WHAT: Boarding down the black sands of the volcano Cerro Negro WHERE: The volcano is about 25 km away from León. The bus will take you there in about 45 minutes HOW LONG: You leave at 8am at Bigfoot Hostel in León and return around approximately 2 or 3pm HOW MUCH: $35,- per person, including a tank top, a beer and a mojito afterwards. Plus $5,- for park entrance
So what you would do when you’re an outdoor lover and a thrill seeker and you’re in Nicaragua? Of course you’d slide down a very active volcano with nothing more than a wooden board! Right?
Indeed, volcano boarding is kind of a weird ‘sport’. The idea was created by an Australian thrill seeker, Daryn Webb, owner of the Bigfoot Hostel in León, who thought the Cerro Negro had to be conquered in a creative way. Daryn and his crew endured a fair share of trial and error, testing everything from picnic tables to fridges until they arrived to a wooden toboggan, made of metal and Formica-reinforced plywood. Finally they had found themselves the ultimate slide down object and they took their hostel visitors all the way up to the volcano to let them experience the same fun.
This type of exercise was totally new in the world, and has become very popular amongst backpackers in Nicaragua. Nowadays other hostels in León offer volcano boarding as well. Already more than 25,000 people have sled down its slopes, with one of them holding the speed record of 95km/hr (believe me, that’s insane fast up there).
If you’re freaking out by the thought of boarding down a volcano itself, don’t worry, you do not slide right into the smoke of mount doom. It’s the outer sides of the volcano that you’re cruising. A relieve right ;)? Another thing to consider is that instead of boarding while standing up, over here you only have to sit down. Thus it doesn’t require too much technique; even I was able to do it!
And with those alleviations in mind we left on a bright Saturday morning at 8 am in front of the Bigfoot Hostel. With a group of around 20 people we slowly woke up during the bumpy ride in the bright orange bus, which drove us to the slopes of the Cerro Negro. The area is remarkable, with its vegetation in stark contrast to the black volcano. At the entrance of the park we received a board, a bottle of water, a suit, goggles and gloves. All of these things you have to carry all the way up to the top, which can be quite a burden. Therefore you can also decide to pay one of the crew members $4,-, so that they’ll carry your board. Especially if you’re small, I’d recommend you to do that.
The hike takes about 1,5 hours and on the way up you’re able to make several stop. The 360° views are magnificent; you can see the smoke of the crater of the Cerro Negro itself, desolated landscapes, dried lava and other volcanoes around you. And a lot of ladybugs for some kind of reason. Nevertheless the hike is pretty fierce, especially if the wind is strong and the sun is shining bright, like in our case. With such a heavy board in your arms, you have to take care not to be blown away.
Once you’re all the way up after this intense workout, you can go down again! Hurray! We prepare ourselves mentally and put on our orange overalls. One by one our group members cruise down the black sands. Because we were sitting behind a big pile of sand and rocks, I could barely see the end of the slopes which made me a bit anxious at first. Were the hell am I going? Therefore I took off in quite a granny style way in the beginnings. But quickly I get the hang of it; the more you bend backwards on your board, the faster you go! On the way down, make sure you have some time to look around. Unless you really want to win those free drinks for the evening, in that case, speed it up and let another one bite the dust!
