Intl Labor Day Weekend: Trails at Chocoyero and Mombacho

I remember being surprised by the May 1st Labor Day celebrations in the central plaza when I was in Santa Cruz, Bolivia back in 2004.  What were all these chants honoring the Heroes and Martyrs of Chicago? Later I read some about the Haymarket Riots of Chicago, which have led more than 80 countries to recognize everyday laborers on May 1st each year. However, they say President Cleveland didn't want to draw extra attention to the Haymarket Riots and picked a September date. Interestingly, the rest of the world remembers these events better than the U.S. does.

Anyhow, we took advantage of a three day weekend (four days for the kids) to do some hiking and swimming around Granada.  Beautiful time.

Hike 1: El Chocoyero.  A nice 1 hr loop outside of the town of Ticuatepe that is most famous for its cliff with péricos verdes (green parakeets) that fly out in masses early in the morning and return late in the late afternoon.  We were going to be there late morning, but were pleasantly surprised to see a few swarms fly back and forth.  There's a nice tall waterfall there as well.  Lia spotted the national bird, the guardabarranco, (apparently translated as motmot) as we were driving in, sitting on a fencepost along the dirt road.  It flew away as I was backing up to take a picture. We saw another one later, but farther away and not as easily photographed.

 The guardabarranco.

 The waterfall and green parakeet cliff.

Hike 2:  Volcán Mombacho - 1 hr Crater trail.  This is a popular tourist destination, and we had a frustrating start to the day when we were misled on by some signs pointing the way to Mombacho, which turned out to be the name of a small development on the outskirts of Granada.  After significant backtracking, we made it to the park entrance and caught ride up the steep roads (looking back, the Hilux would have done fine on these roads, but we were low on fuel and the kids loved these big 4x4 truck/buses).

This was our first family volano hike!  Rebekah and I hiked Volcán Santa Maria and Volcán Pacaya in Guatemala several years back. The crater loop had limited views of the crater itself, since it is well grown-over by now.  The lush vegetation was beautiful.  There were some nice views out over Colcibola (Lake Nicaragua) and Laguna de Apoyo, even if it was a little hazy.  Lia liked putting her hand in the fumarolas, these holes where warm sulfuric vapor still seeps out from the volcano. Early on in this hike, Silas tripped and hurt his knee and was not very cheery. But a highlight for everyone was right at the end of the trail seeing a mother sloth and her baby hanging beside the trail.

 

We hiked around one of those little craters that is at the top right hand side of the model.

The islets of Colicbolca.

The view down into the crater.

 The lollipop wasn't enough for Silas and the scrape on his knee.

One of the fumarolas.

It's a little hard to see the baby sloth in this picture, but he's there somewhere.

An impromptu family picture in a restaurant in Granada with mirrors on the ceiling.

Wiped out and watching Netflix.  The pool and the AC were nice too.  Back to work on Tuesday.