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Volcan Momotombo
Jan. 8th, 2004 05:01 pmActual date: 2nd week of Dec. 03.
One of the most perfectly shaped and colored volcanoes i've ever seen, Volcan Momotombo clearly deserved to be climbed. The nearest roadhead was Leon Viejo, so i started with this (boring) complex of not-so-ancient ruins (in some Centroamerican countries buildings of that age are still functional), and then set off, relying on the info from my LP (never a good idea): "the climb takes about 3-4 hours", which i recalculated for myself as 2 or 3 h. max. It was about 10 AM, and i planned to be back by 3:45 PM in order to catch the last bus.
The views were beautiful enough to make up for wading a small river, possibly infested with crocs, and even though the ground went up, getting steeper and steeper, i was making good time. At some point i felt overheated, so i had even allowed myself the luxury of resting in a shadow for 10 min. The real trouble began when i reach the volcanic cone - loose scree and sand is what such cones normally consist of, but this one was unusually steep and no trail of any kind was leading up. I found myself making four steps to cover the distance of one - like trying to run up an escalator going down - wasting a lot of energy struggling for balance and slowly getting my boots full of rocks. By the time the deadline for descent had come (i had an alarm set in my watch), i had been practicing acrobatics and vulgar Russian for a couple of hours already, and, obviously wanted to at least get my reward - the summit! So i decided to give up the bus - it wasn't of any importance at the moment, you know how it feels when you're overexhausted. After yet another hour, i was so tired that my feet were simply missing the footholds (not that there were any footholds to start with). Finally, i sighted a patch of grass (the only one among black and red stones) ahead, on the other slope, and traversed towards it - to sit down, relax and make up my mind. I had already invested too much power into the climb to just surrender; continuing in my present state, however, was way too dangerous - i wasn't sure i could properly control my body (and was getting nervous - or, honestly saying, raging, berserk, mad - which always helps to keep on, but leads to critical judgment mistakes). Once there, i didn't have to make the hard decision, though - the green stripe turned out to be a huge lava field, "flowing" (it was solid, of course) all the way from the top. It took another hour on this relatively easy terrain to get to the summit; some nice "skiing" down to the base (i was there just in time for the sunset); and a lot of hiking through night forest to return to Leon Viejo. The main prize of this trip was the view from the lakeshore: full moon, volcano, two crescent-shaped clouds backlit by the moon, ocean of stars overhead and just as many underfoot - the latter were fireflies, more than i had ever seen. Imagine criss-crossing posters from a child's bedroom and Rivendale landscapes from "Lord of the Ring" - the result would be just about that (now, if you still have some room in your imagination, make it 3-D, add tactile and olfactory sensations, than the feeling your legs are going to break to bits right now and your back has been forcefully bent to fit the backpack, remember you just got an unlimited source of water after being thirsty for hours, mix it with not-very-encouraging expectations of sleeping hell knows where and you might be really catching it). Speaking of beauty perception...
I found a place to stay in the village (in a local house) without that much trouble, so that's it. The 2 seconds between me realizing i've found a bed and snoring healthily were uneventful.
Total: a mark (been there, done it), some exhibition-quality shots. Another reminder for me to keep in mind that Earth is Earth - but it's quite pretty sometimes.
One of the most perfectly shaped and colored volcanoes i've ever seen, Volcan Momotombo clearly deserved to be climbed. The nearest roadhead was Leon Viejo, so i started with this (boring) complex of not-so-ancient ruins (in some Centroamerican countries buildings of that age are still functional), and then set off, relying on the info from my LP (never a good idea): "the climb takes about 3-4 hours", which i recalculated for myself as 2 or 3 h. max. It was about 10 AM, and i planned to be back by 3:45 PM in order to catch the last bus.
The views were beautiful enough to make up for wading a small river, possibly infested with crocs, and even though the ground went up, getting steeper and steeper, i was making good time. At some point i felt overheated, so i had even allowed myself the luxury of resting in a shadow for 10 min. The real trouble began when i reach the volcanic cone - loose scree and sand is what such cones normally consist of, but this one was unusually steep and no trail of any kind was leading up. I found myself making four steps to cover the distance of one - like trying to run up an escalator going down - wasting a lot of energy struggling for balance and slowly getting my boots full of rocks. By the time the deadline for descent had come (i had an alarm set in my watch), i had been practicing acrobatics and vulgar Russian for a couple of hours already, and, obviously wanted to at least get my reward - the summit! So i decided to give up the bus - it wasn't of any importance at the moment, you know how it feels when you're overexhausted. After yet another hour, i was so tired that my feet were simply missing the footholds (not that there were any footholds to start with). Finally, i sighted a patch of grass (the only one among black and red stones) ahead, on the other slope, and traversed towards it - to sit down, relax and make up my mind. I had already invested too much power into the climb to just surrender; continuing in my present state, however, was way too dangerous - i wasn't sure i could properly control my body (and was getting nervous - or, honestly saying, raging, berserk, mad - which always helps to keep on, but leads to critical judgment mistakes). Once there, i didn't have to make the hard decision, though - the green stripe turned out to be a huge lava field, "flowing" (it was solid, of course) all the way from the top. It took another hour on this relatively easy terrain to get to the summit; some nice "skiing" down to the base (i was there just in time for the sunset); and a lot of hiking through night forest to return to Leon Viejo. The main prize of this trip was the view from the lakeshore: full moon, volcano, two crescent-shaped clouds backlit by the moon, ocean of stars overhead and just as many underfoot - the latter were fireflies, more than i had ever seen. Imagine criss-crossing posters from a child's bedroom and Rivendale landscapes from "Lord of the Ring" - the result would be just about that (now, if you still have some room in your imagination, make it 3-D, add tactile and olfactory sensations, than the feeling your legs are going to break to bits right now and your back has been forcefully bent to fit the backpack, remember you just got an unlimited source of water after being thirsty for hours, mix it with not-very-encouraging expectations of sleeping hell knows where and you might be really catching it). Speaking of beauty perception...
I found a place to stay in the village (in a local house) without that much trouble, so that's it. The 2 seconds between me realizing i've found a bed and snoring healthily were uneventful.
Total: a mark (been there, done it), some exhibition-quality shots. Another reminder for me to keep in mind that Earth is Earth - but it's quite pretty sometimes.
