So as of last week, I bid the cats goodbye to make my way down Central America over land for the next couple of weeks. I first got on a bus and made my obligatory stop to Guatemala City, where I spent a night at a very nice hotel there, courtesy of Mitzy. The next day, I was aboard a Tica bus, making my way to San Salvador. I’ve spent two nights in San Salvador, not doing much there due to the weather, but I did get one fun night out at Zona Rosa, the city’s restaurant and nightclub district.
Before leaving Guatemala City, I got an email from Monica of Tranquila, telling me that she was going to be in Nicaragua, and we should all meet. So I managed to get our dates coordinated, and we met up at a hostel in Leon, Nicaragua. Since then, we’ve been more or less a rag-tag group of about five people, which include Meika, a Scottish girl who worked in Tranquila, Leah, an Occupational Therapist from Canada, and James, an engineering student also from Canada.
The next day, we took a trip up to Cerro Negro, a young volcano just outside of Leon. Moni opted out of the trip, because she wasn’t up to hiking. So it would be Meika, James, Leah, Andrew and me. The main attraction on this particular trip was that we were going to do VOLCANO BOARDING! That’s right, we were going to surf/sled down the smooth side of Cerro Negro’s crater. Jake, an Aussie guy who had been big in pioneering volcano boarding came up with the concept only about 7 months earlier.
So after a very picturesque ride through the Nicaraguan countryside, we arrived to Cerro Negro. We parked the truck on the foot of the crater, where we were basically going to come down from. The hike was not too hard, other than the fact that we had lug our boards up with us. It was an awesome day though, and the views were pretty spectacular. It took us roughly an hour to get up to the crater. After spending about an hour there, checking out the crater itself, we went over to the smooth west side of the crater to get serious about volcano boarding. Jake gave us the rundown on how to handle the boards, and what position to take. After a primer and a practice run about 10 meters down, we started heading down.
I was about the third or fourth guy to head down. I had an older board with a little more wear, so it took awhile to gain some speed. About halfway down, I was moving at a pretty good clip. I was hanging on and loving the ride, but then my board started slowing down. It kinda filled up with lava gravel and sand, and I came to an unwanted halt. I had to empty out my board, and start up again. But after that, I started moving again. I picked a good amount of speed and reached the bottom of the slope with some good momentum. It was really quite fun.
Meika, on the other hand, took a bit of a spill and came off the board. She continued to slide a good distance without her board on her stomach. She did manage to not get hurt to any extent, except for a good scraped knee. Another guy grabbed her board and brought it to her. She managed to get back on and finish the trip, quite speedily I might add. All the others made it down without a hitch. The jaunt was a great success.
Later that day, we got back to Leon, all black from the lava sand. Showers were much needed, and thankfully the water and power was on so we can get cleaned up (Nicaragua has been having HUGE problems with their water and power service lately). We had a nice dinner in town, where there was a religious festival going on. And we prepared for our trip out of Leon the next day.
Trying to leave Leon was rather interesting, as we had to jump on a collectivo bus that would take us to Managua, from there, we’d catch another bus to Granada. Well, we got to the bus station early Tuesday afternoon. But the buses were sparse and not running on any reliable schedule. After waiting in line for what seemed like an eternity, we all decided that we were indeed getting on the next bus (which was actually a van).
After about another 30 minutes of waiting, a bus showed up, and before it even stopped, we rushed it. Backpacks flailing, as if we were going to incite a riot. Monica, being the first to get to it, swung the door open, and then stretched her arms out to keep anyone else from getting to it. Then she diligently and politely let everyone out of the bus. I was behind her, holding several backpacks, and the rest of the group was huddled around me as we waited for everybody to get off the bus. By this time, there was a horde of Nicaraguans pushing up against us also trying to get into the bus.
Then, in one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen happened. Monica pulled her arms in, and in a split second, Meika and I both dove in to the van entrance. My flip flop got caught on the floor rail, which hampered my ability to get in. Meika, was stuffing in her large backpack, and once it was in the van, she made a rather clean swan dive onto it, throwing her body into the van. Monica, James, Leah and I were all pulling ourselves into the van in unison. Within a matter of seconds, we were all in the bus, making our place there clearly known. We had won the battle!
It wasn’t going to be a comfortable ride though, because we were all cramped up in the bus, with our backpacks and other gear stacked all around us. It was hysterical. We all tried to relax in the strangest positions as the bus made its way to Managua.
Once we got there, we got on another collectivo to Granada, and this time it was not nearly as much trouble to get aboard.
Anyway, I don’t know if I captured just how funny that whole deal was, but trust me, if you were there, you’d have died.
So now, we’re going off to a place called Laguna Apoyo for a day or so at lakeside retreat called “The Monkey Hut”. It’s a crater lake that is so pristine, it’s considered the cleanest water in Nicaragua. I’ll be making my bus reservation to head on down to San Jose, Costa Rica most likely by the weekend. Then it’s off to the Pacific Coast to hang out with Rosie and Scotty for awhile, and perhaps, Lisa, the crazy ex-lawyer from Ohio, who’s also in Costa Rica working as a teen counselor.
Should be interesting…