Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Anna's Adventures
Somehow, and I am still not sure how, I finally left Utila. After spending one last night in Tela I set off for Nicaragua. I meant to get there in a day, but I got stuck. The trip had been great until I got to Tegucigalpa, the capital. There I asked a taxi to take me to the bus station for a bus going to Leon. It was about 1pm at this time. I climbed into a taxi with three other people. I was in the taxi for an hour before we got to the place where the buses to Leon left. My taxi driver got out to talk to the man in control of the bus who then came over to tell me in very halting English that the last bus left half an hour ago for Leon and it now wouldn't be possible to get there in a day. My taxi driver disagreed. And so they had a 20 minute argument over what I should do. I was just stood there looking from one to the other. Interjecting with "sí" or "no" every once in a while. It was finally decided that it was not possible, but now the discussion began again about where I should stay. After a very long time standing around I finally got on a bus to El Paraiso, the last town before the Nicaraguan boarder. I stayed a night there and got to Leon the next day.
I stayed at the Big Foot Hostel which is a great, cheap, if a little hot (would it kill them to put fans in the rooms?) place to stay. The hostel was connected to a tour operation doing tours to surrounding volcanos, amongst other things. There was one tour that caught my eye though - Volcano boarding! It's basically sledging down the side of a volcano. The Volcano is called Cerra Negro and it is the smallest and youngest volcano in Nicaragua. It is also the most active! In fact it only re-opened last week after being closed for ten days after an eruption scare! The surface of the volcano was black scree, varying sized bits of volcano rock. On the side we boarded down it was almost like sand! At one point our guide scraped a little top soil from the surface and told us to feel the ground beneith. It was almost too hot to touch! It was then that I realised just how crazy what I was about to do was. I was going to sledge down a real, life, active volcano!!!
We had to walk all the way up the volcano with our heavy "high tech" boards made of a couple of bits of wood nailed together with a piece of rope for steering. Apparently the guy who started it - a crazy drunk Australian, had tried many different methods before settling on the wooden board - surfboard, snowboard, upturned table and mini fridge included. I really enjoyed the walk up the volcano. The views were incredible and the company excellent. We got to the top and went for a bit of a tour around the top of the volcano. Our guide showed us the craters and told us when they were active. From one, a load of steam was being given off.
We were given some tips on how to go fast (or slow if you were a scaredy cat) and on steering and things and then we were off! We had to go one at a time, which was great because I got to watch all the others go down too which was very entertaining in some cases. One guy decided he would be the fastest, so tried to peg in down the slope, only to end up being flipped off and rolling most of the rest of the way. My attempt was actually pretty good! I found out at the end that I actually scored the fastest female time of the day and the second fastest of the day overall - 56 kilometres an hour. One of the boys got 72. The boy that fell off got 15. Not only did I win the pride of knowing that I was the fastest girl sledging down volcanos that day, but I also won a free night at a hostel called The Surfing Turtle about an hour out of Leon on the beach.
My plan after volcano boarding was to go to San Juan del Sur to visit my friend Chris, but given a free night in a surfing hostel on the beach, I was willing to change my plans. I ended up staying two nights. It was a beautiful hostel full of lovely staff and I would´ve stayed longer, only I realised that I only have 5 weeks left. Swimming in the pacific ocean for the first time was amazing. The sea is SOOOO rough! I went in and was immidiately knocked off my feet! The sea also took one of my favourite bracelets which was annoying. Once I got the hang of it though, the waves were exciting. I love diving under waves, and these ones were bigger than I´d ever experienced, so they were more of a challenge. A couple of times I got bowled over again, but mostly I felt like Queen of the Waves!
I stayed at the Big Foot Hostel which is a great, cheap, if a little hot (would it kill them to put fans in the rooms?) place to stay. The hostel was connected to a tour operation doing tours to surrounding volcanos, amongst other things. There was one tour that caught my eye though - Volcano boarding! It's basically sledging down the side of a volcano. The Volcano is called Cerra Negro and it is the smallest and youngest volcano in Nicaragua. It is also the most active! In fact it only re-opened last week after being closed for ten days after an eruption scare! The surface of the volcano was black scree, varying sized bits of volcano rock. On the side we boarded down it was almost like sand! At one point our guide scraped a little top soil from the surface and told us to feel the ground beneith. It was almost too hot to touch! It was then that I realised just how crazy what I was about to do was. I was going to sledge down a real, life, active volcano!!!
We had to walk all the way up the volcano with our heavy "high tech" boards made of a couple of bits of wood nailed together with a piece of rope for steering. Apparently the guy who started it - a crazy drunk Australian, had tried many different methods before settling on the wooden board - surfboard, snowboard, upturned table and mini fridge included. I really enjoyed the walk up the volcano. The views were incredible and the company excellent. We got to the top and went for a bit of a tour around the top of the volcano. Our guide showed us the craters and told us when they were active. From one, a load of steam was being given off.
We were given some tips on how to go fast (or slow if you were a scaredy cat) and on steering and things and then we were off! We had to go one at a time, which was great because I got to watch all the others go down too which was very entertaining in some cases. One guy decided he would be the fastest, so tried to peg in down the slope, only to end up being flipped off and rolling most of the rest of the way. My attempt was actually pretty good! I found out at the end that I actually scored the fastest female time of the day and the second fastest of the day overall - 56 kilometres an hour. One of the boys got 72. The boy that fell off got 15. Not only did I win the pride of knowing that I was the fastest girl sledging down volcanos that day, but I also won a free night at a hostel called The Surfing Turtle about an hour out of Leon on the beach.
My plan after volcano boarding was to go to San Juan del Sur to visit my friend Chris, but given a free night in a surfing hostel on the beach, I was willing to change my plans. I ended up staying two nights. It was a beautiful hostel full of lovely staff and I would´ve stayed longer, only I realised that I only have 5 weeks left. Swimming in the pacific ocean for the first time was amazing. The sea is SOOOO rough! I went in and was immidiately knocked off my feet! The sea also took one of my favourite bracelets which was annoying. Once I got the hang of it though, the waves were exciting. I love diving under waves, and these ones were bigger than I´d ever experienced, so they were more of a challenge. A couple of times I got bowled over again, but mostly I felt like Queen of the Waves!
- comments
Mum Great to here you are still having fun! I think I would have been useless at Volcano surfing, but the Surfing Turtle , that does sound fun! Thinking of you out there just wandering and having a look at it all! Enjoy! Cant wait to see you!
mum Oops I can't spell 'hear' properly