The Next Step for My Solo Traveling Venture

When I was naive and still on my first week ever of solo travel, a two hour taxi journey with a complete stranger in a foreign land, it seems almost too different for what I am comfortable with, almost.

I had only taken the first taxi in my life two days ago in the capital Managua and that was just like 5 minutes. So it wasn’t necessarily that Nicaragua intimidated me but personally going anywhere with a stranger over the course of a two hour round trip was something that seemed daunting.

To set the scene, it was a rainy evening in the small town of Masaya at the base of the volcano of the same name in Nicaragua where I had arrived earlier in the day with the specific goal of heading up to the volcanic crater. Volcán Masaya is one of those rare spots in the world where you can peer into the crater of an active volcano as a tourist.

I had a solo room in the hostel but I was the only person staying in the entire building. Lying on my bed I was getting mentally ready wondering what to do next. One thought that kept coming to mind was “When will you get the chance to visit this volcano again? It is now or never.” I exited the gate leading to the main street of the town and waited for a few minutes trying to flag down a taxi. When one stopped, in my best attempt at Spanish with my nervousness I asked how much to go to the volcano crater there and back.

Now, I had done research before hand and knew that the common price paid for this trip with a taxi was 10$ USD, something confirmed by the hostel owners who typically organized the trip before the pandemic. The taxi driver initially asked for double the price but after some fairly brief bartering I got the price down. So 10$ for a nearly 2 hour trip is a really good deal at least in my opinion.

After stopping to get gas in the nearby town of Brindisi we began the ascent up the volcano. Eventually there was column of smoke on the horizon that I could only assume was the destination.

One thing as an amateur traveler on my maiden voyage that I picked up is how talking to people makes you so much more comfortable in an unfamiliar area. This is one of the first lessons I learned while traveling.

The Volcanic Crater

After paying the night time fees to enter the park we headed up some pretty steep roads with periodical gear changes rocking the taxi. Masaya is open for evening viewings from 5pm - 8pm which is when the glow from lava is most apparent. If you were to go earlier than that, the price is lower but you wouldn’t be able to see the signature glow from Masaya's crater.

After a final climb to the parking lot on the crater, I had made it and I peered over the edge, my phone's camera just powerful enough to distinguish the features of the lava's light from the pitch black night. Some residual heat could be felt from the guard rail where a few other tourists were observing this unique phenomena. I even noticed my somewhat stoic taxi driver taking photos of Volcán Masaya. In every direction there were city lights from the pueblos blancos nearby but the most apparent source of light was wmitted from the large crater in the ground at the top of the volcano.

Now, I when I was ready to go, my taxi driver asked me if I had ever been to Masaya before and I replied no. In retrospect this may have been the wrong answer because after starting the vehicle with a push, on the way back the driver began to tell me how he was charged for visiting the national park and for parking there and he asked for 20$ more. I told him the truth: I only brought the money to pay for the original price we agreed on and my entrance. I figured, best not to argue with him over the honesty of his assertion, which I knew was wrong since I was there when we paid for entering, I just had to accept that this ride had just doubled in price so I told him I would pay the rest once I got back to the hostel.

Once back at hostel I was staying at I ran inside and came back with 20 USD and the driver sped off right away without much of an exchange of pleasantries. I felt really odd about the whole exchange not because of the 20$ I was likely just scammed out of but rather there was a certain amount of trust that I had placed in the driver. It could've been much worse (20$ more is not a terribly unreasonable amount) but that was definitely an impactful part of one of my first solo backpacking experiences mainly just because of the dishonesty with which the situation was handled. I do want to stress that this was the only somewhat dishonest interaction I had in Nicaragua which I think is THE hidden gem of Central America with its nature and architecture which surpasses or is at least competitive with any of its neighbors.