We had talked about doing a day excursion with a guide before we left, but we worried about the roads and car-sickness. We decided to wait until we got down there to decide. We managed to do a day trip on our own! It was quite an adventure. Upon leaving the ranch, which was all gravel roads, we started out on another gravel road. This turned into a paved road with pavers, which we couldn’t believe the amount of work that went in to this road! Then we headed up the Pan Am highway. On the roads, we passed carts & oxen, horse and carriages, bikes of all kinds with some amazing contraptions for carrying crates, etc. We got stuck on the road for about half an hour which we got out and stretched. We are not sure what the hold up was. We realized we were going to miss the first shuttle up Mombacho, so we decided to take advantage and get gas. It was a crazy gas station, but we managed to work it out with a couple back ups. We then headed to the bottom of Mombacho, which is a volcano just outside of Granada. We took a shuttle to the top on a road with 60% grades. It was so steep! We then took a guided hike around where we saw the inside of the volcano from the top & beautiful views of Lake Nicaragua as well as the city of Granada. We finished early with the hike and had a little over an hour before the shuttle came, so we decided to walk down to the midway point where there was a cafe. After the equivalent of two blocks, our quads regretted our decision, but we were not about to turn around and go back up, so down we went. We eventually made it back to our cars and headed into Granada for lunch, which was one of the best meals we had on the trip.