June 19-24
Upon arriving and finding that no dorms were available, I bunked up in a private room with a few Canadian guys I'd met on the bus. We spent the evening exploring some local bars.
The next day I discovered the hostel's two pet turtles and spent most of the morning playing with them! Cuties!
I also explored the town. To be honest, it's not the nicest city. There are some colourful streets and pretty churches, but not much else. It's like Antigua but much busier and less picturesque.
I found a market that had just about everything you could possible want or need; fruit, meat, clothes, souvenirs, street food, you name it! However it also stank real bad. I ate the most delicious Nicaraguan-style enchilada (and have since had one pretty much every day!)
Our hostel has a 'sister hostel' about half an hour away on a beach called Las Peñitas. On Saturday night they hosted a big beach party! We hopped on a bus with just about every single person from the hostel and partied the night away in the ocean, the pool and the dance floor. Lots of mischief, awesome fun!
Running on about 2 hours sleep we bravely attacked a canyon the next day! The four hour drive there provided some much needed rest. Upon arriving at Somoto Canyon we met our guide, Ronaldo, who was fantastic! He didn't speak any English so it was a perfect opportunity to practice my Spanish.
He took us on a five hour trip all the way from one end of the canyon to the other. We walked, swam and did a bunch of cliff jumping (I stuck to the baby jumps!) The views were pretty spectacular. So spectaular that they popped it on the 50C note!
Ronaldo pointed out all kinds of animals- bats, snakes, lizards and these crazy spiders that jumped across the water! We also saw lots of cowboys and a massive herd of cows crossing the river.
Once again this is the kind of place that pictures don't really do justice!
On Monday I went to Cerro Negro to do volcano boarding. This is pretty much the only reason anyone comes to Leon...and I can see why! Awesome fun! Although a bit pricey.
We spent around an hour climbing up the volcano, which is the most active cylinder volcano in the world; it has erupted 23 times and cylinder volcanoes usually only erupt once. It wasn't a particularly difficult walk except that it was insanely windy - so much so that we were being blown to the ground at times!
Once at the top we were shown the boarding technique and given tips about how to go faster or slower. The speed record is 95km/hr..insane! I was going pretty fast until I lost control and crashed, continuing to slide down the hill without my board. Eventually my board caught up with me and I managed to hop back on. Sadly, I couldn't regain as much speed and only clocked in at 22km/hr at the end- still felt pretty fast! It would appear I forgot to close my mouth...so it was full of dust and little rocks by the bottom! I think it will still be all through my hair for weeks.. Gross!
When I got back to the hostel that afternoon Dave had arrived and we grabbed some lunch. Enchiladas, of course! We went up the top of the cathedral, which is currently covered in scaffolding, therefore not much to look at. However, the view from the top was nice. Nothing special, as it's not a particularly pretty town.
More friends arrived in the evening, from various places, and we all had a few drinks and played a few card games.
It's too hot to stay away from the coast for too long, so Dave and I are off to see a little more of Las Peñitas for a night or two!
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