[Above: Video producer Adam Burgess shoots footage from the peak of the Mombacho Volcano. Click here for a pop-up photo of the fireworks crowd at the Virgin festival.]

Journal by Todd Borgie

It was another day in Granada -- firecrackers (bombas) popping and a mobile altar blaring (a car with a loud PA system driving up and down the streets, blaring religious messages, or which I couldn’t really understand at the hour) before the sun even came up. I don’t know if this happens every morning, or just around Christmas time.

Signs of Christmas were everywhere, lights, Christmas trees and Christmas carols in Spanish playing from radios. Apparently this city possesses greater admiration for Mother Mary than any other place on Earth, according to the Pope. We will get to this later on in the evening.

Granada is an interesting place. In the town square I saw a plaque stating that this was a sister city to Antigua, which I did not find surprising. The both have a similar feel, although Granada is much more spread out than Antigua. Both possess early Spanish architecture and oddly enough, both are shadowed by volcanoes that have altered the lowland history by flooding and ruining the cities below.

Anyway, we woke up this morning with a mission to ascend to the top of the Mombacho Volcano, which is situated on the outskirts of the town. Around the peak of Mombacho is a cloud forest; this condition is caused by the high elevation, high winds, and the tropical climate. You can hang out in the clouds.

The team was up early eating traditional Nicaraguan breakfasts of eggs, rice and beans. We needed to bring a lot of water, sunscreen and rain gear, because our guides promised us that things would be wet. Because the climb to the top of the volcano is so steep we needed to bring the Land Rovers; other non-four wheel drive vehicles would not be strong enough to make it.

As we headed outside of the city to climb the mountains we saw, horse carts, chickens, and people of all ages, walking to work with their machetes (the most useful tool ever). There were gardens filled with bananas and mango trees and all kinds of vegetables. The houses that surrounded them were simple two room dwellings with corrugated roofs (very loud when it rains).

Since we did not have a very good map to lead us outside of Granada, we had to use our newly named mode “impulse drive”. “Impulse drive” is when you don’t have a map or tools, you just go with what feels right. When you are traveling by “impulse drive” the rest of the team has to understand that we might have to turn around a lot, but most likely we will get to where we are going.

You have to realize that it is difficult to travel with four vehicles. The lead car sets the direction, however, the cars in back sometimes can read the signs better, because they have more time. Also, it is a drag to turn around because the streets are often narrow, and with traffic it takes a lot of time to turn four vehicles around. On top of that when you have been traveling all day and you pull into a city with a lot of traffic, the team is often ready to be done driving, and less patient. Although these are some of the potential problems, we have had a good lead car driven by Rolf and Justin, thus we haven’t had to do much turning around or going in circles.

Anyway, by impulse drive and a little help from the locals (just a side bar here, everyone we have met has been great, and most all the directions we have gotten from locals have steered us in the right direction), we found the Mombacho reserve. After paying the entrance fee we drove the Rovers to the top of this extinct volcano. The road was a steep brick road, but -- using our low-range gears -- the Rovers made without a problem.

For a picture tour of Mombacho reserve, you will have to go the Educational portion of the web site.

The jungle was beautiful and the hiking was tough. Since we were on the side of a volcano, we constantly going up hill or downhill. It was interesting to see how the plants grew. Some might say a plant is a plant, but others of us will differ in opinion. The plants on the upper slopes were much different than the ones found on the lower slopes. The upper slopes did not have as much soil as the lower slopes, therefore, the plants were shorter and more sparse then the more dense lower jungle. Also due to the lack of soil there where a lot of orchids and bromeliads -- these are plants that grow on trees rather than in the soil. These plants anchor themselves upon the trees and feed from themselves from the aerial environment rather than the soil below.

Although we didn’t see much wildlife we learned a lot about the jungle and the problems that currently face it.

Tired and exhausted we returned to the hotel and all decided that we wanted pizza for lunch. Although I really like trying food from wherever I am, sometimes it is just nice to eat food that is familiar to me. Pizza satisfied our appetites and the team separated, but they were excited for the evening’s activities.

There was a nine-day celebration going on in town commemorating the Virgin Mary. As I mentioned earlier even the Pope was proud of Granada for Granada’s profound respect for Mary. The celebration is called “La Purisima” and it starts small and over nine days it becomes larger and larger. This was the seventh day and I was eager to see how big it had gotten.

Tonight was huge! It started with the townspeople following a float with the Virgin Mary on it traveling through the streets. People were smiling and firecrackers were going off everywhere. It sounded a lot like the Fourth of July. They have lots of fireworks, probably because there is not as much fire danger as there is in California of burning the place down. The parade ends at the cathedral in the middle of town. The Virgin is brought into the church, amidst singing and smiles. However the real action is just beginning out doors.

The young men take over lighting fireworks. They hold the skyrockets in their hands and launch them, a couple hundred feet into the air. This is very dangerous. Occasionally the skyrockets go askew and crash into the crowd. When this happens the crowds runs from the lit explosive and hopefully no one gets hurt, (unfortunately later on in the evening a firecracker went off near Colin’s ear now he is having problem with it). Several times during the fireworks show a young man will put on a bull that looks like a modified sawhorse and covered in a tarp and sparklers/firecrackers. When all them are lit, he runs straight into the crowd. Everyone yells and screams and tries to get away. After about a minute the fireworks go out and the crowd then continues to watch the skyrockets. I am not sure what it all meant but it sure was fun.

It was hard to go to sleep after we returned to the hotel. Tomorrow we leave from Costa Rica.

Todd signing off.
todd@drivearoundtheworld.com

Logbook for December 3rd
Start: Granada, Nicaragua
Finish: Granada, Nicaragua
Mileage: 30
Weather Conditions: Clear and sunny
Breakfast: Rice, beans, and fried eggs
Lunch: Calzone with mushrooms and pepperoni
Dinner: none

Help support our cause: Drive Around the World aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by taking four certified pre-owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-mile via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. Everyone making a pledge of $10 or more to raise money for the Parkinson’s Institute will be put in a raffle to win an expedition-style Land Rover.