Mt. Mombacho was definitely one of the highlights of my trip thus far. Mombacho is an active volcano, but hasn’t had an eruption in centuries. The top of Mombacho is home to a cloud forest, which translates to 100% HUMIDITY!!
A huge truck took us up the mountain, which is extremely steep. After bouncing and sliding around (I was sure that someone was going to end up falling out of the truck and tumbling down the mountain…), we reached the halfway point and stopped at a coffee plantation. Did you know that coffee beans are actually round and green before they’re dried and roasted?? Yeah, I didn’t, so like an idiot, I’m looking around going “Where’s the coffee?” We got to sample some delicious coffee and were then herded back to the bouncing truck to continue our journey up the mountain.
We finally got to the top and had lunch. Nicaragua is so relaxed sometimes that it drives me crazy – it took 45 minutes for them to slap a slice of ham and cheese between two pieces of bread!!! But after that, we were finally on our way to exploring the cloud forest. There were a lot of different and very cool trees and plants, but unfortunately, I don’t know any of their names, other than bamboo and hibiscus. So you can play the fun game of making up your own names for all the pictures attached… We hiked around for a couple of hours in the sticky air before nearly collapsing back at the top. I had to wear long sleeves, not because it was cold (remember, 100% humidity) but because I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, so I was drenched by the time we were done. There were some amazing views of lake Nicaragua and the surrounding area. If the pictures look a little cloudy, it’s because, well, I took them from inside the clouds!
Luckily for us, the truck breaks held up as we screeched back down the mountain and we were soon on our way to San Juan del Sur to complete our weekend. All in all, it was a VERY cool experience, definitely one of my favorite Nicaraguan moments.
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