Leon: Boarding down Nicaragua's most active Volcano

Well, Julita can now officially say that she has never been snowboarding and yet boarded down Nicaragua’s most active volcano.  What an insane day!!!  What a hot and dirty day!!  I’ve done both snow and sand boarding but this was still different.  The only thing that remains a constant is that both volcanic ash and sand are
 incredibly difficult to get out of all the various crevices.  Showers at that point only go so far.

Well, the day once again started before dawn.  We were on a microbus bound for Managua by 5:50am and swapped onto another one there bound for Leon.  We arrived in Leon around 9am and quickly came to the conclusion that it simply is a more dilapidated, dirtier and more crowded Granada.  It was a lot more chaotic and lacked Granada’s charm.  However, we had expected this and came to Leon with the purpose of trying our luck at volcano boarding and maybe some volcano trekking.  The first we accomplished, the second unfortunately not.  The volcano we wanted to climb (12 hour hike) had no groups heading to it.  The other volcano suggested to us entailed a 2 day excursion and required us to carry between 16-20kg of gear during the ascent, something that was completely unappealing to us in this 35 degree weather.

So instead we booked ourselves on a 1:30pm tour to Cerro Negro for volcano boarding. We were picked up by a large truck and taken on a 1 hour very bumpy ride to the base of Nicaragua’s youngest yet most active volcano.  This conical formation, unlike most others in the area, was pitch black.  The ascent, despite being relatively easy with respect to the incline and difficulty level, was nevertheless quite grueling given the unremitting heat, the lack of shade, and the loose volcano slate that we were walking on.  Yet within about 45 minutes to an hour we reached the summit and were greeted by a nice view of the crater and the surrounding countryside.  From where we stood we could see at least 5 other volcanoes.  From what I counted on the map, Nicaragua has at least 13 of them.

After some panoramic shots we were ready to don the protective green jumpsuits which reminded me of little green leprechauns. All we needed was a funky hat, some four leaf clovers and a good Irish beer and we would have been set.  Instead we got gloves and goggles, a wooden board and were told to sit back, pull our feet up and trust that everything would be ok.

Overall it was brilliant fun.  I found it much easier than sand boarding.  When sand boarding, you cannot put your weight on the front of the board, whether you are standing or sitting, because then it digs under the sand and you do a nose dive.  Here however, the volcanic ash is much denser.  If you place weight at the front of the board you end up slowing down.  Leaning back increases your speed.  During my descent I managed to stand up twice, the first was quite enjoyable, the second time round I managed to readjust my weight in such a way that I found it all confined to my back leg.  This in turn had the effect of me picking up speed at a drastic rate, and we had not gone through braking procedures while standing.  By some miracle I managed to sit back down and bring myself to a stop which resulted in dust, ash and volcanic rocks flying everywhere, including in my mouth, ears, nose etc.

If not for the hike up, I would have loved to have done it again.  All three of us had a blast in the end, despite some resistance by some at the beginning.  But we were definitely exhausted, from the activity itself, but mainly from the intense sun, heat and wind.  By the time we got back, showered, managed to have something to eat, it was way past our bed time.  I finally managed to crawl into my bunk at 11:30pm with teh alarm clock set for 4:15am.