometepe.

There are hiking opportunities on most of the volcanoes, but the two on Ometepe and Mombacho are the most popular for tourists to hike. Momotombo had been a favorite to hike but has been very active in recent months and access passes to hike have not been granted.

Volcan Masaya has also recently been in the spotlight with the visibility of its lava consistently for the last year from the parking lot at the top. Closed in early 2016 for safety purposes, the park has since reopened on a different schedule. You can now go up for 15 minute increments after waiting at least 4x that in line, for a sight of the lava either midday or at night. Previously, there were additional trails you could walk on and tours (including a night tour), but these were no longer taking place when I visited several times between May and November 2016.

The smallest volcano, that also happens to be one of the most exciting, Cerro Negro, didn’t make it into my photos because I thought if I brought my camera, it could be damaged in the process of Volcano Boarding down the volcano. I so highly recommend the hike up to witness the stunning views and see the volcano literally smoking beneath your feet, and enjoying a unique experience boarding down! While I wouldn’t have damaged my camera, each trip down is different so please don’t trust me for that!

They’re a little out of order, but here are some of the volcanoes and remnants of volcanoes, as well as the activities to be enjoyed at them!