One of the projects that I have been working on nearly my entire time in León is business advising for a rural tourism cooperative. In January I proposed to them the idea of offering a full moon hike to Las Pilas & El Hoyo volcanoes. They accepted. Plans were laid. Flyers were printed. And tourists were convinced. Well, we managed to convince four tourists to shell out $49 for the overnight hike, including transportation, guides, camping, a barbecue dinner, breakfast, and a swim in Laguna Asososca at the end.
It was cold and windy up on El Hoyo!
I managed to get myself on the hike too. Service wasn’t perfect, and we definitely need to work on promotion if they want to do it again. And it was a long hike, especially the second day. However, the views, as I expected, were excellent.
El Hoyo means “The Hole,” and it gets its name for a gigantic hole on its slopes. The drive back from Managua to my site, León, passes all of these volcanoes at a distance, and sometimes I think that Momotombo is a giant UFO launching pad that could part down its center at any moment to launch. Momotombito is the control room, and El Hoyo is a giant exhaust vent.
Incidents of Travel 
Was this a result of our visit to Base Camp Bartola? The photos are fabulous, looks like a great $49 investment.
After our trip I recommended this idea to them. Seeing how Bartola operates definitely helps me with my rural tourism groups though.
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