Nicaragua is known as the Land of Lakes and Volcanoes because is the country with the most number of lakes and volcanoes in Central America. The Masaya Volcano National Park is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Nicaraguan Pacific, thanks to the fact that it offers the opportunity to have a direct contact with the area of its crater, as well as with the flora and fauna of the site. This is one of the sixth active volcanoes in Nicaragua.
This amazing National Park is the first park founded in 1979, and the largest national park in the country, consisting of a volcanic caldera with two volcanoes and five craters.
Situated at only 23 kilometers from the capital, the Masaya Volcano is easy to visit since its road connects with the main road Managua-Masaya-Granada. Its crater “Santiago” has an altitude of 635 meters above sea level, and continuously emits large amounts of sulfur dioxide. The crater also maintains an incandescence inside due to a persistent lava lake which can be seen at nights from the edge of the huge crater. The Spaniard colonizers named this active crater as “The Mouth of Hell”.
The Santiago active volcano is located at the center of the huge National Park, and at its feet is the volcanic lagoon bearing the same name. It is the only active volcano in the country which crater rim is reachable by vehicle.
Every night the park offers a spectacle that astonishes its nocturnal visitors: the appreciation of the so-called “lava lake” that can be observed from the very shore of the crater. A big cross stands at the top of the hill, next to the crater of the volcano, in the same place where the original similar wooden cross was planted in 1528 by the jealous Mercedarian friar Francisco de Bobadilla, according his religious beliefs in order to “exorcise the devil”.
North American American daredevil Nik Wallenda completed a history-making 1,800-foot highwire walk across the active Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua on March 4, 2020.
Instituto Lingüístico Inter-Cultural, the Spanish language school in Granada includes this day-excursion to the Volcán Masaya National Park, as part of the field trips in the Full Spanish Immersion courses.
