” It Looks Like Hell” Masaya Volcano, outside Managua, Nicaragua

    The three hundred foot rock walls of the crater go straight down as if a giant using a post hole digger, dug a hole for a fence post and then walked away without filling it. Light on the sides of the walls is the color of the fire in the bottom, and, at that bottom, are moving waves of reddish yellow molten rock. ” It looks like Hell, ” someone says, and a woman clutches her cross, and says a prayer. For the scientist,this is just a fissure in the Earth and the magma belies intense heat and pressures at the core of this planet. it is all explained by the Big Bang Theory.. Sightseers move along the length of a stone wall along the crater’s edge, fixated on the fire in the hole. It is a dark, starless night, and some sightseers have brought flashlights to help them see the path around the volcano as they scramble for better places to see it. This whole place smells like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Walter, our guide, motions me to the exact spot where I can see the cauldron. Ancient men would have sacrificed to the Gods here, but that custom has been abandoned. Now, we worship ourselves.