Nicaragua - How Not to Sandboard Down a Volcano

 October 24

Hello everyone!

One thing we’d been told we had to do in León was to visit one of its many nearby volcanoes. The country has sixteen, of which seven are active. This particular one, Cerro Negro, is a bit different to the rest. It is the second youngest volcano in the world, only appearing in 1850. It is also one of the few places in the world where you are actively encouraged to slide down its sides on a plank of wood.

Hannah: more successful than me!

Cerro Negro, which translates as 'Black Hill'

Welcome to the world of sandboarding. I’ve done something similar in Namibia - admittedly on a sand dune, not a volcano - and absolutely loved it, so I was really looking forward to sliding down the volcano and possibly reaching speeds of 70 km/h. We were recommended to go for sunset: arrive in the afternoon, hike up in the sunshine, have a super slide down then watch the Sun disappear behind other volcanoes whilst you roast marshmallows and sip on local rum. Dreamy.

Speeding out of the year 2016 in Swakopmund, Namibia

Malvaviscos in Spanish, apparently

The volcano, about 25 km from León, is part of a long chain

It’s important to point out that we are visiting in the rainy season. We were told that some tour companies don’t go to Cerro Negro at this time of year. It rained heavily before we arrived at the pick-up point. It lashed it down as we crossed the road to get on the bus. It poured to the point that we couldn’t see out of the windows. But it stopped when we arrived. Perfect timing. 

The man we were staying with in León later used the word 'cyclone' in a conversation about the weather

The cone is formed by ash and black sand

We walked up this young volcano, admiring the blackness and how it contrasted so sharply with the verdant green forests surrounding it. We walked quite quickly, always being encouraged along by our trip leader. It was as if he knew something was coming…

Even on this cloudy day, we could see Lake Xolotlan 

The most recent eruption, in 1999, created three
more craters in addition to this main one

Near the top of the volcano, we walked across an exposed section. The wind started buffeting us, particularly the sledges we were carrying. The sky greyed. Quickly, we were ushered to put on the clothing which made us all look like we were about to be cast in a zombie apocalypse movie. 

The suits weren't entirely waterproof

The first three people were sent down what seemed from the bottom to be a rather steep slope. I was fourth ready but had inadvertently put myself in a place where I had to wait until another person had to finish before I could set off. And whilst waiting, it started to rain…heavily…

The slide itself is probably about a 250 metre descent

What this meant was that, by the time I pushed off, my goggles couldn’t show me much of the way, the ground felt a bit heavier and my bandana, which was compulsory in order to protect rocks from spitting up into your nose and mouth, was sodden. Quite hard to breathe.

A Frenchman called Eric Barone cycled down
this in 2002, reaching a speed of 172 km/h

Even so, I expected to be going a bit quicker. A lot quicker. I kept stopping and having to kick off again to start. I probably wasn’t doing it right. I had built up a bit of speed at one point before a large amount of gravel seemed to land on top of the bottom of my sledge, causing it to dive into the ground and stop me in my tracks. The pictures and video they took don’t show me in the best light!

I kept getting stuck so having to lean
forward to try to jump-start my slide

By the time I was at the bottom, I was glad it was over yet frustrated that I hadn’t enjoyed it more. Other people had similar issues. Maybe something to do again when it’s not very wet. The trip leader decided that this was the time to open up multiple bottles of rum. Ironically, the time spent drinking rum was when the weather was driest - we probably could have gone up and done it again, admittedly in soaked clothes.

You'd think we would be cold from being
soaked through but the air was still warm!

The magic tricks of getting this to light:
dry wood stored on the bus, and fuel. 

We were unlucky with the weather. The following afternoon was clear and sultry. You could argue we were lucky with the fact that it didn’t erupt. It has done so majorly at least 23 times since 1850 (three times in the 1990s!). It’s slightly unnerving to consider that we were joyriding (well, trying to) down the slope of something so powerful and erratic, yet that is part of the thrill.

Cerro Negro is 728 metres tall...and still growing...

One of the youngest volcanoes in the world 

All in all, it was a fun day. It wasn’t how I envisaged it going; not everything goes according to plan. I’ve sandboarded down a volcano in the pouring rain, and that’s certainly a more interesting blog than trying to teach kids how to form questions correctly in English.

Our boarding crew. By quite a distance,
we were the oldest on the trip.

"How exactly do you do this?"

Love you all,

Matt