El Salvador to Nicaragua, León and volcano boarding

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Perquín was my last stop in El Salvador, so I was ready for another long day of travelling. I was a little sad to be leaving the country, as I really loved it, even though in the same way that I didn't like Honduras, I couldn't really find any reason why my feelings were so strong.
My 1st bus was leaving Perquín at 6.30am. With my hotel being a few hundred metres down from the village, by the time the bus got to me, it was already jam packed and I ended up having to stand by the door with my bottom sticking out... The bus was going to San Miguel, but for $1.25, I was getting off at the main junction and catching one ($1.75) going the other way, toward the Honduras border. Leaving El Salvador was painless (so the lack of entry stamp was pretty normal after all) and re-entering Honduras was pretty easy too. I tried to haggled with the (nice) border control man to avoid paying the $3 entry into Honduras again, but he didn't let me get away with it. Once in Honduras, I just had to hop on a minibus that would take me to the Nicaraguan border, a couple of hours away. I was shuffled onto an empty bus, as the one about to leave was already full and made to wait. A couple of hours later, they (whoever they are) decided that there were enough people to finally leave (but there were still only about 8 of us). I paid my $5 fare and enjoyed the couple of hours getting away from Honduras again. The heat was intense, I could feel the hot air coming through the window all the way.
When we got to the second Honduras border of the day, the bus stopped and touts ran on, trying to convince me I should get on a passenger bicycle that would take me from one border to the other as it was 3km away. I didn't believe them and just answered that I could walk it. Despite their arguing that I couldn't possibly walk the whole 3km with my heavy rucksack, I set off on foot. Leaving Honduras again was no problem and when I asked the border lady if Nicaragua was really 3km away, she laughed and said it was about 200m. I was pleased with myself, especially as everybody else who had been on the bus with me (all locals) had gone on the bikes, making me doubt whether I was making the right choice or not. I walked across the bridge and towards the Nica border. It was a bit more than 200 metres, but definitely not 3km.
When I got to border control, the (not so nice) immigration man informed me that the entry fee was $12! With my guidebook telling me it should be free, I wasn't best pleased and decided that he was having me on. So I started arguing that it wasn't true and I didn't want to pay (I'm sure one day, arguing with the immigration personnel will get me into troubles...) but eventually, I had to part with my precious dollars and got an official receipt saying I'd paid, to go with my passport. It seemed that the fee was genuine after all!
I walked out of the immigration office and away on the main road past a load of trucks, but I couldn't see any buses anywhere, so eventually I asked a guy who was walking down the street to point me in the right direction. He took me to the bus station (about 50 metres away) and asked me for a tip, so I told him to get lost. He wasn't happy but there was nothing he could do about it, so he left me alone eventually.
The bus was going to Chinandega, where I had to change for my final bus of the day getting me to León (both buses cost about £1 all together for a 2h30/3h trip). On the first bus, I got chatting to a 17 year old guy (I still wonder why guys this age are interested in talking to me, but then again I keep getting told that I don't look a day over 25!) who was heading home to León, after having been to Honduras to buy a puppy. The dog was really cute, but at 1 month old, I'm sure it was far too young to be away from its mum and in the scorching heat, I wondered if it was going to make it alive to León. On the bright side, I got an easy bus transfer in Chinandega, I didn't get ripped off on the bus (the guy on the first bus tried to charge me double price but my new personal guide saved me!) and I also got to practice my Spanish for a couple of hours.
We got to León at about 5.30/6pm and I went on my way to the hostel, following (badly) my hand drown city map. After what felt like an eternity, getting lost a few times, asking tons of people where to go (and being sent in all different directions), I finally made it to the hostel after dark... I was glad to have arrived after such a hot and long day on the buses, but also happy to still be a Tica virgin (The Tica Bus is a convenient, luxury international coach that everyone seems to catch at least once on their travels).
The hostel was offering volcano boarding trips, so I booked myself on for the next afternoon, as this was the thing I wanted to do most around this city. Then I popped to the supermarket, where I was shocked to spend about £12 on 2 or 3 days worth of food. I had been told Nicaragua was super cheap but quickly discovered that food wasn't particularly. Also, it turned out that you had to be careful at that specific supermarket where (everyone who shopped there noticed) they seemed to have a habit of showing a price per lbs or kgs and then charge you per unit. I learnt my lesson when I got charged £1 for an avocado (should be about 25p). Then, I spent a deserved relaxed evening, eating at the hostel and chatting to an Israeli couple who were joining me for the volcano boarding the next day...
The next morning, I woke up early (as always) and after getting ready, went out to explore the city. It was only about 8am and already, the temperature was too high, so I was glad to be an early riser. My right foot was aching a little, which I put down to the long hike from a couple of days earlier. Unfortunately, I only managed to make it about as far as the cathedral (about 3 blocks from the hostel) before I was in agony and nearly had to hop all the way back to the hostel. There I thought I would take a few hours off in order to be ready for the afternoon's volcano boarding activity, but a couple of ice packs later, it became obvious this wasn't going to be a good idea. In the end, I ended up spending the whole day sat on a rocking chair, gutted to be unable to go boarding and bored to death.
Waking up the next day, my first thought was for the foot. It was a little better but probably not good enough to be doing anything strenuous. However, there was no way I was willing to spend another day doing nothing. I'd heard of the beaches nearby, so I figured I could catch the bus and go to check them out. I walked gingerly to the bus terminal, only to find out that the buses to Las Penitas (the name of the beach) didn't leave from there and I had to catch a microbus to another terminal. That cost me 3C plus another 10C for the 45 minutes ride to the coast (£1=35 Cordobas), not bad for a day trip. I jumped off the bus at one end and walked along the deserted beach up until the other end. It was pretty but the waves were big, as always seem to be the case on the Pacific coast around here. So that was definitely another surfing beach rather than a swimming beach. It was also hot. I mean really hot. So hot you had to walk on the wet sand because the dry sand was burning the soles of your feet. So hot that I had to run for the shade (through the burning sand) a good few times because I was melting away. And so hot I even got slightly sunburnt (first time in 2 months, so I'm not complaining).
By lunchtime I had seen the beach and taken plenty of pictures and was ready to return to the city. My foot was feeling better (despite the 3km walk on the sand), so I was quite happy, but thought I'd still give it another day before going volcano boarding, so I went back to the hostel for another chilled afternoon in the shade. By the evening, the pain level in my foot was back to where it was the night before and I wasn't impressed, thinking that 3km walk wasn't such a great idea after all.
I woke up on my 3rd morning in León (I wasn't supposed to be there that long but there was no way I was leaving without going boarding!) thinking I'd rest my foot (feeling much improved from the day before) until it was time to go to the volcano. Then, if it hurt on the hike, I'd just have to get through the pain and see if I could still walk the next day. I also had to move to a different hotel as the one where I'd been had a group booking for that night, so I went up the street to a slightly more expensive place ($7 instead of $5) but with eat as much as you can pancakes for breakfast (I was determined to eat my $2's worth).
We were leaving for Cerro Negro (the name of the volcano we were to board down) at 2pm and at $28 (they use both currencies with $1=22C) this was a big expense for me, but it was something I had been looking forward to for months, since I had started planning the trip. I arrived at the hostel where the tour was departing from as instructed and met my fellow adventurers for the day. We all piled up in the back of the truck and started the hour ride to the foot of the volcano. Soon, we were off the paved road and laughing at the bumps trying to make us fall over. We had a large group of all ages (from about 15 to 50) and were all really excited to have signed up for the experience.
When we arrived at the point were the hike started, we were each given a board and a bag containing our overalls and goggles and started the ascent. The hike wasn't difficult up the black hill (incidentally, this is what “Cerro Negro” means). It only took about 45 minutes and the hardest part was fighting the wind catching our boards and trying to make us fly away into the crater. The views from the top were very nice, overlooking the whole region and the 2 craters created by 2 big explosions.
At last it got to the point where we were going to go down. The guide explained to us how to use the boards. In this case this was a sitting down affair (some tour companies offer the standing up option but it's not supposed to be as much fun or as fast), so we had to ride a bit like a sledge, stirring and breaking with our feet. It sounded fun and with a hill at 41% at its steepest (that's pretty steep!) and the speed record at 87km/hour, a few people were having competitive thoughts. Not being so keen on high speed, I was just looking to have a giggle on the ride down, which would only take about a minute. We went down in pairs and I went as one of the second lot. I thought it was funny how a few people, once at the top, were all reluctant to go. Wasn't it the whole point of going up???
I sat down, ready for some action and off we went. I started slowly, as we'd been explained that if we went at full speed from the start, it would be very hard to slow down later. Unfortunately, I turned out to be rubbish! Even though I started quite well and at first I was neck and neck with the other girl “racing” against me, I soon went a bit too far to the left and off the track. I was trying to steer back in the right direction but it just didn't work and I ended up getting stuck in the gravel and having to readjust my board. By that point it was too late and even though I went as fast as I could on the last section, I only managed a shameful 26km/h, with the other girl finishing at 42km/h.
The other members of the group kept coming, some slower than me, some faster, but only a couple doing over 40km/h and our “winner” of the day being the last one to come down. From the bottom, it looked like he was absolutely flying and we were a little surprised when they announced that he had “only” done 58km/h, wondering how anyone managed over 80!
Back on the truck, we all wanted to go back up and try again, but it was time to return to León. The guide hopped on and pulled out some beers and cookies, which we were all too happy to share. The ride back to the city was a lot more fun, with everyone having had a few hours to gel together and when we arrived back at the hostel an hour later, we were greeted by the bar staff handing us some mojitos. I sat down and chatted with a couple of French Canadian girls while enjoying our drinks. In the end, I had 4 of them (we were all given 2 but some people didn't want theirs) and was a bit merry by the time I left to return to my hostel.
There, I met up with a group of Norwegians who had been in the same hostel as me previously and spent what was left of the evening with them. I went to bed exhausted at about 10pm, knowing that the following day it was time to move on to Granada. Then, at about 11.30pm, I woke up. I wasn't sure what woke me up, whether it was one of the Norwegians coming to bed or the feeling that something was crawling on my arm... I slapped it, half asleep and thinking it was another mosquito, but the second I touched it, I knew it was far too big to be one of them. It was definitely another creepy crawly...
Lights on and sandal in hand, the other guy and I started looking around the room to see what it was and after 5 minutes, I finally found the culprit. Another massive cockroach. I was not a happy bunny and squashed it so hard I could have killed a small dog with my sandal... We then decided that maybe it was a good idea to have a quick check around the room. We'd just spotted a second one when the rest of the people staying in the dorm arrived, but it had escaped. I'm sure all 7 of us on the cockroach hunt must have been worth a picture, but we weren't laughing. I was actually surprised to be one of the least “girly” ones about it, with everyone else being very squeamish. After killing a couple more and finding out that the hostel staff didn't have any killing spray, one of the German girls suggested putting up our mosquito nets as cockroach nets. This was a genius idea and it meant I got to use my net for the first time and got a decent night's kip, knowing I was safe from the monsters. Unfortunately, not all of us had nets and another one of the girls got woken up by one crawling on her during the night. I can't imagine she slept too well after that...
The next day, with check out at 11am and Granada not so far away, I decided to spend the first couple of hours finally having a look around the city, seeing as the pain in my foot was almost non-existent despite the effort from the previous day. I walked around the city's sights (mainly churches) and took plenty of pictures. León was a colonial city and pretty enough, but still nothing on what I had seen around Mexico or what was to come later that day...

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Photos

León
La Merced

León
Cathedral

Las Penitas
someone's going fishing

Cerro Negro
The start of the hike

Cerro Negro
fellow boarders

Cerro Negro
View from the top

Cerro Negro
Getting ready

Cerro Negro
the only way is down

Cerro Negro
beer and cookies

Comments

[delphine]

ton histoire de la cucaracha me degoute. alors decue par le surf sur le volcan, je pensais que tu aurais ete debout.. bizarre! c'est surement pour les gens comme moi. Il te faut le faire sur les dunes de sable, part au Maroc. j'attends la suite de tes aventures... bises

[delphine]

mmmmmmmm vacances! ca done envie