Volcán Telica Roars To Life!

Volcán Telica is indeed an ACTIVE volcano.

The headline in today's La Presna Nicaragua: Volcán Telica lanza piedras y cenizas de dos mil metros de altura / Telica volcano throws stones and ash two thousand meters. 

You can Click Here to read more (in Spanish) and view a few more pictures. Basically the story says that Volcán Telica erupted this morning at 8:47 throwing rocks and ash up to 2000 meters. There were immediate evacuations of the families living on or near the volcano, (yes farmers have high crop yields near the volcano), and the nearby town is monitoring the situation. The BBC is reporting that the National Police are preparing to do a partial evacuation of the near by  town. As with all news and media reports believe what you may but there have been no evacuation reports in the local media.

Telica is about 50 km away from Leon and we did not hear or feel anything. The winds are not blowing in this direction so as of yet there is no ash or the blocking of the sun. What makes this little story interesting to me, aside from the obvious was I was prepping to pack this morning for my overnight hike up, you guessed it, Volcán Telica which was to begin at 7am tomorrow.

I suspect that if we were at the crater enjoying the amazing views, snapping photos like crazed Japanese or napping in our tents and then she blew it would have made roasting marshmallows really fast and easy. Marshmallows, tents, sleeping bags, shoes, my eyebrows and nostril hair and my good judgement (see snapping pictures like a crazed Japanese tourist). It may sound exciting to think about being near the volcano or dumber yet near the top. This is real world, real danger and real Mother Nature is always the boss type of situation.

We will not be deterred. Telica is in a foul mood so Tuesday its off to Volcan El Hoyo for a 2 day 3 volcano trek because nothing says sanity like trekking 3 volcanoes when their nearest neighbor just erupted. Here are the details if you want to read them.
The trek will be Cerro Negro and the Las Pilas - El Hoyo complex with a bit of volcano boarding down Cerro Negro again. Why do you ask would I go sliding down Cerro Negro again? Well sir, next to sliding down Volcán Villarrica, the perpetually snow covered active volcano in Chile, on plastic sleds, screaming down the hot sands on Cerro Negro on wooden planks ranks a close second as the most dumb volcano fun there is to be had.

This trek will be challenging and exhausting which is what this lazy ass boy needs. The proverbial kick in the ass to get out on the trails again whenever possible. Stopping at Via Via for 4 hours is not the same a lugging a 15 kilo pack up and down three volcanoes over 2 days. Regardless, active volcanoes in Nicaragua are very real. The really good news is they usually are preludes to earthquakes.

Good times!