Surfing Cerro Negro

Yesterday was our free day and we chose to go volcano surfing in León. Usually teams will go zip lining or spend the day at the beach, but we wanted to do something adventurous. And adventurous it was! We planned the whole day from what time to leave the house to how long it would take to surf the volcano to what time we would eat lunch. However, this is Nicaragua, and time is not of the essence here. Jennifer says we are on "Nica time", which means we are running very late. It took about an hour and a half to drive to León and another forty five minutes to drive to the volcano, called Cerro Negro. It was already lunch time when we headed for the volcano in the truck. We had to drive down this really long, narrow dirt road until we came to the bottom of the volcano. From there, we strapped on our backpacks and surf boards and started climbing. 

Me, David, Emily, Tristan, and our guide Mario. 

This was the easy part when we climbed up the big rocks. Most of the climb was little chunks of volcano rocks that moved everytime you took a step. 

It took us an hour to reach the top and we were exhausted by that time. However, the view was worth it. 

This is what we hiked up the entire way. 

Our view from the top of the volcano.

The slide down the volcano was fun, but difficult. There was a technique we had to follow and that was hard enough without falling off the board. I think we reached about 50mph and by the time we got to the bottom we were covered head to toe in black dust and rocks. 

After our adventure we headed back into town to get lunch. León is a beautiful city full of color, gorgeous architecture, and lots of people. We ate at a small restaurant called El Sesteo where they serve the most incredible lemonade I have ever tasted. 

This is a cathedral in the town square and we got to go inside to look around. We walked around the square for a little while before driving twenty minutes to the coast. We weren't at the beach for long, but we couldn't resist stopping by since it was so close. 

Once we arrived back at the mission house we got cleaned up in time for dinner. Two of the girls from Casa Genesis, Patricia and Claudia, and their house mom Luisa came over. We all talked and ate and caught up with each other. It was very nice to spend the evening with them. The rest of our night was spent relaxing and getting ready for the next day.