Nicaraguan Adventure - Day 4: Volcano hiking and surfing (12/30/10)

Wake up early (~715am) to walk over to the quetzal trekkers headquarters which is around the corner from our hostel. We group up and head to Cerro Negro for the day of fun. Hike our way up the volcano, the day couldn't be more perfect; partly cloudy w/ a great breeze, both of which helped with the heat. 

At the office of the trekking company. Waiting to depart.

The Volcano range which we will be hiking up one of them today.

This seems safe. If I am reading that sign correctly it says to go ahead and climb these volcanoes as they are extremely safe. Ill go with that.

As we hike up, we strap the board to our backs as they are substantial and carrying it in your hands the whole way would make your arms tired before you get to the top. On the way up, we stopped in the first canyon of the active volcano to see steam coming out of the ground in various places. This steam has a strong sulfur smell to it and the rocks have a strong yellow tint to them, presumably from the sulfur We then hike up to the crest where we will eventually board down; before that we go over and look at the view from the peak which is amazing with the mountain range in the distance and being able to see various parts of the country. 

Found a heat release for the volcano which smelt strongly of sulfur. The rock near here was also yellow tinted due to the sulfur deposits.

We have to go up there? This is not going to be fun. 

Saw a rock in the distance that looked like Donkey Kong so I decided to pet him.  

Here we go on our way up. Climb! Climb! Climb!

Luis and I working our way up the mountain. He had to lug our jumpers and boards with us (the second time up my board burned my shirt a little bit as i didnt let it cool off enough before putting it on my back - that shirt is still faded where the burn took the color out of the shirt).

We came over once we got to the top to enjoy the view that our labor allowed us to take in.

Get to the boarding area, suit up in protective garments, and board down one at a time; was really fun and definitely not as scary as it looked from the bottom – granted I did it sitting down and I am sure if you try to do it standing it could be more challenging/scary.

Who you going to call? Not us as we look like lame ass ghost-busters. But safety first. Just glad we didnt hike up the mountain with these on. I would have died for sure!

Our group is suited up and ready for the short trip down the side of the volcano.

We are ready for sledding down this volcano. 

At the bottom we get a snack and are able to go up again for a second go if we want, so I head up and do it again. Our group was great with tons of friendly chit chat and an overall good time. After the second trip down, we pack up the truck and stop at the entry way to have lunch and clean up a bit. 

Lunch is served. If I remember right, the lunch was veggie tacos. They were really good after all the exertion of climbing that mountain twice.

The lunch area had this pin of lizards so I decided to go pay them a visit. So many lizards in one area. Dont know why they were there.

After lunch, we get back to HQ and are given a free shirt, then we head to hostel to shower and relax until dinner time. We walked around for a bit trying to find a restaurant LP suggested and again, I could not find it. Instead we stopped at Antonio's pizzeria and split a medium house special which was pretty good. 

Luis is ready to destroy the pizza after we both had a slice. Delicious. 

After eating, we went walking and wound up at Alamo Bar and Restaurant, which also has karaoke tonight (starting to think everyone does karaoke all day every day in Leon). We grab some beers and sit on the rooftop terrace looking out over the city before heading out to walk over to the cathedral and central market area and then heading back to the hostel to spend the rest of the night. We saw our tour guide lady (Jenny) from earlier hanging out with some of her friends so we stopped and talked for a bit before retiring to our own area to enjoy the rest of our FdC promotion (1/2L and 1/4L of FdC Gran Reserva for 145C) drinking the ½ L and keeping the ¼ for a souvenir. As we are chilling in the patio area, we enjoy watching the bats fly around the trees within the hostel (had open areas everywhere). Once the 1/2L is gone, we turn in.

We made it through the day. Time to enjoy some FdC.