So we had made it into Nicaragua, aka the land of fire. No longer content with simple hiking up these powerful giants we now were provided with the opportunity to throw ourselves down them on a plank of wood known as Volcano Boarding. This was an opportunity we weren’t going to turn down.
From the city of Leon it’s a short bus ride to El Cerro Negro which is one of the youngest active volcanos on the continent. It has erupted from several points causing it to have more than one crater.
As we approach it from the bus it looks like a huge black hill.
Its 35 degrees outside but thankfully there is a small amount of cloud providing some minor rest bite from the sun as we are handed our backpacks with overalls, goggles and our board.
We begin the 45 minute hike up the volcano. This is the bit I wasn’t looking forward to. The boards aren’t exactly the easiest things to carry and as we get closer to the top the wind picks up and it becomes difficult to hold onto the board without flying away with it.
Thankfully the walk isn’t too long and before we know it we have reached the top. We spend a few moments exploring the edge of one of the craters which is steaming. The ground is boiling hot and the wind blows the heated air in our faces.
It’s hot enough as it is but then we are told to put on our overalls. Obviously mine is several sizes too big.
Clearly we aren’t going to win any style awards in these outfits but I’ll wear anything as long as it’s providing some sort of protection if we fall. By this point I have realised it isn’t going to be anything like snowboarding, the ground isn’t like sand it’s made of small, hard rocks. But we are here now and it has to be more fun than walking down.
After being told that people have reached speeds of 90km per hour going down we are given a short tutorial in how to not fall off the board. I listen intently. I’m determined that I’m not going to fall off as I’m pretty sure Volcano Boarding isn’t covered on our travel insurance.
The guide told us that the first section is a 45 degree slope which then turns to a 50 degree angle. If we don’t want to go too fast he tells us to start off slowly as you will pick up speed further down. I take this advice and edge slowly down the slope, very slowly in fact. As I struggle to pick up speed I pick my feet up and immediately start to hurtle down. The board is not easy to handle so I dig my feet in to the ground to regain control. This works surprisingly well as I slow down and at one point and it looks like I may even stop. I don’t break any speed records but I do make it to the bottom safely.
I watch Karl coming down, faster than me but also leaning more toward the cautious side. We then watch the crazy speed demons zoom down and some nutters with snowboards boarding down standing up. We were both saying we regretted not going faster when one girl comes down screaming, she is flying down and has clearly lost control, suddenly she is flung off the board a few feet into the air and rolls several times down the hill. It doesn’t look good. I’m immediately glad that I took the cautious approach. She is part of another group so we don’t get to see what the damage was but she would be lucky to come out with just a few scratches and bruises.
Although our runs weren’t as adrenaline pumping as we may have liked this is still an extreme sport and a lot of fun. I was glad to do it but equally glad to have walked out without any broken bones.
