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Cerro negro Leg four : Honduras to Nicaragua
Tuesday 19 was a day of travelling for us which involved catching the 6am bus from Copàn back to San Pedro Sula bus terminal. The journey took almost four hours but we weren't finished there as we then had to taxi it back across the city to the aiport to make our way to Nicaragua via air. There are no direct flights into the country so we took two flights: one from San Pedro Sula to San Salvador in El Savador and one from San Salvador to Managua. Mal and I loved the fact that our flight into San Salvador landed at gate 6 and our departing flight was boarding immediately at gate 7...we literally had to walk 30m to switch planes! Each flight lasted around an hour, meaning we were in Nicaragua around 3:30. After catching a cab to the local bus terminal we then had a further 2 hour journey to León, arriving at around 7pm local time. The taxi we were offered for the journey to our hotel, hotel Mariposa, was the strangest yet - a bicycle taxi (yes one of those cart things attached to the front of
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The three paths for volcano boarding from the bottom a bicycle which some poor sod has to power with their legs). Naturally this type of taxi is a little more expensive and rightly so given the effort on the part of the driver.
When we arrived at hotel Mariposa, we immediately loved the place as we walked straight into the massive courtyard, which is surrounded by luscious plants and hammocks and has a decent sized swimming pool at the centre. The rooms are very cosy and we were given the choice of a standard room or a bungalow for two dollars more. We chose the bungalow - with its four poster bed and luxury outdoor bathroom, we knew it was the right choice. One of the best things for us about this place was that it is run by a very friendly french family, who were so welcoming and helpful. They served breakfast and a small selection of lunch/ dinner dishes and most of these had a french influence. We loved it, especially as they had a cuddly bunny and cat freely roaming the grounds, bounding up to people for the odd stroke.
The following day was an earlyish start for us as
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The view from the top of cerro negro we had arranged to go volcano boarding with the Bigfoot hostel and we had to be in the city for 9am. We called a taxi around 8, booking it for half past but as is typical in Central America it didn't turn up until 8:50am. Luckily we made it to the hostel just in time to see our open air truck starting to fill up with fellow volcano boarders, though our taxi driver tried to con us by asking for $20 dollars (£13.40) for a ride that should have cost 40 cordobas (around £1).
The journey to the volcano, cerro negro (literally meaning black hill), was a bumpy one hour ride through mostly rocky terrain and an abundance of trees, the branches of which we had to duck and dive along the way. The volcano itself is around 1700ft high and it's a gruelling 45 minute - one hour trek to the top (depending on how fast you go). We had three short rests along the way to help us catch our breath in between the sections, one of which was incredibly steep and rocky, and the light breeze brought some light relief from the blazing 34
degree heat.
On our way to the top we passed some very steep drops right into the heart of the volcano, it was slightly terrifying but we climbed on and the view from the top was purely breathtaking. Now came the time to don our boiler suits and goggles and surf/ slide down one of the three paths going down the side of the volcano using a board roughly one metre long that is made of wood and has a metal coating on the back. I have to admit I was a little anxious and part of me wanted to chicken out. However, I knew I wasn't likely to get the chance to do this again (cerro negro is currently the only place in the world where you can volcano board) so I just went with it.
The start was a little slow but, once I got over the first ridge of the volcano, I rapidly picked up speed. I had my feet held firmly to the ground to help slow me down but this didn't really seem to do a lot as I was still going at such incredible speed that I found
the board difficult to control, plus bits of volcano were just flying everywhere making it harder to find your footing. I thought I was going to come off twice but I held tight and managed to stay put. At the bottom the guides were measuring our speed - 45kph for me and 35kph for Mal. As this measure was taken when we had already slowed down considerably, this was not our top speed and I reckon I was probably doing around 55-60 and Mal was probably going 45-50 at our fastest.
At the bottom we were both completely covered in bits of volcano, it was literally everywhere. Other people had been sensible and worn scarves over their faces and hair but we hadn't been as clever and instead we had dirty faces (similar to Oliver Twist) and tiaras in our hair made out of rocks and dirt. We had planned to explore the town after the boarding but we were so grubby that we had to forego our plan and head back for a shower at our hotel instead. This meant that we didn't get the chance to see the cathedral though as it had already closed by the time we had refreshed ourselves. We weren't too worried and just chilled out in the pool instead!
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