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!!
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!
This volcano boarding looks so much fun, I have to try it one day.
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