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Published: June 16th 2007
On the day before our departure we had the option to either spend the day at the beach near Leon or hike a volcano and meet the group later at the beach.
The majority of the group chose to go to the volcano - Cerro Negro. It was about 1.5 - 2 hour drive from the guest house. Riding in the back of the truck on the highway is no picnic, but it sure beats riding in the back of the truck on unpaved roads surrounded by trees with low-hanging limbs.
For me, this was the real adventure - the constant ducking to avoid being smacked in the head with a limb and the never-ending shaking off of exotic bugs - spiders, beetles, ants, etc. We were like a group of monkeys - picking & flicking bugs off of one another. That portion of the ride lasted for about an hour.
When we arrived at the volcano we were given the choice of an "easy" route or a "hard" route. The hard route consisted of hiking straight up the side of the volcano. The easy route was supposed to take us in a round-about way up the
volcano. I chose the easy route. It started off well...it was scenic a route varying between open fields and jungle like density. There were hilly areas of volcanic rock which caused me to trip, slip, or slide on several occassions. After about an hour, I started to feel like this route wasn't so easy. We continued to follow the trail but we never seemed to get any closer to the volacano. At one point my arms started getting cold, which didn't seem like a good thing considering how hot it was. I started to dread the hike back...hoping that we would have an alternative. I remember thinking to myself, "How great would it be if when I round the next corner the truck is sitting right there?" And guess what? It was! Ha. Our hiking leader had never hiked the "easy" route before and had been directed to the wrong trail. The trail we had hiked essentially was a circle that led us right back to the starting point of the trail we should have taken. Needless to say, I was very grateful. Some of the easy-routers decided to go ahead and hike the correct trail too. I decided to
sit that one out and just enjoy the scenery. This decision was made especially easy when I realized how we were supposed to descend from the top of the volcano. I knew that if you hiked the hard route then your descent down the side of the volcano would consist of running a few steps and then sliding on the black, volcanic, gravel like rocks...running and sliding...running and sliding...essentially skiing or snow boarding down on your feet. I'm pretty sure that's how the easy-routers came down, too. That would seem to involve a certain amount of grace and coordination, which needless to say, I don't necessarily have!
Apparently, you can also "sled" down the volcano...Check out these videos on you tube - I know for sure that the first video was taken at Cerro Negro.
The drive to the beach was exhausting. I thought we would have an easier time on the dirt roads because we might have broken all of the branches the first time through. However, we drove a different route to get to the beach and the truck had to pave a new way, so to speak. More ducking and de-bugging.
The beach was very pretty. The water was choppy and the current was really strong. We ate a delicious meal at a restaurant on the beach while a thunderstorm rolled in.
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John Cantwell
non-member comment
The truck ride was bizarre, brutal, and surreal. How could something so physically rude and sometimes painful with branches whapping us be so much fun? Then the volcano climb was way beyond what many of us thought we could do. But we did it anyway. It took exactly an hour to climb it and about 5 minutes to run back down the face. What an awesome experience!