Running Down a Volcano (or, Nicaragua, Day Eleven)

So, Sunday was going to be a day to chill out and get ready for the coming week, but instead, it became an adventure day. We went to another volcano, Cerra Negro, this one much closer, much less jungle-y, and much more exciting, because we got to climb this one. It is in Leon, but you would never know: we spent about 45 minutes on a dirt and rock road to get to the mountain. It really seems like it is just in the middle of nowhere.

The volcano is something like a national park, so as we were paying the entrance fee, we all thought we'd be able to get out a use the restroom. Instead, we were told that they were up closer to where we start the hike. When we finally parked the bus, we looked around. There were no facilities anywhere. The leader of the group, John, stood up and said, "Okay, anyone who has to go to the bathroom: If the women could go the the right, and the men to the left, y'all will have some privacy." We all just kind of looked at him for a second, realized he was serious, and went and found ourselves a tree.

Once we had taken care of that, we were given a choice between three trails: challenging, more challenging and most challenging. I chose to do the plain old challenging trail because I had heard that it was more scenic and you could really enjoy and absorb the view. It was so worth it. The views were incredible. It was mostly clear, so we could see pretty far, but that's not even the coolest part. We were able to watch, and hear, a rainstorm approach us from the plains. It was amazing. I had just reach the rim of the crater when the rain got close enough that we could see and hear it pretty well, and so I just sat down and watched the edge of the downpour come closer and closer, and then move away and around from me.

Once the rain was pretty much gone, I continued up the the peak of the volcano, and from there, watched a thunderstorm approach. It was incredibly windy and as the clouds came in, they would actually come up and over the lip of the crater. If I focused on the clouds, it seemed as though we were flying through the clouds. It was amazing. Once we started seeing lightening that was closer rather than farther, we came down from the peak to find out how we could get down.

Sabrina, John's wife, was directing people down the more challenging path, because to get down, it is actually the most efficient. At first, I was trying to walk down, but Cerra Negro is, for the most part, a big pile of loose sand and small rocks. This makes walking pretty hard. Instead, you end up kind of skating down the slope, so if you run down the slope, you skate faster. It almost feels like powder skiing, except it was 80 degrees and the "powder" was black, volcanic, and getting stuck in our shoes. Lauren and I decided that "Volcano Running" should become a new sport, with gear and rules and competitions.

On a related note: When we were just arriving, we saw people surfing down the side of the mountain. Those of us who ski/snowboard were talking and we decided that taking a pair of rock skis with us next time was a definite must!

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.

A Full Day of Surgery (or, Nicaragua, Day Nine)

Friday I saw four more surgeries: two elbows, a wrist/arm, and a tendon transfer/ankle. They were amazing.

The tendon transfer was for a beautiful young girl, who the orthopedic doctors see every six months. She was born with both feet very deformed, but with quite a few surgeries, she is able to walk, and the doctors are slowly but surely straightening her feet and ankles.

Both elbows were very similar: the person's range of motion was very small. In one case it was because there was extra bone growth on the elbow, so they just took a little out, and all was fixed. In the other case, they had to put pins in, and it was a little more intense, but because the child was so young, he will probably regain almost complete motion.

The arm surgery was the craziest though. The man had broken his arm years ago, and it hadn’t healed correctly. He had gotten two separate surgeries on it to try to fix it, and both surgeries had just made it worse to the point where his forearm had a visible curve to it. The doctors removed pieces of bone, and screwed and plate the remaining bone together. Cool fact about healing bones: bones only heal if they are under compression. The holes in the plate the doctor used had sloped sides, so he started the screw at the very edge of the hole, and as it was going in, it slid down the sloped side and pulled the two pieces of bone together.

The doctor was telling us about how so many of the things we are able to do in the medical field, especially orthopedics, are only possible because of engineers. The people that come up with the new materials and new devices that imitate the human body are part of the team we have to thank for the advances we have made.

The Hardest Morning and the Easiest Afternoon (or, Nicaragua, Day Eight)

Update on the boy who was brought to the hospital in Leon: He stayed overnight there, and by Wednesday morning he was breathing on his own. He came back to the hospital in Betania, and was sent home with pneumonia and pain medication.

Thursday was a hard day. We spent the morning in town at an orphanage for severely handicapped children called Hogar Niños Angeles. The majority of these children spend their days on mats on the floor, being fed, watered and moved by nurses. Most of them can not speak, and the few that can just use single words, no sentences. They like to be touched, and to hold your hand. The ones that can really move will place your hands where they want them, with the pressure they want. It is one of the saddest places I have ever been.

We ate lunch in town: some of us went to Subway, some of us went to Tip-Top, and some of us went to Smudy (a smoothie place). We also made a quick stop at Roseanna's store to visit her puppy.

In the afternoon, we went out to Villa de Catalina again and just spent the afternoon walking around and hanging out with the children. I gave away all my bracelets, took a million pictures and met a few families. The children are so funny: they are so excited to introduce you to their mother and father, their brothers and sisters. One little girl took my hand and literally PULLED me down the street to her house to meet her mother.

And the parents: they want us to take photos of their children. One mother convinced her little boy to let me take his photo, and then afterwards she made him say thank you. So, I knelt down, and instead of just saying “Gracias”, he put his hand on my knee, and kissed me on the cheek. It was the lightest, most fathery, best kiss I’ve ever received.