Volcanoes

Before arriving in Nicaragua, I had never seen a volcano.. in “real life”. Now, Conception’s crown covered in smoke and images of Maderas have become a part of my daily life and “recuerdo” of the Island of Ometepe. Depending of where I am working during the week, I walk outside to see their looming peaks and can’t help but realize the sense of respect that I have for them. Visions of the Blue Ridge Mountains remind me of home and now these volcanic images have come to represent my home for the meantime here on Ometepe.

woman fishing at Punta Jesus de Maria 

Nicaragua is often called the land of lakes and volcanoes. A string of twelve both active and non-active volcanoes stretch from the northwest of the country and Ometepe’s Concepcion and Maderas volcanoes end the row. The image of a smoking volcano is iconic for Nicaraguans. And for Ometepinos, especially. Just come to my entrepreneurship class and you will see literally every group’s business plan includes the two volcanoes as its logotype. 

 A week ago an alert was sent out following the 7.9 earthquake that hit Costa Rica and was felt strongly still in Nicaragua that there was potential volcanic activity as a result.

This alert stated that there was volcanic activity in the San Cristobol volcano located in the northwest of Nicaragua in the department of Chinandega. (I live in the southwest of the country much closer to the Costa Rican border). San Cristobol erupted three times last Saturday. By erupt I mean that the volcano was throwing ash, gas, and rocks. There has been no lava flow- that is pretty rare. More than anything, it seems the potential threat is with air quality. Over the week their was sporadic activity which continued through yesterday. 42 volunteers from the departments of Chinandega and Leon were safely evacuated from their sites and everyone is okay aside from being bored and broke from having to stay in Managua.

Island of Ometepe (Conception on left, Maderas on right).

Throughout the week, I have been highly observant since I live on a volcanic island and usually it seems can never get transportation when I actually want to get off. Today is Nicaragua’s Independence Day and they take their holidays very seriously here. A vacation day is not to be tampered with even if the state government has been alerted of a potential volcano eruption.This means no transportation... Ay Senor, only in Nicaragua.

Two years ago there was an notification sent out to evacuate the island because of eruption. CARE international had undertaken a project to enact emergency response measures and had drawn up extensive evacuation plans. However, noone left. Ometepinos said that this is where their home, family, and land were. So, if the volcano was going to erupt, they were going with it.

Two reasons also come to mind of why this happened. In the event of an emergency evacuation, I doubt everyone would be able to get off the island. Sufficient infrastructure of buses and boats simply does not exist. Because a sense of community is incredibly strong in Nicaragua, I imagine most think “we are all in this together” and if my neighbor can’t go- I am not going to go either. Also, in our culture we buy things that say things like “live each day as if it is your last”, but fatalism is very much ingrained into the Nicaraguan culture. In a sense all of this is a very beautiful thing. However, when I say, “Hasta Mañana” (see ya tomorrow) for a meeting, still I find myself a little peeved when the response is, “si dios quiere” (if God wants it).

I told Don Mario yesterday that I was heading off the island after the alert was sent out that there was activity in the volcano on the island. He told me that since I am an islander, I should stick around through the weekend with all the other islanders to watch the eruption and we would all be together. This is normal and just a part of life here. I think, indeed, I have become much more fatalistic in my time here. While everyone says I am “isleña” now, I am not sure I am that isleña quite yet.

I’ll be on a boat at midnight tonight, don’t worry Mom.