Leon
Leon was our first introduction to Nicaragua and it was definitely a great start. Nicaragua definitely seems like the undiscovered gem of Central America. Plenty to do, cheap, great food and people, we just wished we had more time there! There's a few places to see around Leon, and great places to eat and drink, though the main draw is Volcano boarding, and it's definitely worth the stop.
 |
| At the bottom of Cerro Negra |
Getting There
We got a shuttle from La Ceiba to Leon, it cost 65USD and was supposed to take 16 hours, though it was a lot closer to 20. It wasn't a comfortable journey, but definitely necessary for saving time when skipping through Honduras. Don't forget you need money for the border!Where we Stayed
We stayed at a laid back hostel called "La Vacaciones", the staff were really friendly and there was breakfast included.Things to Do
- Volcano Boarding - We went with bigfoot which are the original tour group linked to the hostel. It's a full day tour which goes to the beach afterwards and it's a great way to meet people. There are plenty of other companies that do different types of tour though so it depends on what you're looking for.
Food & Drink
- El Bodegon - bored of Nicaraguan food? Try this place. Great meat with incredible salad for a very reasonable price.
Journal
Arrival
The journey from Utila to Leon was extremely long, and pretty uncomfortable. It was meant to be 16 hours, but it was actually closer to 20 hours, and in a full minibus with air-con that was barely working. After the ferry from Utila we had to get our bags and find a man with Leon written on a sign, this was relatively easy though getting our bags involved a fair bit of push and shove. When we found the man with Leon written on a sign he told a group of us that first we needed to get a taxi to a nearby Wendy's before we could get on the shuttle as taxis are the only vehicles allowed to pick up passengers from the ferry port. There followed a sudden rush for taxis and a lot of confusion over who was paying. Eventually we were bundled in to a taxi with another couple and our taxi driver ran and got his payment from the man.
On the way to Wendys our taxi driver did the standard deviation via a random house, possibly for a chat, or to drop something off. Then to a petrol station, but not for petrol which was also weird. A couple of U-turns later and we were pulling in to Wendys. Everyone getting a shuttle either to Leon or Antigua, Guatemala, was waiting there where we were required to fill in our details ready for passport control. We ended up being there for at least an hour, which pass pretty frustrating as we were ready to go and we knew we had a long journey ahead of us.
Kate and I timed things badly when the call to board the bus happened so we ended up with the terrible seats at the back. Luckily I got a bit of space for leg room but with bags at our feet that was also limited. The one good part about the minibus was for the first time it actually had a TV that worked and a good selection of DVDs so a good chunk of the journey at least involved some entertainment.
We stopped a few times along the way, and grabbed a few very suspect looking meals from roadside establishments. We then spent a good few hours waiting for the onset of food poisoning. Lucky the food poisoning never materialised, though our stomachs did feel a little off, possibly as a result of eating too many Pringles.
We reached the border at around 9pm and had to disembark the shuttle to go through Honduran immigration/ There was a little confusion about whether we needed to pay an exit tax, an official or unofficial, but in the end we didn't need to pay anything, possibly because we'd entered overseas but border rules often seem so abstruse it's hard to know. Next up we had Nicaraguan immigration where we needed to pay an entry fee of 12USD or 800 Cordoba, unfortunately we hadn't learnt from our Mexican border experience and yet again didn't have enough Honduran Liempras to exchange for the border crossing - we really need to start carry back up USD for this purpose! Luckily one of the guys on the bus helped us out and we payed him back as soon as we reach a cash point which was shortly after the border.
We pulled in to Leon at around 3am and groggily had to remember where we staying, we got dropped off at our hostel: Hostel Vacaciones, we guiltily woke up the night porter who opened up and graciously showed us to our room. Then, it was straight to bed.
Day 1
We woke up around 7am to make sure we didn't miss breakfast which was included. It was some tasty pancakes or eggs, both of which were consumed greedily. We planned to use the day to explore Leon and the next day - after talking to another couple who'd done it - go volcano boarding before getting the bus to Granada.
First we stopped off at a clothes shop called Get Up, Stand Up, which is a great Nicaraguan clothing brand. Kate planned on getting some flipflops but we left with flipflops, 2 vests, 2 dresses (none for me), and a hat. Whoops! After that we went over to Bigfoot hostel to book in our volcano boarding. Lots of companies run trips to do volcano boarding however Bigfoot came really highly recommended so we decided that was better than any reason.
We spent the rest of the day wandering the city and taking in the many churches around Leons city centre. The city though it was pretty in parts was far more run down that I'd expected. There was a lot of street art that depicted revolution and civil wars which was very cool, but was definitely more politically charged that decorative. There was also a lot of poverty which we hadn't really seen on the trip yet. At one point a man you didn't seem particularly happy pulled down his trousers and waved his netherparts in the direction of a nearby church. He did his best to pull them up again before he walked off, but he didn't really succeed, we thought it best to avoid giving him any attention. Instead, we grabbed a smoothie and of course a couple of ice creams before heading back to the hostel to blog for a bit and plan the next couple of days.
For dinner we had the recommendation, from a friend of ours, to go to "El Bodego" which serves Nicaraguan cuisine but in modern and cool ways. Before that we grabbed a drink at Bar El Mirador Terraza, a rooftop bar with views of Leon and - at that time - the sunset over it. Dinner at El Bodego afterwards was even better than we expected. We had a choice of meats that were served on yucca, which is actually the root of the yucca plant. I had yucca crips, and Kate had boiled yucca, I would describe it as somewhere in between potato and cabbage. But either way, it was really tasty and it's wasn't too pricey either!
Day 2
The next day we got up again for the included breakfast before packing our bags and heading round to Bigfoot hostel. Then plan was to leave our bags there and when the trip came back we'd pick up our things and head to Granada by bus.
For those of you who don't know what volcano boarding is, it is essentially tobogganing down the side of an active volcano at speeds of up to 93kph. The volcano was originally ridden down by a French cyclist as part of a land speed record and on hearing about this attempt an eccentric Australian decided to try and turn it into a tourist activity. As cycling was too dangerous an option (the French cyclist apparently crashed catastrophically) the man tried various different ways of getting down the side of the volcano, including a fridge, before he settled on the more conventional toboggan. That man formed Bigfoot hostel and the volcano boarding operation that now exists today.
We arrived at Bigfoot hostel where we met the rest of the group who was going on the trip. It was a big group of about 30 to 40 people so it took a while to do names and give the briefing but by within the half hour we were on the Bigfoot bus which is a big orange truck with three benches in the back, everyone piled in the back and soon we were cruising toward Cerro Negro - the most active cinder cone volcano in the world.
The bus was open at the top so as we headed out in to the countryside occasionally a branch would catch on the top sending foliage into the back. This was fine until the branch consisted of more than a few twigs and leaves. Every now and then there was also a few insects too, and unfortunately for Kate on one occasion there was also a wasp. Luckily, as the wasp was moving at speed it only had the opportunity to sting once as it bounced off the top of her chest. It swelled up almost immediately and she was in quite a bit of pain, fortunately someone on the bus had some antihistamine. A few others got stung on the bus too so there must have been a lot of them about.
We got dropped at the entrance to the park where everyone got off to pay for the entry in to the park, this wasn't included in the cost of the volcano boarding but we were made aware of that at the briefing. In the distance we could see the black volcano and make out little ants making their way up one side, it was all the other volcano boarders hiking up to the start of the track. After everyone had paid up and been to the toilet (there's nowhere to go on the volcano) we got back on the bus and were shortly heading down a bumpy track to the bottom of the walking trek up.
The walk up can take about 30 minutes if you go for it, we had a guide with us who took things slowly, told us a few stories and took a few pictures of us so it was good fun and took just over an hour. At the bottom they tell everyone they have the option of carrying their own board up, or paying a local 150 Cordoba each to carry the board up for you. We chose to pay the locals as the boards were pretty heavy and it was extremely windy, it would be a lot worse up the volcano. The locals clearly had superhuman strength as they were carrying up to 10 boards at the time on their backs - I think this might have also been the other reason we hiked up slowly.
Once at the top we took at few more photos and looked at another viewpoint before heading over to the start of the track. Our guide told us that volcanoes are actually magnetic so affect compasses and also a lot of insects are therefore attracted to them too. At the top of the track a swam of bees had appeared so we quickly put on our jump suits that are provided only to find that Kate's had a big hole in the back, this would have been fine if it was just the volcano boarding, but to add a swarm of bees in to the mix made the whole experience a lot more extreme. I had to follow Kate around and divert any curious bees away from the hole in her jumpsuit. This might have been okay if Kate had stayed still but she kept on running around in circles and turning to ask me if there were bees on her back. The answer was yes, to which she responded urgently that they needed to be removed, I did my best!
We took up positions at the top of the track and had a quick run through of what to do. Put your weight back to slow down, keep your legs up or flat on the ground. And rule number one is control your speed because once you're going you can't slow down until the bottom. If you try to put your feet down you will spin out of control and possibly injure yourself. I'd never seen Kate so eager to try an extreme sport and before I knew it she was at the front of the queue and heading down the slope. According to her, being engulfed in a swarm of bees is far scarier than volcano boarding. Kate had paid attention mostly to how to control her speed and went for the conservative "feet down at all times" approach. It worked extremely well and she got to the bottom in one piece.
As Kate had made her way to the front of queue as if there was a swarm of bees on her tail, I also followed. I went after Kate and went for the "legs out straight but keep leaning back" approach. It definitely got quick but as instructed I didn't take any sudden actions and let the board level out at the end. I by no means floored it and we watched a couple of people coming down after us lose control and take a tumble. It turns out that volcanic rock is not something you want to take a fall on and a few people got to the bottom with scratches and bruises, though luckily nothing more than that.
At the bottom of the hill one of the guides had been standing with a speed gun and recording everyone's speed. There was a prize for the fastest male and female, as well as a booby prize for the slowest. Kate at this point was rather worried that she was in contention for the booby prize, though I was pretty sure we wasn't going to be slowest.
The results:
Kate: 24kph
Sam: 48kph
So I ended up doubling Kate's speed, I was happy with that though the fastest on the day was above 60kph, they'd also sustained some cuts and bruises to go with their prize. Kate wasn't the slowest, she was in fact the second slowest so she clearly lived by my motto of "never be the worst". She avoided the ice bucket challenge as a booby prize which she was very happy about. Everyone got a beer and a pizza slice afterwards before we jumped back on the bus to head back to Leon. The bus trip back was much the same and we had to duck a couple of times to avoid foliage but this time we can through without any stings.
We got back to bigfoot hostel at 3pm where we collected our bags before jumping in to a taxi to the bus terminal. On this particular taxi journey there was some confusion over the price which usually means you're about to be ripped off. When we got in the taxi we asked how much it would be, the driver told us it would be 25 Cordoba, which was expensive, but we wanted to geta move on so we said yes. By the time we got to the bus terminal that price had become 25 Cordoba each, the price had doubled so we tried to explain why we were unhappy with the price but unfortunately were at a disadvantage with the language barrier. Eventually, after a group of people had gathered, we gave in as we were now in a rush.
We jumped in to the Collectivo headed to Managua which was about 50 Cordobas each where we waited for about 10 minutes before the bus was on it's way to Managua.
The journey from Utila to Leon was extremely long, and pretty uncomfortable. It was meant to be 16 hours, but it was actually closer to 20 hours, and in a full minibus with air-con that was barely working. After the ferry from Utila we had to get our bags and find a man with Leon written on a sign, this was relatively easy though getting our bags involved a fair bit of push and shove. When we found the man with Leon written on a sign he told a group of us that first we needed to get a taxi to a nearby Wendy's before we could get on the shuttle as taxis are the only vehicles allowed to pick up passengers from the ferry port. There followed a sudden rush for taxis and a lot of confusion over who was paying. Eventually we were bundled in to a taxi with another couple and our taxi driver ran and got his payment from the man.
On the way to Wendys our taxi driver did the standard deviation via a random house, possibly for a chat, or to drop something off. Then to a petrol station, but not for petrol which was also weird. A couple of U-turns later and we were pulling in to Wendys. Everyone getting a shuttle either to Leon or Antigua, Guatemala, was waiting there where we were required to fill in our details ready for passport control. We ended up being there for at least an hour, which pass pretty frustrating as we were ready to go and we knew we had a long journey ahead of us.
Kate and I timed things badly when the call to board the bus happened so we ended up with the terrible seats at the back. Luckily I got a bit of space for leg room but with bags at our feet that was also limited. The one good part about the minibus was for the first time it actually had a TV that worked and a good selection of DVDs so a good chunk of the journey at least involved some entertainment.
 |
| The hellish 16 (but more like 20) hour shuttle from La Ceiba |
We stopped a few times along the way, and grabbed a few very suspect looking meals from roadside establishments. We then spent a good few hours waiting for the onset of food poisoning. Lucky the food poisoning never materialised, though our stomachs did feel a little off, possibly as a result of eating too many Pringles.
We reached the border at around 9pm and had to disembark the shuttle to go through Honduran immigration/ There was a little confusion about whether we needed to pay an exit tax, an official or unofficial, but in the end we didn't need to pay anything, possibly because we'd entered overseas but border rules often seem so abstruse it's hard to know. Next up we had Nicaraguan immigration where we needed to pay an entry fee of 12USD or 800 Cordoba, unfortunately we hadn't learnt from our Mexican border experience and yet again didn't have enough Honduran Liempras to exchange for the border crossing - we really need to start carry back up USD for this purpose! Luckily one of the guys on the bus helped us out and we payed him back as soon as we reach a cash point which was shortly after the border.
We pulled in to Leon at around 3am and groggily had to remember where we staying, we got dropped off at our hostel: Hostel Vacaciones, we guiltily woke up the night porter who opened up and graciously showed us to our room. Then, it was straight to bed.
Day 1
We woke up around 7am to make sure we didn't miss breakfast which was included. It was some tasty pancakes or eggs, both of which were consumed greedily. We planned to use the day to explore Leon and the next day - after talking to another couple who'd done it - go volcano boarding before getting the bus to Granada.
First we stopped off at a clothes shop called Get Up, Stand Up, which is a great Nicaraguan clothing brand. Kate planned on getting some flipflops but we left with flipflops, 2 vests, 2 dresses (none for me), and a hat. Whoops! After that we went over to Bigfoot hostel to book in our volcano boarding. Lots of companies run trips to do volcano boarding however Bigfoot came really highly recommended so we decided that was better than any reason.
We spent the rest of the day wandering the city and taking in the many churches around Leons city centre. The city though it was pretty in parts was far more run down that I'd expected. There was a lot of street art that depicted revolution and civil wars which was very cool, but was definitely more politically charged that decorative. There was also a lot of poverty which we hadn't really seen on the trip yet. At one point a man you didn't seem particularly happy pulled down his trousers and waved his netherparts in the direction of a nearby church. He did his best to pull them up again before he walked off, but he didn't really succeed, we thought it best to avoid giving him any attention. Instead, we grabbed a smoothie and of course a couple of ice creams before heading back to the hostel to blog for a bit and plan the next couple of days.
For dinner we had the recommendation, from a friend of ours, to go to "El Bodego" which serves Nicaraguan cuisine but in modern and cool ways. Before that we grabbed a drink at Bar El Mirador Terraza, a rooftop bar with views of Leon and - at that time - the sunset over it. Dinner at El Bodego afterwards was even better than we expected. We had a choice of meats that were served on yucca, which is actually the root of the yucca plant. I had yucca crips, and Kate had boiled yucca, I would describe it as somewhere in between potato and cabbage. But either way, it was really tasty and it's wasn't too pricey either!
Day 2
The next day we got up again for the included breakfast before packing our bags and heading round to Bigfoot hostel. Then plan was to leave our bags there and when the trip came back we'd pick up our things and head to Granada by bus.
For those of you who don't know what volcano boarding is, it is essentially tobogganing down the side of an active volcano at speeds of up to 93kph. The volcano was originally ridden down by a French cyclist as part of a land speed record and on hearing about this attempt an eccentric Australian decided to try and turn it into a tourist activity. As cycling was too dangerous an option (the French cyclist apparently crashed catastrophically) the man tried various different ways of getting down the side of the volcano, including a fridge, before he settled on the more conventional toboggan. That man formed Bigfoot hostel and the volcano boarding operation that now exists today.
We arrived at Bigfoot hostel where we met the rest of the group who was going on the trip. It was a big group of about 30 to 40 people so it took a while to do names and give the briefing but by within the half hour we were on the Bigfoot bus which is a big orange truck with three benches in the back, everyone piled in the back and soon we were cruising toward Cerro Negro - the most active cinder cone volcano in the world.
 |
| Kate wearing her bigfoot bandanna. Needed to keep all the volcanic ash out of your mouth |
The bus was open at the top so as we headed out in to the countryside occasionally a branch would catch on the top sending foliage into the back. This was fine until the branch consisted of more than a few twigs and leaves. Every now and then there was also a few insects too, and unfortunately for Kate on one occasion there was also a wasp. Luckily, as the wasp was moving at speed it only had the opportunity to sting once as it bounced off the top of her chest. It swelled up almost immediately and she was in quite a bit of pain, fortunately someone on the bus had some antihistamine. A few others got stung on the bus too so there must have been a lot of them about.
We got dropped at the entrance to the park where everyone got off to pay for the entry in to the park, this wasn't included in the cost of the volcano boarding but we were made aware of that at the briefing. In the distance we could see the black volcano and make out little ants making their way up one side, it was all the other volcano boarders hiking up to the start of the track. After everyone had paid up and been to the toilet (there's nowhere to go on the volcano) we got back on the bus and were shortly heading down a bumpy track to the bottom of the walking trek up.
The walk up can take about 30 minutes if you go for it, we had a guide with us who took things slowly, told us a few stories and took a few pictures of us so it was good fun and took just over an hour. At the bottom they tell everyone they have the option of carrying their own board up, or paying a local 150 Cordoba each to carry the board up for you. We chose to pay the locals as the boards were pretty heavy and it was extremely windy, it would be a lot worse up the volcano. The locals clearly had superhuman strength as they were carrying up to 10 boards at the time on their backs - I think this might have also been the other reason we hiked up slowly.
Once at the top we took at few more photos and looked at another viewpoint before heading over to the start of the track. Our guide told us that volcanoes are actually magnetic so affect compasses and also a lot of insects are therefore attracted to them too. At the top of the track a swam of bees had appeared so we quickly put on our jump suits that are provided only to find that Kate's had a big hole in the back, this would have been fine if it was just the volcano boarding, but to add a swarm of bees in to the mix made the whole experience a lot more extreme. I had to follow Kate around and divert any curious bees away from the hole in her jumpsuit. This might have been okay if Kate had stayed still but she kept on running around in circles and turning to ask me if there were bees on her back. The answer was yes, to which she responded urgently that they needed to be removed, I did my best!
We took up positions at the top of the track and had a quick run through of what to do. Put your weight back to slow down, keep your legs up or flat on the ground. And rule number one is control your speed because once you're going you can't slow down until the bottom. If you try to put your feet down you will spin out of control and possibly injure yourself. I'd never seen Kate so eager to try an extreme sport and before I knew it she was at the front of the queue and heading down the slope. According to her, being engulfed in a swarm of bees is far scarier than volcano boarding. Kate had paid attention mostly to how to control her speed and went for the conservative "feet down at all times" approach. It worked extremely well and she got to the bottom in one piece.
As Kate had made her way to the front of queue as if there was a swarm of bees on her tail, I also followed. I went after Kate and went for the "legs out straight but keep leaning back" approach. It definitely got quick but as instructed I didn't take any sudden actions and let the board level out at the end. I by no means floored it and we watched a couple of people coming down after us lose control and take a tumble. It turns out that volcanic rock is not something you want to take a fall on and a few people got to the bottom with scratches and bruises, though luckily nothing more than that.
At the bottom of the hill one of the guides had been standing with a speed gun and recording everyone's speed. There was a prize for the fastest male and female, as well as a booby prize for the slowest. Kate at this point was rather worried that she was in contention for the booby prize, though I was pretty sure we wasn't going to be slowest.
The results:
Kate: 24kph
Sam: 48kph
So I ended up doubling Kate's speed, I was happy with that though the fastest on the day was above 60kph, they'd also sustained some cuts and bruises to go with their prize. Kate wasn't the slowest, she was in fact the second slowest so she clearly lived by my motto of "never be the worst". She avoided the ice bucket challenge as a booby prize which she was very happy about. Everyone got a beer and a pizza slice afterwards before we jumped back on the bus to head back to Leon. The bus trip back was much the same and we had to duck a couple of times to avoid foliage but this time we can through without any stings.
We got back to bigfoot hostel at 3pm where we collected our bags before jumping in to a taxi to the bus terminal. On this particular taxi journey there was some confusion over the price which usually means you're about to be ripped off. When we got in the taxi we asked how much it would be, the driver told us it would be 25 Cordoba, which was expensive, but we wanted to geta move on so we said yes. By the time we got to the bus terminal that price had become 25 Cordoba each, the price had doubled so we tried to explain why we were unhappy with the price but unfortunately were at a disadvantage with the language barrier. Eventually, after a group of people had gathered, we gave in as we were now in a rush.
We jumped in to the Collectivo headed to Managua which was about 50 Cordobas each where we waited for about 10 minutes before the bus was on it's way to Managua.
Comments
Post a Comment