Other volunteers and I exploring the dungeons
Sarah Hinshelwood/Old Gold & Black

The fortress
Sarah Hinshelwood/Old Gold & Black

Yesterday I went with some of the newer volunteers here at Casa Nica to a sight here in Masaya called Coyotepe. It is a fortress that was built in 1891 by President Zelaya in order to protect Masaya from foreign troops because of its strategic view over the city. However, later on during the Somoza dictatorship, the Somozas built a prison/dungeon below the fortress for political prisoners. The conditions in the prison were horrible and at one point it held over 800 prisoners, all crammed into the cells, even on metal grates above the cells, and often with little or no light at all. Torture cells are in the prison as well and one form of torture that they used was dripping water slowly on the head of a prisoner for days on end until it drove them crazy. The lack of light was also another form of torture as there was no light in the prison and when prisoners were brought into the light outside, it was painfully blinding.

In the dungeon
Sarah Hinshelwood/Old Gold & Black

While now the fortress is not a prison anymore, it is definitely still a creepy place, but super interesting to check out. It is now owned by the Boy Scouts oddly enough. As a visitor you can explore the fortress above and have an awesome view of Masaya, Laguna de Masaya, el Volcán Mombacho, and el Volcán Masaya. You get to visit the dungeons too, which still have no light in them. We went down into them and honestly it was a little creepy. I could definitely imagine this place being an awesome haunted house. There were all sorts of bats that would fly around and despite all the graffiti and knowing it was safe, I’m admit that I may have been a little tense walking around in the dark checking it out like something was about to jump out at me.

One of the parts that actually has light
Sarah Hinshelwood/Old Gold & Black

Overall though, we had a lot of fun. It was cool to see the place and learn about its sad history. As I previously mentioned, the place is now owned by the Boy Scouts, but a lot of locals use the park that the fortress is located in to do exercise like jogging or walking or other activities. However, it definitely has the potential to be a super scary haunted house or horror film setting.

The view from the fortress
Sarah Hinshelwood/Old Gold & Black