Volcano Surfing

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This morning I was abit hungover from last night. We were suppose to wake up to hike up to the Volcano but I ended up vegging and licking my wounds until noon.

Most of the day I wondered around Leon and explored the old cathedrals and it was fantastic. The rain finally let up so I was able to get some photos in. I sat at cathedral square which was a great place to people watch.

Afterwards I met up with Thomas who was also hungover and we made our way to the meeting point to head up to the volcano. The ride up was cramped int a 4x4 and the road was pretty bad from the rain. Twice we always got stuck and a few times we had to stop for cows and pigs crossing.

We finally got to the base and then we started our 2 hour hike up with our boards. The hike was pretty tough and probably would of been easier if we were not so hungover. But after awhile the adrenaline kicks in and I felt alot lighter. The scene was spectacular with sulfer coming out of rocks and it was quite humid and steam was coming out of rocks. We were werned if we had flip flops it would melt.
We got a chance to hike down the crater and it was so eary knowing this thing can blow anytime but all you can hear was the wind and steam. It felt like you were in space. Too bad none of us had zoomers and glow sticks. The last time the volcano erupted was 7 years ago and it was due for another one.

It is prety hard to explain what it is like being on an active Volcano with Volcanic hot sand everywhere. You were in such awe of the energy surrounding you that you had forgotten you were about to surf down this bad boy. The only concern was visilibity and the guide told us not to go too far ahead or you will lose the trail and get lost.

We finally got to the summit of the volcano and I was wondering where all the gear was. It turns out there were no gear and the only thing they gave you were rubber gloves. The Volcano is 45 degree slide down and you can reach speeds of 45 mph. I was the first to go so he strapped me onto his home made snowboard and without much instructoins gave me the thumbs up. So what the hell...i could barely see 20 metres ahead of me and it felt like you were jumping into space. All you could see was volcano black sand and fog which gave it an illusion it would go forever down without no bottom in sight.

I gave it thumbs up and jumped down and the andrenine kicked in. I can´t really discribe it but it was just awesome. I went abit too fast at one point and summer sulted and bailed but once you get use to the pain of that initial crash you got more confident so you let it all go. It was such a rush flying down the volcano and rocks were coming down from the next person so you had to be careful you didn´t get smoked in the head as they fly by you at times. For a moment you forget where you were and it felt like you were flying down with no end in sight. I can´t believe I am boarding down this volcano!!! Eventually after awhile the midst cleared as we got closer to the bottom and you are treated with a speculater view of the entire rainforest where it meets the volcano. I stopped and laid against the volcano sand and just admired the absolute beauty and was in complete awe of the moment not wanting it to end.

The view is nothing I can describe. It felt like you were sitting up high on the clouds and looking down at the earth. It was purely awesome. The cost of this was only $30 so I highly recommend it.

This was the same volcano that this French dude tried to break his own world record by flying down the mountain on a customize bike at 170 kms and hour and the bike broke in half and he prety much detroyed his body but did survive. Apparently this was on u-tube if you google french dude riding down mountain on bike.

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