More Geckos, Volcanoes and Colonialism in Leon

We arrived in Leon at midday meaning we had a fair amount of time to explore the city. Leon was originally the capital of Nicaragua upon Independence but this was later shifted to Managua. It is a large student town and is most famous for its architecture and being the city where the Sandino revolutionary movement originated. We checked into Lazybones hostel, owned by the same people as Oasis in Granada, which explains why it bore a startling resemblance. We took a walk around town to find food and a laundry to drop off my dirty clothes. Leon seemed to be even quieter than Granada despite it being a bigger city. The architecture was also very similar with many classical colonial churches, although perhaps leaned a bit more towards modern in some areas.

Lazybones hostel

Awesome wall art at the hostel

Just like Granada

The ladies posing at the town square

A Sandino mural

A Sandino mural depicting Uncle Sam getting squashed

After spending ages wandering around in vain trying to find a laundry, we took a break at Bar Baro for lunch. I ordered a steak skewer which came back 40 minutes later as a vegetarian kebab... After sending it back I had to wait at least another 30 minutes before the right dish came through and by then the others had long ago finished their meals and were waiting for me to chomp down quickly so we could move on.

I finally found a laundry and dropped my clothes off. We visited Via Via hostel and caught up with Arnfinn, a Norwegian party animal we had met briefly in San Juan del Sur. The night proceeded to some local bars and ended in a lock-in at some shady joint. We saw a big fight amongst locals at one point. The show was intently watched by all the Gringos, amused by the unprofessional handbag slapping that was going on, until the violence escalated and large rocks were being hurled around. At this point we thought it wise to move on and out of range.

I didn't feel like doing anything the next day although I didn't have much choice as Leon appeared to have very little to offer in terms of activities and there were hardly any people walking along the streets making it appear a semi ghost town. Swimming in the hostel pool was quite nice though.

Pool antics

Ice-cream on a Cinderella table... if only I had my Barbie plate from San Juan del Sur!

We booked onto a hike up Cerro Negro for the next day. I wasn't so sure of the wisdom of this decision as we had to wake up at 3:45am!!! A total nightmare in my opinion. Nevertheless the trip is booked and I have to go. We decide to go through QuetzalTrekkers agency which is a volunteer organisation that was setup to provide help to Nicaraguan children by providing food and education. They do this by getting volunteers who take hiking tours out to various locations near Leon. All profits are put towards the charity. We wake up at the scheduled time and it is just as bad as I feared. Taking 10 minutes for my vision to return I donned my hiking gear and we walked over to the QuetzalTrekkers. Our guides were Jack (Canada) and Laurent (Canada too but French). Jack was our guide proper whilst Laurent had just arrived in Nicaragua and was getting training to become a guide.

We met them at the agency and had a light breakfast. Luckily they had a range of hiking boots I could use meaning that the problems of the Isla Ometepe hike would not be repeated. With breakfast over, we walked down to the local bus stop and got on one of the old American school buses to our destination. We got off at an unmarked spot amidst the rural communities. The hike started off through some quiet farmland where we saw the black looming mound of Cerro Torres in the distance. The volcano is still considered active and erupted quite recently in 1995 and 1999. Evidence of these eruptions is clear as all around the base, and stretching out quite far into the wilderness is a fine, black sand where almost nothing grows. We marched on through this soft sand for almost 2 hours and made a brief stop at the rangers station where they farmed Iguanas and had several cages of snakes.

Waiting at the office at 4:15am... I MEAN COME ON!! Who the hell wants to go trekking at that hour???

Cerro Negro

Iguanas tanning

This little fella is gonna be lunch pretty soon

The next part was the ascent of the volcano. We stepped out onto a roughly constructed path made of the volcanic pumice stone. I felt like I had moved location to a scene from the Lord of the Rings, such was the extreme desolation of our surroundings. It was sharply contrasted with lush greenery on the adjacent mountains. We ventured into the first cone from the 1995 eruption and walked amongst the steaming sulfur vents. Breathing was difficult so we did not linger. We then hiked up and around the cone to the very top and looked down into the newer cone from the 1999 eruption.

In the background is the 1999 cone

Sulfur vents. At some of the volcanoes you can cook food on top of them due to the intense heat

Notice King Kong stuck in the mountain (Head, and 2 hands)

After a brief rest we were ready to make our rapid descent. Jack gave us some basic tips about going downhill.

1: If you are comfortable going slowly, then try running faster

2: If you are comfortable running fast, then jump!

Great. We started off tentatively but soon momentum took over and we were racing down. I took a small slide down one section, managing to tear some fresh holes in my shorts but did not let this slow me down. At the bottom I had accumulated a few kilos of grit in my boots so needed to flush it out first.

One and half hours hiking up the volcano, 10 minutes getting down.

Go Go GO!!!!

Me taking a ride down on my bum

Volcano Sprinting: Click "Play" to view video

At the bottom, sweaty and coated in black dust

We took lunch at 10am and then made our way back to the bus stop. We got ourselves some sodas in a plastic bag and endured the constant stares of all the locals, especially the guys, who seemed obsessed with the 2 Norwegian girls.

Coca Cola in a bag

Local wildlife

Not much to do around here except chill on your porch

Via Via hostel was hosting a quiz night that evening so we participated in the hopes of winning the first prize of a bottle of Flor de Caña rum. We narrowly missed out and ended up in 3rd place, which meant we had 2 large complimentary bottles of beer. We almost raised a dispute as the winning side consisted of over 8 people, 6 of whom wore glasses. That is fairly unfair considering we were only 4 with no glasses.

Our last day was spent going on a trip to the nearby Las Peñitas beach. We boarded a school bus and were there within the hour. Our first impressions when we got onto the beach was that there was nobody there. A short walk though led us to a gringo hangout with a few people. The surf was very strong and had a powerful shorebreak, making swimming a touch dangerous. Nonetheless we were determined to enjoy ourselves so we spent the day eating, tanning, relaxing and reading our books. All too soon it was time to return. At the hostel I had to pack for an early start in the morning. We had a meal in the town square before watching some movies back at the hostel. This is the point where everybody would be going on their own separate ways. Marie and Helene were off to El Salvador. Elaine and Irina were still in Granada doing a sailing course and I was set for the Bay Islands in Honduras. It was a strange feeling as we had come so far together and I found it hard to imagine what it would be like without my travel companions. After meeting in Salta in March we had spent over 4 months together (on and off) so it was a bit emotional for me when we had to say our goodbyes.

Las Peñitas

At 5am I was up and took a taxi to the bus stop to move onto my next destination, Honduras.