Coffee and Zip Lines and Volcanoes, Oh My! (or, Nicaragua, Day Ten)

Saturday was bittersweet, though mostly sweet. The bitter part was that most of our group left for home today. What was the sweet part? Keep reading.

We left the house around 10 in the morning for Grenada, to visit Volcan Mombacho.

About halfway up the volcano there is coffee plantation with a zip line. We bussed up to the plantation, and half of us stayed at the lodge, drinking free coffee and enjoying the view, and half of us went to the zip line tour of the plantation. It was incredible: zooming from tree to tree, 50 feet above the ground, looking out over seemingly endless coffee plants. The second to last line was Tarzan-style, so we just grabbed and went for it. It was so exhilarating, though nothing compared to the rappel as the last line. Dropping 50 feet down a tree, with your stomach and heart in you throat, is kind of super awesome.

After the zip line, we bussed the rest of the way up the volcano. On a clear day, you can see the ocean and some island off the coast, and you get a great view of the city of Grenada from the top of Mombacho. Unfortunately, Saturday was not a clear day, so we had limited views. Other than about a ten second glimpse of the ocean, islands, and the opposite side of the crater, the fog was so thick we could see nothing except what was right below us.

Even though we couldn’t see anything, we still took part of the trail around the rim, and got to hike through the rainforest a little bit. And, just so y'all know: hiking through the rain forest is exactly what you’d think: it is damp, it is green and it is just too cool.