Nicaragua - Day 4

Today the ecology group was undertaking a longer walk.  As the tendon in my ankle was pulling slightly and we worked out it was at least 6 degrees hotter in the forest, I opted to join the geophys group and have a slightly easier day. We were hopping from point to point in the van, taking readings at various stations around the crater.

I took my first reading on the side of the road approaching the crater. It was really hard to get the gravity meter perfectly balanced - we take readings to a micro gal (a thousandth of a thousandth of a centimeter per second squared) - but I managed it eventually. As we were waiting for professor to take her reading, I was taking a photo of a tree in flower when I was stung under my arm. I don't know how as I had a shirt on, but the pain was incredible. Luckily I didn't have a reaction, and had some anti-histamine cream I could put on immediately, so it didn't swell up too badly and just feels a little tender.

Out next stop was a slight walk up to the top of the neighbouring San Fernando crater. This is now inactive. There was a lava flow in 1773 but it erupted from a passage at the side, so the crater is intact and now covered in vegetation. It was very beautiful, and forms its own little ecosystem in the crater as it is inaccessible to humans.

 

We did gravity and GPS readings at several more stations, and had lunch near the old car park on the other side of the crater. After lunch we visited the bat cave, which is an old lava tube. It stretched quite a long way. We must have walked at least 100 metres before reaching the main chamber, where we saw the bats. It was surprising how far in the tree roots had grown.

 

On the way back, we did another couple of readings as a double check, then headed back to the hotel.

Before dinner, I joined Rob and Andy on a stroll around the town. We were looking for the market but got rather lost and walked a little further than intended so had an ice cream to make up for it. We did find the market eventually and it was full of quaint craft stores, most of which were starting to close so we only had a quick look round before returning to the hotel before it got dark.