Saturday
On Saturday, all of us (Greg, Chris and Tracy, Chris, and I)
travelled to the city of Leon for the weekend to have some fun. We arrived
around 2:30pm and immediately grabbed some lunch near the market where we got
off the bus. I had some fried shrimp and was very satisfied. Then, we walked
quite a distance to the hostel where we wanted to stay, which was located near
the Central Park.
Our hostel was only $8 per night for a dorm bed. It came
with bedding and access to nice bathrooms, a pool, pool tables, wifi, and some
other amenities. It was pretty quiet and laid back, which I really liked. After
we arrived, everyone but Greg decided to go check out the main cathedral in the
central park. It is where Ruben Dario (a really famous poet in Nicaragua) has
his tomb. It took over 65 years to build and is nearly 200 years old. It has
World Heritage Site status.
View from sniper roof. |
Inside the museum |
After the tour, we met back up with Greg and had a great
dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant across the street from our hostel. It
served some great pizza, appetizers, and drinks.
Sunday
On Sunday, we all got up relatively early, so we could go
volcano boarding. We walked to a nearby hostel that runs tours and signed up
for the 9am session. At 9am, we were all in the back of a truck with people the
UK, Israel, Germany, and the US heading to the volcano called Cerro Negro. It
was about an hour away.
Cerro Negro (the front face) |
The climb up was pretty short because the volcano itself is
only slightly more than 700m. It is the most active volcano in Central America
and the youngest in the world. In fact, it is getting quite hot and is due for
an eruption soon. It currently has spots where sulfur is emitted in the cone.
Due to the wind direction and the way the volcano erupts, the front part of the
cone has only “black powder”. All of the large rocks are forced to the backside
by wind while the lava comes out of cracks in the base.
At the base |
Sulfur in the cone. |
Once we reached the top, everyone put on a bright orange
jumpsuit and some goggles. After a quick lesson on how to steer and brake our
plywood sleds, we were ready to go. Our guide insisted that the females go down
first. The Israeli girls refused to entertain the idea of going first, so that
left Tracy and I.
She was pushed off first and I followed about 30 seconds
later. I thought things were going really well until the board started to go
sideways, and I realized I was going to crash. It started to roll. I got the
breath knocked out of me and ended up having to climb quite a ways back up the
volcano to retrieve my board. It was like snow. My feet sunk in and it would
just give way. It was really hard work. I remounted the board and took off
again. Just before I hit the 45 degree drop off, the board slid sideways again
and I rolled. However, this time I held onto the board, so I wouldn’t have to
retrieve it. I hit my head, but it wasn’t that bad. I remounted and was able to
finish at 32kph, which is about 20mph. It’s really not that great, but I feel
content considering I am confident I wiped out the first time at a much higher
speed than this. Greg hit 57kph, which is 35 mph after taking a nasty fall
also.
After I finished with my board |
Greg coming down |
Greg after the fact. |
After everyone finished, we took the truck back to the
hostel where we started. As a part of our tour fee, we were given two mojitos
as a job well done. Then we went back to our own hostel to shower since we were
covered in volcanic ash and rock. Then, we went out and checked out a little of
the night life and grabbed dinner before calling it a night.
Monday
We got up pretty early to catch a 7:15 microbus to Managua
on Monday morning. The intention was to meet Alvaro for a meeting, and then
take Chris and Tracy to the airport. However, it did not work out this way.
Instead, we spent about two hours in the airport waiting. By the time Alvaro
arrived, we could not take them to the meeting with us and instead just said
our goodbyes.
We then figured out that the meeting was cancelled and
started to make our way out of Managua. This was easier said than done because
there was a huge demonstration of some sort that had stopped traffic completely
on the Pan American Highway. While we were trying to get through, I even saw a
guy with a small mortar gun wearing a bandana over his face. It was kind of
scary. Luckily we had 4 wheel drive and could just drive off the road and go
around.
We ran a few errands in Dario and Sebaco, which took most of
the day, so we didn’t get back to the office until around 5. It was too late to
go back to my host family’s home at that point, so I just stayed in the office.
Plus, my foot was swollen and bruised from volcano boarding and I had popped a
huge blister, so I needed to take the time to really clean it up well.
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