Surfing a Volcano!

Goodbye Punta Teonoste!

Sunday morning (Day 4), we woke up early knowing that we’d have to leave our beachfront paradise behind. We contemplated how perhaps we should have just spent the entire 10 days at Punta Teonoste.  Aside from our failed turtle expedition, the 2 days spent here were incredibly relaxing--the warm weather, the constant roar
of the ocean, and our bartender/tour guide/table server/new friend Gary to keep us company while we simply enjoyed the peaceful tranquility of the tremendous expanse of private beach and the respite of our two stools at the bar.

Our Wheels For the Week

We did the final walk through of our hut, packed up everything into our Suzuki Vitera, and got ready to hit the road.  We bid farewell to Gary, and promised to keep in touch on Facebook.

Termite Nest in the Tree

We backed our car out of our space, and noticed an interesting mud formation in one of the trees.  It was about 18 by 24 inches in size.  We pulled up to it in the safety of the car to try and determine what it was.  It looked like a very large wasp nest (of which there were an abundance around the resort as well as in and around our hut) however after watching it for 30 seconds we didn’t see anything flying out of it.  Aimee suggested perhaps it was termite mound, however I countered that those usually weren’t suspended in a tree as this was, and would be a mound at the ground.  We left perplexed as to what it actually was (however, later in our travels we learned that this was indeed a termite nest, but one that is not parasitic, but actually helpful to the trees they live in because they debride the tree of any rotten wood.)


Today was to be our longest single drive on our trip.  When planning the trip, we debated quite a bit on whether to rent a car, or to take buses across the country.  Buses came with the inconvenience of having to
travel with luggage on them, the challenge of how to navigate them to some of the more rural destinations (or how to connect via taxis), and having to follow their timetables.  Additionally, bus terminals are usually near the large markets of each city, which are also the nexus of pick pocketing and robberies.  Therefore, using the buses and traveling with our belongings carried the risk of getting robbed.

Driving, though more convenient, comes with the well-known risk of being hassled by traffic police.  There is a long, well-documented history of traffic police (who get paid very little) pulling over foreigners, and ticketing them falsely, and/or hoping to get a bribe.  Receiving a ticket means you lose your license, and either need to travel to the headquarters in whatever large city is in that Department (Nicaraguan version of a “state”) several days later, or simply consider it lost and replace it when you get home.  Online articles, generally suggest a bribe of only a few dollars can get you out of these situations (though of course the practice is illegal).  Ultimately we had decided a car was the lesser of the two risks (and recent articles online indicated, recent changes in compensation for traffic cops all but eliminated this annoyance.)

As we pulled out of the resort, knowing we had a busy afternoon and a long drive, we sped away from the resort, trying to start a good pace for our journey.  We took the dirt road from the resort for only a few kilometers, and then turned onto the next dirt road our GPS directed us to.  These roads, though dirt, were in fairly good condition.   We sped up a hill, perhaps a 10-15 kph over the speed limit, and saw 3 men with small motorcycles just over the top.   One of them stepped out into the middle of the road with his hand up. We slowed down and stopped next to him, and realized they were traffic cops.  Uh oh.

My Spanish is good when I am reading, and decent when I’m talking (though often not grammatically correct if talking a lot without the opportunity to think about it.)  Listening only works well if the person is talking slowly, and crisply.  However, Nicaraguans have a dialect that is laid back, and generally slurred. Also, they have certain pronunciations that are very different than Mexican Spanish.  Several days later, in talking to a local, I described it as a “Boston” type accent.  Bostonians leave off any ’R’s in the last syllable of any word. The Nica people similarly often leave the ’s’ off the last syllable.  Gracias sounds like Graciah.  Buenas Tardes sounds like Buenah Tardeh. As we hadn’t quite realized this yet, and my Spanish was still trying to come into its own, when the traffic cop began talking quickly to us in a strong “country“ Nicaraguense accent, I was flustered and lost.  I had no idea what he just said to me.  All I could say was "como?"  I though he asked if the car was mine.  I said “no, esta un vehiculo alquilar.” It is a rental vehicle.  That didn’t seem to be what he was asking.  He said something again and I heard “accidente.”  I wasn’t sure if he was asking me if had an accident or what.  I stumbled through words trying to ask if he was asking if I had an accident.  .He kind of nodded.  I said, no I haven’t had an accident.  We went back and forth with sentences asking about accidents, and I still wasn’t sure if he was asking if I saw an accident, asking if I was in an accident, or warning I was going to fast and going to get in an accident.  Whether I simply annoyed him enough with my terrible Spanish (this is actually suggested on some online blogs as a good method for dealing with the situation), or that he decided to give up on me, or whether he had thought he got his point across, he ultimately made somewhat of a dismissive gesture.  I asked “esta bien?”  meaning “it’s ok?“ and he nodded, so we drove off.

We had a couple routes to choose from for our trip to Leon.  We could go back the way we came, which

House for Sale on the Road to Leon

had a 30 mile or so dirt road of varying quality and a couple points, with large cave ins that were many feet deep, or Gary suggested we talk a much longer route that was mostly paved, initially heading away from our destination through the cities of Tola and Rivas but safer and easier driving.  This would take 4 hours instead of 3 and a half.  We decided that this was a better route, even though it would take 30 minutes longer.

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful.  The one thing that really continued to catch Aimee’s attention was the amount of livestock roaming the road.  While we had expected an abundance of livestock around, we didn’t expect the livestock to be unaccompanied by humans. We would come across one or two cows, walking down the road untethered and unescorted.  We would see a lone pig strolling down the side of the road.  A few times we even saw a pair of horses, walking casually down the side of the road together.  Obviously, these animals belonged to someone, and had to have some significant value.  Yet here they were roaming free to graze and wander down the side of the road, with no people or even houses in site.  Quite amazing.  We later asked one of the locals about this, and he said, ‘Oh yes, they’re very smart, and will return home.’

Almost all of our driving was on highways.  We went through a few cities, but still were on the main road

Street in Leon, Nicaragua

even as we passed through them.  When we finally entered Leon, we had to leave the main road, and begin to navigate the various streets.  Leon, while very planned with all the streets going either East/West or North/South and very square blocks, can be a challenge to drive through, as all of the streets are one way, and the buildings take up the entire block, are all flush with each other, and there is only the sidewalk between the building and the street.  Its very easy to feel claustrophobic, since there is no open space.  Every street is a narrow corridor.  The streets are choked with cars, and the sidewalks full of people.  The city was alive with energy, and had a very colonial look and exciting vibe to it.  We listened carefully to our GPS, and allowed it to guide us to our next stop, Paz de Luna B&B.  Even the short amount of driving into the city made me wish we had more time here.  It just seemed that every block was alive with a buzz of excitement.

Our Lodging for the Night:  Paz de Luna

Our hotel was described as being a historic building in Leon, and looked very attractive on line, with a lot of classical looking furniture, and a neat indoor courtyard.  When we walked up to the door, it was a large medieval or classical Spanish looking wooden door, in the typical endless wall of its block. There was a paper sign that asked us to ring the bell. We did and waited.

No answer.

We rang again.  This time 15-20 seconds later, a young girl, late teens or early twenties answered the door

Courtyard of Paz de Luna

and invited us in.  Interestingly, though the door was very wide looking, when she opened it, it was only a small portion of it that opened initially, no more than 24 inches wide.  I asked what we could do with our car, which I parked directly in front, and she said we could leave it where it was.

As we grabbed our bags, she opened another section of the door that had been bolted, giving us a bit more room to get our bags in and out.

We checked in and confirmed that we could still go “Volcano Boarding” that afternoon.  She said yes, and that we just needed to return at 2:00pm. (It was about noon).  While she pulled up our reservations, we waited in the inside courtyard.  While we were “inside” the building, there was a garden in the middle of the square courtyard.  The garden had no roof, and was open to the elements.  Around the garden was a walkway, and some tables and chairs.  Towards the back of the courtyard were the doors to the sleeping quarters.  While we waited for the girl  to pull up our reservations, one of the house cats came over to us and welcomed us by rubbing our legs, and looking up at us warmly.  We petted him for a moment or two, and the girl came back with our room key.  She walked us to the back corner of the Courtyard, and said that would be our room.

Cat in the Courtyard

 She opened the door and handed us the key, as we walked into a pitch dark room.  She waited only about 5 seconds, and then turned and walked away, while we stood awkwardly in a dark room.  I fumbled against the wall looking for a light, but couldn’t find one.  Aimee as well tried to find one.  I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight, and finally found some oddly placed switches about 2 feet over the floor, and about 8 feet from the door.  I hit them, and the lights came on.

In front of us was 2 full sized beds against a strangely blank wall, with a tapestry that went from top to bottom on both sides, and had a valance across the top.  There were a few nice pieces of classic looking furniture, but a very old and dingy black and white tile floor.  We were unimpressed, but optimistic.  We went and checked the beds.  The first bed we looked at, the sheets were crisp and made tight around the mattress.  When we peeled them back, a small black ant ran out from underneath.  Disappointing, but not entirely impossible from even a very clean place of this nature.  We checked the other bed.  No bugs, and crisp sheets, though they looked very worn.  They

Our Beds (sorry messed them up before the pic)

seemed fairly thin, with a small tear that left the mattress underneath very visible.  In fact, the sheets were thin and cheap enough that the mattress was visible through most of it.  We were unimpressed.

We checked the bathroom.  There was a fairly nice looking shower, however next to it was a toilet with a small mat in front of it that was white, but looked like it had been stepped on many times with dirty shoes.  The vanity had no mirror behind it. In fact there was no mirror in the bathroom at all.  There was however a dispenser of soap, shampoo, and conditioner in the shower.  Aimee had forgotten to bring conditioner, and while excited about this supply of conditioner in a warm country with no hair dryer, we were still unimpressed.

The Bathroom

We went back into the bedroom, and noticed that the piece of furniture with a tall mirror on it, had a strange void behind it.  We looked behind it and realized it was a door.  Apparently an adjoining door to the room next to us.  Since we were only using the one, I guess they simply decided to put the piece of furniture in front of it.  (the door also locked from our side.)

Secret Doorway? (Look closely behind the mirror)

We were unimpressed.

Not terrible enough to find other sleeping quarters, but disappointing from what we came from, and it seemed much less exciting than the online reviews made it seem.  Aimee decided though, since it had friendly cats, it was OK to sleep in for our one night in Leon.

At Least There are Cats

We had just over an hour until we had to come back for our volcano tour. We were quite hungry, and decided to take a very quick walk and find something quick to eat.  We walked down the street of our hotel, and walked past a few stores and restaurants, up to a smallish market of produce and other items.  There were a lot of people, and loud music.  We didn’t see anything suitable for a meal, and continued walking.  Ahead of us was a girl holding a flag, with a very familiar logo on it. A rounded yellow “M” against a red background.

McDonalds.

We debated stopping in for our quick lunch, but that seemed just wrong.  As we passed, and looked back, Aimee noticed that there was a sign over it with the “M” logo, and next to it the word for dessert in Spanish, which is “postres.”  We laughed at the unexpected display that the two signs together, when read phonetically in English indicated over the McDonald’s restaurant:  “M-Postres”…. sounds like “imposters”.

Street outside our hotel

Leon Sightseeing: Iglesia la Recoleccion

After chuckling at this, we continued further.  We realized we had smelled food when we passed the market, so we quickly turned around and went back.  We, almost running, perused each aisle of the market sniffing the air, attempting to find where the smell of food came from.  As we went deeper into the market, the smell disappeared.  As we returned to the main street, it strengthened.  We realized, it was coming from a building a few doors down.  We headed over there, and found a small steam tray cafeteria serving local Nicaraguense food.  It smelled phenomenal, and looked very good to.  We went in, and I asked the servers in Spanish, what each of the dishes were.   It all looked very good to me, but Aimee has a strong dislike for beef and pork.  I asked about each dish, so she could get one that was chicken or vegetarian, or anything else.  Ultimately, we both got chicken in some sort of sauce.  Mine was good with some seasonings.
 Aimee’s was phenomenal, covered in a tangy mango sauce.  We both ordered bottled Fresca, which came cold.  The restaurant provided glasses with ice, but given the more local nature of this restaurant, we knew that using the ice provided would give us a good chance of stomach cramps and a lot time in bathrooms, so we stuck to the bottle on its own.  We couldn’t however resist the fresh tomato salsa that we each had a scoop of.  This was likely rinsed in local tap water, which as a US traveler to a country such as Nicaragua risks some temporary food borne illness.  However it was too good to pass up and we both ate it.

Catedral de Leon and Leon Central Park

After shoveling the tasty lunch into our mouths, we headed back to Paz de Luna for our afternoon excursion to Cerro Negro for some Volcano Boarding.  Cerro Negro is a very young volcano (less than 200 years old) that is covered with a fine black ash) at which many companies offer a guided hike to the top, and a plank of wood upon which you surf down the slope of the volcano to the bottom.

As we were waiting to be picked up for our surfing expedition, there was another couple waiting for their tour.  They however we’re heading to a sunset hike.  We talked to them briefly. They were from Finland, and knew a decent amount of English.  For about 20 minutes we talked about our Nicaragua trips, and activities, and then went our separate ways on each of our excursions.

At some point we heard the doorbell ring, and the girl that checked us in let us know our ride was here for Cerro Negro.

On our Way to Cerro Negro

Outside was a pickup truck with a covered bed and benches.  They helped us into the back and said they were going to pick up another couple of people.  Our guide, a local Nica, introduced himself as Eric, and jumped in the back with us.

The driver drove us few blocks away where he stopped the truck and two more people jumped inside, a man and woman likely in their early 20s.  We introduced ourselves,  and they introduced themselves as Tania from Los Angeles, and her cousin Sergio, whom she was visiting from Managua, Nicaragua.  Sergio had a very enthusiastic and energetic personality.  Aimee and I both had a brief moment of déjà vu upon seeing him get into the truck.  This was explained a few moments later when he asked if we were just walking down the street earlier, as they thought they had seen us.  Once he said that, I realized that was why they looked familiar.  Earlier while we were looking for lunch we walked past them and had one of those brief moments of eye contact walking past each other I believe.  Just quick enough to create the memory of their faces.

The drive to Cerro Negro was about 45 minutes or so.  We spent the entire drive in very dynamic conversation with Sergio and Tania, with our guide Eric joining in as well.  Sergio’s English was very good and clear, and only occasionally asked his cousin  how to say a word.  We talked about learning Spanish and learning English, and both appreciated the opportunity to practice each others' languages while talking to each other.  Interestingly both he and Eric agreed that English is an easier language to learn than Spanish.  I was surprised by this, though explained that I thought that written English was much more difficult, as the English alphabet does not have consistent pronunciation.  Words like knife, pneumonia, tough, through, though.  Spanish, only takes about an hour to learn the pronunciation, and at that point you can read anything correctly, as there are no exceptions.

Sergio, a life-long resident of the big city of Managua (population around 1.7million) had spent very little time away from the big city.  This was his first trip out to Cerro Negro, and he was very excited to see more of the beauty of his own country---a country of which he was clearly very proud.

Cerro Negro

As we approached Cerro Negro, the ground was now covered in a fine black sand.  We stopped at the office to sign in.  As part of signing in, it requested your age.  I quickly noticed that very few people over 35 have done the volcano boarding.  Perhaps one out of every 25 or so.  We had read some horror stories of compound fractures, and 6 hour waits to get driven to the hospital.  I really hoped we didn’t become another such story.
     
We continued driving towards the foot of the mountain, where we pulled over and were given backpacks
and our volcano boards to strap on our backs and carry up the mountain.  We were very fortunate that the sky was overcast, keeping it very cool.  Our guide said its usually very hot hiking up the mountain.  Instead it was probably in the low 70s, maybe even high 60s as we hiked.

Sergio and Tania Gearing Up

Ascending Cerro Negro

Aimee, when at home in Tennessee, has terrible allergies and is always congested.  In Nicaragua however, she’s been able to breathe very clearly since getting here.  This actually became an issue while hiking.  Whether it was that parts of her sinuses simply weren’t used to having a lot of air passing through them, or the increased amount of sulfur in the air, her sinuses began burning terribly as we climbed.  Repeatedly she needed to stop to catch her breath and try and calm her sinuses.  Sergio and Tania were awesome through the whole hike and kept encouraging her, and were happy to hike slowly with us.  As we neared the top, we got to the point where the sulfur fumes from the fumaroles blew up over the crater lip and into our lungs.  The sides of the crater downwind from the single tiny smoking hole (that was only a foot or two around) were colored a whitish yellow from the sulfur depositing over time.

The Crater of Cerro Negro

Sulfur Deposits Around the Crater of Cerro Negro

We finally made it to the launch point after about 50 minutes of hiking up the mountain.  The clouds had darkened, and we began hearing thunder in the distance.  Immediately we were brought back to the beach at Chacocente in our minds, and were worried we were going to be dodging lightning and downpours up here as well.

We put on our safety suits, gloves, goggles and bandannas as our guide explained how to control our speed while going down the mountain.  Speeds can easily exceed 25-30mph if you allow them to on the way down.  We looked down the slope that we were about to ride down.  It looked like it went down at about a 45 degree angle and then disappeared.  We asked our guide if there was really more slope past where it looked like it ended, or if we were simply going to fly off the end of the mountain.  He assured us that there was more mountain over that edge.  He did also assure us if we wiped out that the sand was very soft to land in. I somehow was nominated to go first.

Ready to Volcano Board

I sat on my board and slowly scooted myself down the face of the mountain.  The front of my board seemed to keep getting stuck in the sand.  I adjusted my seating position to the “faster” position, and continued scooting down the mountain.  Now I began to glide smoothly.  I began to pick up speed, and I dug my heels into the sand to keep my pace at a moderate one.  As I continued to accelerate, the wind and pieces of ash flew at my face, harder and harder, to the point where it felt like pins poking me all over my face.  As I neared the bottom it seemed there was no slowing down..heels in the sand or not.  So I held on and hoped for the best.   I made it all the way without falling!  What an incredible rush.  I stood up, covered in black dust, and got out of the way.

Aimee was next.  I could see her also struggling to get moving.  For quite some time she was trying to get going down the hill.  It turned out the handle had come untied and came off of the rope on the board that you are supposed to hold on to.  She had to adjust her grip much lower, which ended up shifting her weight on the board and digging it into the sand.  At one point she did lean back and started going fast, but couldn’t hold onto the rope without the handle, so she adjusted herself.  Holding the rope further down continued to dig the board into the sand.

The poor visibility due to the clouds, and amount of time Aimee struggled with the board created some confusion, and Tania began descending. Aimee heard her coming and grabbed her board to get out of the way and walked down the rest of the mountain.

Tania descended to the bottom without incident, and Sergio followed.  About 2/3rds of the way, he lost

Survived!!!

control, and tumbled a little bit. He sat back on his board and slowly scooted himself down the hill.  Tania and the truck driver were laughing and called to him to pick his feet up and slide.  To which he yelled back in Spanish, “No!  Didn’t you see me rolling?!?

When we all made it to the bottom, the guides offered us Tonas for a dollar to celebrate.  I decided to enjoy one.

On the ride back, we had more good conversation with our new friends.  Sergio told us quite a bit about the recent history of the country, the revolution, local politics, and of Ruben Dario, a very famous poet of whom the country is very proud.  He also talked about the significant improvements the country has seen in its economy in the last 20 years and the subsequent increase in quality of life for many, but not all of the residents.

 The conversation and new friendship was just one more awesome benefit of this trip

We headed back to Leon, showered, and went for a walk to find a place to eat.  There were a few good sounding restaurants within a quarter mile of our hotel.  Our guidebooks warned against too much walking after dark in the cities, however, it also simply recommended common sense.  The area around our hotel seemed fairly safe, and lit (though dimly, as all the cities are).  We walked past a few restaurants and finally settled on Carnivoro---a very upscale looking steak house with the front open to the street.  We sat near the open door.  Upon checking the menu, I was pleasantly surprised that micro breweries do exist in Nicaragua, and this restaurant had a few beers from them.  I ordered some of these, while Aimee ordered a glass of wine.  While we sat there, a local teenager stumbled by the doorway.  He held a container of something in his shirt that he continued to stick his nose into, and he was clearly very high.  He called at us several times from the sidewalk heckling us, calling Aimee “Francesca” and asking for money over and over.  The waiters several times came over to shoo him away.  We later learned that sniffing glue has become a serious issue with some of the youth.  (We did see this earlier in the day on the streets of Leon as we drove in as well).  Some drugs such as Marijuana and crack cocaine are also beginning to create problems as well, and meth to a lesser extent, but huffing is the most widespread.

We enjoyed a phenomenal steak dinner, several drinks, and paid our tab, including tip of $45, and walked back to our hotel wishing we had more time to spend in this vibrant city.
.