Leon: Hurtling down a volcano at 30 mph

Trip Start Aug 21, 2008

Trip End Ongoing

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Where I stayed

big foot hostel

(Leon hotels)

Flag of Nicaragua Leon, Nicaragua
Friday, October 3, 2008

I was planning my quick diving trip to the Corn Islands (Islands surrounded by crystal waters on the Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast) when Kim (Xela Sapnish School Colleague) popped up online trying to persuade me to drop my plans for a couple of nights in Leon. I weighed up the $160 cost of a return flight to the Corn Islands against $20 Volcanic Ashboarding in Leon and Leon won. I quickly checked out of my room that I had just paid a whole $4 for and disgruntled got back on the road.

A couple of hours later I arrived in Leon after an informative Microbus ride where 3 Spanish Senoritas gave me the low-down on Leon. One even offered for me to stay at her house for 150 Cordobas for the week (That's $7.50 people) which I gracefully declined due to suspected ulterior motives.

I stepped into the Big Hostel to the sounds of stomping electronic music and realised I had jumped form one party to another - sigh

The journey

. Within minutes I was chatting to a London Girl, (I quickly nicknamed 'Crazy Amy') who was bang into her music (DJong and Producing) and poor ol' Kim and others had to listen to us wittering on over dinner (I ate Indio Veijo - a fine Nica dish) about the dance scene in London 'back in the day'.

The next morning, I jumped on a 4x4 for the volcanic ashboarding adventure after 'Nurse' Kim had patched my wounds up. I kne I was gonna get hurt some more but wasn't expecting the off-roading thru farmland trails to be the main cause!

For $20, boarding is a great laugh (think toboganning down a volcano) but the view at the top was again, pretty amazing too. After a 10 minute prep from our guide, the girls in the group were encouraged to go first so they could gain views at the bottom of the 'Alpha males' that typically have more entertaining crashes (girls are typically, a lot more sensible and actually use their brakes correctly). I was the last to go and had listened intently about perfect navigation..or so I thought.

In seconds I had picked up good speed, seconds later realising I was no longer comfortable with the speed and then seconds later hurtling down the volcano in the complete opposite direction to my board. Yep - as expected I stacked it and had taken another couple of layers of healing skin of my back - but great fun on the way!