Have you ever heard of Volcano boarding? Well, neither had I until I came to Nicaragua. Last weekend I went to Léon, a colonial city 2 hours north east of Managua. Léon is known for being the cultural capital of Nicaragua and one of the only places in the world where you can go volcano boarding. There are also a hand full of elaborate cathedrals and museums in the city. One of the cathedrals, Catedral de Léon, is the largest cathedral in Central America. It was massive and really was a work of art. Construction of Catedral de Léon was completed in 1747 after over 30 years of labour. Seeing the sign outside with the completion date made me think of how incredible it is that a building that large and elaborate could have been built in the 1700s. I wanted to check out a few of the museums on Sunday, but they seemed to be closed or were too far away to walk to.
The main highlight of the weekend (besides the awesome 75 cent mojitos the bar at the hostel had) was our volcano boarding trip. Volcano boarding can mean one of two things- either riding down the volcano on a toboggan-like board or on a snowboard-like board. The hostel offered the tobogganing style of volcano boarding so that's what we tried. It sounds really cool, and it was. Well at least the hike up the volcano was. The volcano used for boarding is Cerro Negro, which is the youngest volcano in Central America. It is an active cinder cone volcano which spews rocks and ash out the top, and lava threw cracks at its base during an eruption. We hiked up the rocky side and rode down the side with small rocks and sand. The views from the top were INCREDIBLE and definitely worth it. After photographing the view, I looked over the edge where I was about ride down. SCARY STEEP. Myself and others wondered out loud why we had actually paid money to do this. I was horrible at surfing and I anticipated I wouldn't be to great at volcano boarding either. I was right, I fell off the board twice. The first time I twisted my knee and now I walk around with a limp. The second time, I did a few somersaults and scratched my arm and face a little bit. Unfortunately, although I rolled down the hill quite a ways, my board did not and I had to walk the rest of the way down.... I think it was about half of the way down! Not fun. Thus, I am going to stop trying things like this. I wanted to try it because it sounded really awesome and I didn't want to be the loser of the group who is too afraid to try things. Now I think everyone will understand when I sit out for these sorts of things...
On a more happy note, I have decided to cancel the two additional weeks I had already added to my volunteer program. David and Matt are going to be travelling to Costa Rica and Panama so I figured I might as well join them. Since I am already in Central America and have friends to travel with, I may as well see a few more countries. We're going to start the journey off in San Juan del Sur. The guys plan on surfing again but I'll just lie on the beach... maybe rent a boogie board. Then we'll go through Costa Rica to Panama. After seeing the Panama Canal and spending some time on the Caribbean coast of Panama (I think that is going to be my favourite part since I've never been anywhere with white sand and clear water!), we'll head back to Costa Rica and take our time coming back to Nicaragua. I'll be returning to Jinotepe for a night or two to grab my suitcases and then I'll be flying home on December 17th! My trip is barely only half over. Crazy to think about. I'm really excited to travel more but at the same time it will be nice to return home after almost three months. I need to stop thinking about it though, or else I'll start craving conveniences such as a washer and dryer.
I am supposedly going to spend tomorrow watching surgeries so I hope that actually happens. I spent today in the Maternity ward, mostly talking vital signs with a student auxiliary nurse while the nurses sat around talking. I also walked around and wrote down words on the posters lining the hall so that I can look them up. I think my Spanish vocabulary needs some work!
Here are a few pictures from this weekend. I'm not sure of the names of most of the cathedrals so I had to leave them unnamed!
Maria
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| View from the top of Cerro Negro |
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| There was an Iguana farm at the base of Cerro Negro |
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| Gangsta Maymar |
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| Catedral de Leon |
OMG! The photo of young the suit makes you look like a gangster Oompa Loompa!
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