Volcano boarding and lava!

Number one on the Thrill seeker's 50 experiences to try before you die is to fly a fighter jet. Number two is to board down an active volcano. It just so happens that the volcano in question, the Cerro Negro, is in Nicaragua.

I arrived in Leon, smack bang in the middle of Nicaragua's section of the Ring of Fire. The beautiful colonial town is surrounded by no less than 11 volcanoes. Five of them are active.

I decided to do a volcano day. First up was volcano boarding! The Cerro Negro is an active polygenetic cinder cone - when it erupts, it spits out lots of ash, depositing huge cone-shaped piles of the stuff at its peak. The volcano is the youngest in Central America, created in 1850 when it first erupted, and has blown it's top another 23 times since. The last eruption was in 1999 and it is apparently due to go again anytime soon!

The fine ash that has been blown onto it's North side is perfect for boarding down, so I donned an orange jump suit and had a go! They estimated my size...clearly I look fatter than I really am.

You can pick up some serious speed if you don't brake much, and you get clocked by a guy with a speed gun on the way down. I stood at the top and looked down the black gravel slope. It was much steeper than any of us had expected. At that point I could understand why goggles were standard issue.

After a wave from the guide, I got on the board, pushed myself off and leant back for extra speed. This was the best position for speed but it meant that my back slid across the gravel. It got quite hot and painful at one point but I was too busy trying to pick up speed to worry about it. Max speed 66km/h.

As I stood up, the heat in my back changed to pain - turned out I'd burned a hole on the back of my jumpsuit, then my t-shirt, and ripped most of the skin off my back. It looked like I'd been given 40 lashings as punishment for poaching a wild boar. Luckily I clocked the fastest speed and was rewarded with two mojitos at the bar. This dulled the pain a bit.

No sooner had I downed the last mojito, it was time to head off to another volcano - Volcan Telica. This active volcano has six cones, one containing glowing lava!

After a long hike we'd made it to the top just in time to see the sunset. The best sight, however, was found by peering over the lip of the cone into the crater.

First I was greeted by a sheer 600m drop, but, as I peered through the sulphur, I could see some glowing rocks!

They became much more visible as the twilight faded and soon we could see a whole pit of lava. This was my third attempt to see lava after failing at La Fortuna and Pucon. Success at last!!

Next stop, Esteli - home to some of the best cigars in the world....

The view from the top of Telica.

Volcan Telica, smoking away.

Peering over the rim in search of lava at sunset. This was Friday night, when I'd usually be in the pub. This is much better!

Big Corn, Little Corn!

Nicaragua is not the easiest of countries to get around. There is lots to do in the South and beautiful islands in the North. In between is a huge forested wilderness that takes up about 60% of the country. This wilderness does not include roads.

I really wanted to visit the Corn Islands to the North. The two small islands, known as Big Corn (6 km²) and Little Corn (1.6 km²), have excellent diving and a laid back Caribbean vibe. There are two options to get there; a 55 minute flight for $80 or a 2hr bus, followed by a 7.5hr bus, followed by a 3.5hr boat ride down a river, followed by 6-8hs on the open sea, costing about $45. I took the flight - I must be getting old.

I beat my personal best for travelling on a small plane, this one had only nine seats! My previous best was a 16-seater in Bolivia on the way to the Amazon.

We arrived on Big Corn and made our way to the port to get the boat to Little Corn. Walking time would have been 30 minutes, but we saved 15 minutes by cutting across the runway! Stepping onto Little Corn is like arriving in a different country. For starters, everyone speaks English. It is the musical, laid back English of the Caribbean - if you don't know what I mean say "beer can" out loud. This is how a person from the Caribbean would say "bacon".

We spent the first night in small cabinas on a beautiful beach on the North side of the island. The place was decorated in yellow, green and red and had a resident parrot. It seemed like a beautiful place.

It turned out to be a nightmare. The generator for the whole island had been broken for 10 days, with no sight of it being fixed anytime soon, so there is no power anywhere. This made it fairly difficult to get around after dark. The place was next to a small swamp, providing the area with swarms of mosquitoes. At night the temperature merely dropped from 45°C to 44.7°C. After two hours of sleep I had pretty much decided that we'd be changing accommodation. The others were mulling it over until a Dutch girl, the only other guest at the cabinas, ran over crying and told us that some guy had got into her room in the night. She woke up as he was climbing through the window and luckily scared him off. That decided it then. Also I think the parrot was evil.

The next place was nice and we made some local friends along the way. That night they invited us and some other backpackers to a BBQ and cooked up some fish on a fire. The night was spent singing along to Bob Marley and listening to the locals playing the drums.

Anyway, it was all about the diving. And it was cheap! I did three dives, seeing stingrays, dolphins, a turtle and lots of fish.

The last dive location was called Jake's Place, after Jake the Nurse Shark. The area has Angel fish, which are a nuisance, that are speared by the locals. They used to feed them to the nurse sharks in the area, particularly Jake. For this reason, he's really comfortable with humans and follows you around when you're diving. At one point he swam right up to my face and nudged me with his fin! Such an amazing experience...

The rest of the time was spent chilling on some beautiful beaches and I managed to catch a local baseball game. I also met some kids who wanted to show me their family of turtles. They were selling them for $1 - I considered buying a travelling companion but I like travelling solo too much.

I'm back on the mainland now, heading to the town of Leon for some Volcano boarding....

The boarding pass for the flight to the Corn Islands was almost as big as the plane.

Wanna buy a turtle?

A nice lookout point in the middle of the island.

Lovely beaches...

Not the biggest baseball stadium, but the island only has 1,000 people to worry about.

Sunset out over the port.

Cooking up some fresh fish!

Another beach.

Masaya and Granada

Volcanoes are like monkeys over here - you can find them everywhere.

Unlike monkeys, however, volcanoes occasionally spit out fiery rocks. This has happened quite a bit in the last week or so, with eruptions in Guatamala and Nicaragua. I'd planned to head to Masaya to trek around twin volcanoes but the trails were closed for a couple of days, so I headed to the Colonial town of Granada.

With some lovely colonial buildings, cobbled streets and a grand church, Granada is a nice place to stroll around.

There are also lots of nice places to eat, which is great if you have a good group. I'd picked up a couple of other backpackers and we spent the evening drinking fresh juice and eating Mexican food. And of course, sampling the local Toña beer. Granada is also home to Cafe de las Sonrisas, the first Central American cafe staffed by deaf-mute people. This meant ordering in sign language! Luckily, my waiter was very forgiving at my comedy attempts to sign rice and beans with a coffee.

Next it was onto the town of Masaya, with the aim of visiting the twin volcanoes of Masaya and Nindiri. Between them, they have no less than seven craters, with the largest, the Santiago pit crater, actively spewing sulphur into the sky.

I also got to go explore the Tzinaconostoc lava tunnels - formed when the outside of a lava flow hardens into a crust while the inside carves out the tunnel.

The tunnels are also full of bats, and I felt like Bruce Wayne when he fell down the well and was swarmed by the creatures. If I don't make it in the world of Forensic Accounting, it is good to know that I could fall back on a career as Batman.

Well, I'm off to Las Islas de Maiz, better known as the Corn Islands. 4am departure. Oh dear.

Looking out from the bell tower of the tallest church in Granada.

Lava from an eruption of Volcan Masaya in 1772. This lava was 6km from the cone.

A lovely view out over the Masaya region.

Danger - do not pass, the sign said. I couldn't resist.

The Masaya crater. Long dead, it has become overgrown with trees. You can see a landslide that happened a couple of weeks ago when the Costa Rican earthquake hit.

Walking around in the pitch black lava tunnels, this thing crawled over my leg. I don't know what it is but it looks mean.

Masaya market is located in the remains of an old fort. Not bad.

The mystical island of Ometepe...

The island of Ometepe is straight out of a fairytale storybook. In the middle of the largest lake in Central America, it was formed when two submerged volcanoes erupted out of lake Nicaragua, the resulting lava flows joining them together...

The big, active volcano is called Concepción and the little one is Maderas. I spent a night in the lovely area of Charco Verde and met a Brazilian guy and German girl. Turned out there was some zip lining in the area...I had such a good time zip lining in Monteverde that I decided to do it again! The Nicaraguans are a touch less safety conscious than the Costa Ricans...here is a video of me zipping along while the guide bounces the ropes up and down!

The rest of the day was spent walking in the national park. We saw lots of wildlife and hiked up to a mirador, looking out to a small green lagoon in the middle of the island.

On the way back we saw a large group of howler monkeys sitting in a tree eating berries. They were eating berries and throwing the seeds into the lagoon below. Every time a seed landed in the water a little head would pop up and a turtle would devour the seed. It really was a wonderful sight to see.

The next day myself and Neda headed over to Balgüe. We'd planned to stay at a hostel but it was full by the time we arrived. The guys at the hostel suggested a place called Zopilote, some huts on an organic farm owned by a group of hippies. Hippies usually scare me, but it was 42 degrees and we'd already walked a couple of miles, so we headed to the farm. It was the best decision ever. The place is beautiful - lots of straw huts dotted around the farm and connected by winding stone paths.

A personal highlight was the Japanese showers, basically a tap surrounded by long grass. It was important to remember to turn the Ocupada sign over otherwise you might get some unexpected company!

The farm sold awesome home baked bread, jams, oil and even chocolate. They also cooked amazing pizza (Francesco, the owner, is from Italy) three times a week in the pizza garden for everyone to eat together. One upside of hippy places is that there are usually a couple of fire jugglers, so there was even some entertainment thrown in.

The next day we rented a scooter and cruised around the island. First stop was Museo El Ceibo, where ancient petroglyphs from the island are housed. Apparently, this one is either a snail or a map of the island. I think they need to employ an archaeologist.

Next up was Punto Jesus de Maria, a huge sandbar jutting out into the lake. The sandbar was somewhat mesmerising as small freshwater waves crested from both sides, hitting into each other. Walking along it felt a bit like Moses parting the Red Sea.

The ferry back was broken and replaced by a small boat that listed heavily to the right. It also seemed to direct all the petrol fumes into the boat instead of away from it. This is less than ideal for someone who suffers from sea sickness, but I made it to dry land without throwing up. Hurrah!

The big daddy - Volcan Concepción

Looking over Lake Nicaragua from a disused pier at Charco Verde.

Lovely vistas at Charco Verde...

Zip lining Superman style!

A gorgeous sunset from the viewing tower on the farm.

Burial pots. Apparently they cut you up and buried you in different urns. These were for your feet. Lovely.

Looking back to land from the sandbar. Even though I am in the middle of the lake, the water is not even knee deep!

I took this picture of Concepción on the boat back. The volcanoes did strange things to the clouds. The sky was completely cloudy except for a large circle right above the volcano. Other times they would be blanketed in a thin swirling mist. Mysterious.

The longest line on the course. I took a video flying down here, forgot to break, and almost smashed myself into the tree at the other end!

This kid asked me if I wanted to buy his donkey. His opening offer, my camera and mp3 player. His father was less than impressed when he caught him up. He asked me if I wanted to buy his kid.