The only proof we needed that we were on an active volcano (besides the fact that we had just climbed up an active volcano), was when our guide walked over to the edge of a cliff and pulled out a shovel and started digging.

He eventually pulled out a bag with some potatoes wrapped in tin foil and seasoning…they had been cooking since the day before. Apparently, they were very good and very, very hot.  I wouldn’t know because I had other things on my mind. It was extremely windy up at the top, and the sand from the volcano was slapping us in the face and it hurt. We were also going to walk back to the other side of the top of the volcano we had just climbed and slide down it on a piece of board that looked like something out of a high school shop class…

We loved Leon, Nicaragua.  We eventually ended up at a place across the street from Bigfoot hostel, which is the main ‘party’ hostel in town, called Via Via.  It was nice and quiet and we had our own room and bathroom.   We did end up at Bigfoot quite a few nights to hang out with the awesome staff there and kick back and have a few drinks after a long day of exploring, before retiring to our sanctuary.

Leon’s mascot welcomes you to their church with a nice smile.

We also ran into Ash!  We were walking through our hostel’s restaurant and she screamed at us and came running up and hugged us! She’s a friend from Canada we kept bumping into along our route all the way from Belize.  She was staying at Bigfoot and would join us at the bar or on our walk to Burger King to get a $.50 vanilla ice cream cone.  We also watched the Super Bowl at Bigfoot with her.  Every time we bought a beer, we got to choose a spot on a big board for the score at the end of each quarter, that awarded different prizes, such as a free night at Bigfoot, free beer, a free shirt, or even a free volcano boarding session. Hi Ash!

Leon was the first place since we had left home that we got to go into an actual, full on no B.S. grocery store.  We were ecstatic when we found it and we just walked in and started looking around at everything.  It had been a month since we’d been in a grocery store and we just soaked it all in, bought a few things and then headed back out to explore.

The city is laid out in a very nice grid and it’s easy to navigate.  We visited the main church in the middle of town.  You had to walk around to the back side of the church through a tiny little door to buy your tickets, and then walk clear to the other side of this huge structure for the climb to the top.  The view was worth it though.  The entire roof was painted blinding white and you had to take your shoes off to walk around.  We got some great shots.

Eventually, we confronted the elephant in the room:  The volcano that must be climbed.

We bought our tickets from Bigfoot and got a free tank top and were told to be there the next day at 8.  And so we were there with our tank tops on and ready the next day.  We brought some water with us and that was about it. What else would we need?

The climb up was easy enough.  We got a little winded and were grateful for the breaks when they came.  I got a little disoriented when we got to a ridge that had a 45 degree drop down on each side of a three foot wide path, but we made it to the top.

Potatoes.

We dawned orange jump suites and goggles and were given a safety briefing.  The first few people went down and I remarked to Mandy that they didn’t look like they were going that fast and we were just working ourselves up for a big disappointment and maybe we should just go down with these first few people?

So we inched closer and closer to the edge, scooting along on our butts until it was my turn to go.  I’d get down to the bottom first, so I could watch Mandy come down and help her if she got in trouble:

Mandy, sliding down the side of a volcano like a Boss!

There was a guy who had descended about halfway down to take pictures of us as we came down and we were encouraged to wave and make funny faces at him:

Gravity sucks.

He was the last thing I saw before I started to lose control of my board, only halfway down the volcano.

I tried to remember the instructions from the safety briefing.  “If your board starts going sideways, put your feet down on the opposite side to correct yourself.” “Try a potato, they’re excellent!”

It turns out that when you’re flying down the side of a volcano and the board under your ass starts going left and right faster than you can comprehend, safety briefings go out the window, except there is no window to begin with.

I put my right foot down, then my left foot down, and then my right foot down and then my left foot down.

And then I fell off the board and flipped a few times before coming to a stop on the side of an active volcano.  Somehow I still had my grip on the board, even though I was told during the safety briefing to let go of the board.  My goggles were still intact, and so I got back on the board as quickly as I could and continued down the rest of the way, without falling thankfully.

When I got to the bottom, I was expecting people to come running up to me asking if I needed an ambulance.  Since I was the 5th person down out of a group of about 30, no one had seen me fall.

I turned in my board and kind of mentioned to the few other people at the bottom that I had fallen and one of them remarked that I had a few scratches on me.  So I started taking off my orange jump suit and saw some blood on my left ankle.  “Oh that’s no big deal.” I thought. I finished taking off my suit and was sitting when Mandy walked up to me.  She had already ridden down and was wondering why I wasn’t waiting for her at the bottom.

I told her I had flipped off my board and fallen.  Someone mentioned I had a cut on the left side of my chest, I told her.  I started to pull my shirt down when this monstrous gash about 5 inches across revealed itself and Mandy almost passed out.

There was a paramedic on vacation and he actually walked up to me and asked if MANDY was ok because she looked like she was about to pass out.

“I’m the one about to bleed to death!” I responded, half serious, half not knowing if I would make it back to town alive.

Thankfully, it was just a deep scratch, but it looked gnarly. People were coming up to me asking of they could take a picture of it. I was the only one who had gotten injured that day.   The only thing we can gather is that the board got underneath me as I flipped and I cut my chest. I’m ok now, although that would not be the last injury I would endure.

Granada was up next for us in Nicaragua.

Post Script from Mandy herself:

I am not kidding at the time of sliding down the volcano I was saying out loud why did I talk us into this?!?! Yes we are thankful that we did it after the fact and Brandon is healed and ok…but man It was freaking scary doing it….as I write this…its not the scariest thing I have done. (stay tuned)

I loved Leon!! It was the longest place we have stayed. The place we stayed was nice and cheap, the bar across the street was great and there was $.50 ice cream. Ash is a great friend that we would see again and I always enjoyed seeing a solo female traveler. I could live in Leon. We even saw apartments for rent that we talked about looking at.