Masaya Volcano — La Boca del Infierno

OVERVIEW

An active shield volcano south of Managua whose Santiago crater holds a persistent lava lake, visible from a road that runs to the rim. It became Nicaragua's first national park in May 1979. The chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo wrote the first description in 1529; in 1538 Fray Blas del Castillo had himself lowered into the crater believing the glow was molten gold.

HISTORY

The Chorotega people of the lakeside towns made offerings at the crater. The Spanish named it La Boca del Infierno, and in 1529 the Mercedarian friar Francisco de Bobadilla planted a cross on the rim to exorcise it — the Cruz de Bobadilla still stands at a viewpoint above the crater.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Oviedo recorded the belief he found among the Chorotega: that an old woman, a sorceress, lived in the crater and was consulted there, and that she demanded offerings — which the Spanish took for the devil and answered with the cross. That sixteenth-century account is the tradition; the lava lake is the fact. Modern visitors' 'reports' are of the glow, the gas and the parakeets that nest in the crater wall.

VISITING

Open daily; vehicles drive to the rim and stay a few minutes at a time because of the sulphur dioxide. Night visits to see the lava are ticketed.