Weekend trip: León and Las Peñitas

This weekend, TC, Angela (one of the volunteers) and I, made a trip to Leon, one of the less touristy cities where the biggest draw was being close to Cerro Negro, one of the only places in the world where it is possible to go volcano boarding. It took an hour from Granada to Managua, two hours from Managua to Leon, and a twenty minute bike carriage to get to our hostel in Leon. Thankfully, each bus was only one or two dollars as gas here is still around 85 cents. One of the first things we did was go up to the top of an old church, the Basilica Cathedral de la Asunción. They had repainted the church white and it immediately became a huge tourist attraction, so that while the view itself is not actually exceptional, the blinding white domes of the roof were stunning. The stormy weather also made for a pretty amazing backdrop!

We stayed at Bigfoot Hostel and met our other newly made volunteer friends Matthew and Brianna. This hostel was a huge party hostel. We slept in dorm beds with about twelve people to a room, and most of those people came in drunk around 2 in the morning. I was not a fan of this. But this hostel is also the one known for beginning volcano boarding and having the fastest boards, and at less than ten dollars a night, I guess I can't complain.

At 9am (rough for our poor dorm mates), we got into a huge orange truck and drove about an hour past fields, stopping for cattle to cross and ducking beneath tree branches, until we reached the base of Cerro Negro, the volcano. We each had to carry our wooden boards with us, which the guide warned us would quickly become heavy, so we were offered the option of having a local carry the board for us for $5. As my cash is quickly running low and my arms could use some toning, I carried the board up myself.

The climb was steep and windy, and took about an hour, but we stopped frequently when there were prime photo-ops. All of the pictures that I have from trip were taken by our tour guide. My phone charger is breaking, so my phone was pretty much out of commission. Phone, keys, wallet (i.e., everything my dad taught me about being prepared)  is quickly becoming irrelevant as my phone is dead, I have little money, and our door doesn't lock.
But anyways, volcano boarding:

Volcano boarding is essentially sledding down a super steep volcano made of pebbly stone and ash, and the record speed for going down is 92 km/hr! I didn't go anywhere near that fast, I had read a few stories about people falling off and landing face first and was not willing to take that risk. With pebbles flying and filling up my goggles while trying to steer straight, knowing that the number one rule was YOU CANNOT STOP I was focusing on survival more than speed. It was a quick couple minutes down, but I actually enjoyed the hike up more. The views were spectacular and our guide shared some interesting stories about the volcanoes and how volcano boarding was founded.

My jumpsuit was at least three times too big for me. We wore our t-shirts around our mouths to keep ash from flying into our mouths, but I was still shaking rocks out of my clothes hours later. Thankfully our whole group made it down the hill unharmed, although there were a few minor tumbles. We were rewarded at the bottom of the hill with a cookie and a cold beer.

Immediately upon arriving at the hostel, we took the shuttle from Leon to the other Bigfoot hostel located on the beach in Las Peñitas. I was feeling pretty dizzy at this point, so we walked down the street until we found a small market manned by a little girl who sold us soap and shampoo (I should have known hostels don't provided those, and we were in greeeeaaat need of a shower) and found a restaurant by the beach. We got some breakfast food for dinner (I don't think we've eaten out yet without at least one of us eating eggs and gallo pinto) then walked down to the beach in the middle of the storm.

Standing up on some rocks overlooking the water, huge waves crashed down into the rocks, sending up spray at least 15 feet up. We had never seen the ocean so powerful to this. With the cross on top of the rocks being washed over by vast amounts of grey ocean, lightning cracking in the distance, and thunder rumbling ominously, it looked like a dramatic biblical scene. I was amazed to see that there was somebody surfing in the middle of this and was slightly worried about our surf lessons the next morning.

Thankfully, the sky cleared and at 10:30 the next morning, we went out with one other couple for our lesson. We practiced on the sand first of how to push up and stand, then went into the water to wait for a wave and try it. Not easy. I expected that the hard part would be standing up, or balancing on the board, or something related to surfing. Instead, I struggled just trying make it out into the water, staying in place as waves crashed into me, and hold up my board high enough so that it made it over the wave instead of going under, dragging me along the sandy bottom with it. I swallowed more ocean water than I ever wanted to. I did manage to stand up on my third try, but in the hour and a half stood for the combined period of maybe 30 seconds. Surfing is not nearly as laid-back and easy as its people are. We came out of it with a few bruises, a free shirt, some intense tan lines, and one less thing on my bucket list.

Four hours of buses and taxis later, we were relieved to be back "home" in Granada. We missed it already! Ready for school tomorrow after we grade some tests :)