Volcanoes

San Juan del Sur, This was a great day. The entire cruise critic group gathered in the Casino and away we went to meet our bus. It was almost too small and I ended up sitting on the fold out jump seat. It was very uncomfortable but it was my fault for letting people get in front of me. Anyway our first stop was to see the inland sea. It is really large and I guess the early explorers thought it was the ocean. Next we went to a crater lake. It has 2 volcanic islands inside and it is very similar to Crater Lake in the US. There were vendors here and I saw a wonderful pashima and I didn’t buy it. Big mistake!! Our next stop was Masaya Volcano National Park. The caldera here is large and deep and it is still steaming. There is a faint sulphur smell. I guess the early people thought it was the home of the devil and they sacrificed virgins and children here. There is a large cross at the edge of the volcano and there are stairs you can climb to look deep into it. There was no time for us to climb this but we could see it and take pictures. We began our trip back and we stopped at a very nice place for lunch. I was really impressed. The food was delicious and the service was fast. We went to an Indian market on this trip. When we arrived there a guide suddenly appeared. He shadowed us and translated and made sure we were back at the bus on time. This was a strange experience and it had both good and bad things about it. Of course he had to be tipped at the end of our 20 minutes here. Ken got a belt and I bought a pair of really cute leather sandals for Leo. We had to hustle back to the ship because time had flown. We were concerned that we might not make it in time but when we passed a Princess bus we relaxed. The ship will not leave without a Princess tour. All in all it was a very good day.