The main draw for going to Leon was to go volcano boarding and how I roped James into coming with me. Having said goodbye to our third travel buddy, we hopped on a military-style truck and away we went to the volcano. 5$ to the park, a quick walk around to look at the iguanas and we were given instructions, boards and started the trek up towards the volcano.
I look happy now because this was at the beginning.
Volcano boarding was started a few years ago by a crazy Australian who tried to get the fastest speed on his bike down this volcano. He ended up crashing and being seriously injured. After that, they tried a bunch of different ways to go down the volcano – mattresses, picnic tables, snowbaords and because they are boys, a fridge. Finally they created the boards that we use now.
A lot of the people paid local men to carry up their boards. It was so windy! Since it’s all ash, the process of going up the hill with a board meant that you were constantly losing your footing as rocks fell down the hill. In some places, it was all rocks and that ash was really difficult to trudge through. However, the view was spectacular. We put down our boards, and walked around the volcano exploring and taking pictures.
Top of the volcano! Somewhere in the background, one of the volcanos was smoking.
Finally, we suited up! Why yes, those outfits are ridiculously attractive. I thought about keeping one and wearing it to the bar from then on.
We are hot stuff.
We were given instructions and separated into two groups as there were two tracks. And then you just went.
I would say, don’t look down but you literally can’t seen anything.
It can be a bit terrifying. You’re struggling to hold on to the rope, maintain balance and not put your feet on the board. It sounds counter-intuitive. And not only that, you can’t see over the first bump. You are just pushing yourself down a track and holding on for dear life. The goggles don’t allow you to see, there’s so much wind you can’t hear anything and rocks are flying into your face, your hair. I couldn’t figure out how to go any faster. I crashed. Quite a few times.
Ya, this is a sexy crash.
The fastest person that day was a girl named Sofia. Her and her friend Miranda are some of the most inspiring people I have ever met. They have travelled extensively and they are both deaf. She went 70 kms an hour! Honestly, of all the people I have met, those two are simply amazing. We went out dancing later that night, we had these incredibly conversations through text and body language and I wished I would have ended up going to the Turtle Island with them and two other girls we met. In fact, they’ve inspired me to look at taking American Sign Language courses. And Miranda has just won a prestigious acting award. I saw it on Facebook and she looked incredible.
So my crashed end up leaving me with a bunch of burn marks on my wrists, forearms and legs even though I was wearing the protective suit. I feel like this would only happen to me.
On our way back, we had cookies and beers in the truck. Since I have now done snowboarding,paddle-boarding, surf-boarding and volcano boarding, I should look into sand boarding, wakeboarding, skateboarding… What are the other ones?
Later that night, we all went out to a cool club and danced and drank our night away. The next day, we went to a French bakery that some of the girls had told us about. OMG it was delicious. It was right around the corner from BigFoot Hostel. It was called Pan & Paz. The German guy, who was there to eat, showed us around and recommended us on what to get. So our stay in Leon was amazing and we were excited to head to San Juan del Sur! It would be my last few days and James was using the city as his jumping off point into Costa Rica.
We are an attractive bunch