Leon

After a 9 hour bus journey from El Salvador to San Isidro in Nicaragua, and another two hour journey in a small local minivan from San Isidro, we eventually arrived in Leon. Since we were about a thousand people squashed into a ten seater minivan and considering Antoine had only enough room for one butt cheek on the seat, we were delighted to eventually get there and into the cool "Big Foot" hostel. Leon is a small town full of churches, there are as many churches in Leon as there are pubs in small Irish towns, so imagine! Even for the non religious though its a fab place to hang out for a few days. It is only an hour from the pacific coast of Nicaragua so that was our first port of call. We spent the whole day wandering along the huge beaches and swimming in the hot pacific sea. The beaches are so beautiful as they are totally unspoiled, instead of being lined with hotels they are lined with palm trees and coconut tree. You will even find the odd lost pig soaking up the sun and sniffing through the fallen coconuts! We have been very lucky with the weather so far on our trip, continual summer! Its great having a tan in November! On the beach was no exception as it was roasting, however late afternoon we got to experience a heavy tropical down pour. In normal circumstances rain is a pain (I know, Im from Donegal!) but when your already in the sea and the rain is hot, its actually good fun, esp when it ends again 5 minutes later and the sun comes back to dry you off :-) Although that night on our way back to town we got to experience a real tropical storm, ive never seen so much lightening or heavy rain in my life! (and as ive said before, Im from Donegal!). The bus left us off on the outskirts of the town and before we even got under the bus shelter we were soaked. Not knowing how to get into town we followed some guys who ran to a pickup which stopped beside the bus shelter, lots of taxis here are pickups. However once we jumped on and everyone started staring at us we realised that something was different about this taxi....it wasnt a taxi at all! We had jumped into the back of some family´s pickup, as they politely informed us before telling us to get lost. oops! We did eventually make it back to the hostal happy and drenched but not before Antoine took a shower under the water pouring from the side of the cathedral!
Another deadly thing to do in Leon is visit the Cerro Negro Volcano, its an active volcano and one of the best youll ever visit as you get to sand board down the side of it. We went with a mixture of people from our hostal (people from Israel, America, Iceland and Holland) and we all did the 45 minute hike to the top with our wooden boards, before eventually being pushed over the edge and flying down the volcano in bright orange suits. It is a steep 400m to the bottom and you can reach speeds of up to 65km! I have to say I was a tad nervous sitting on my wooden board at the top (not to mention feeling slightly ridiculous in the orange suit - wait for the photos!) but once I was over the edge it was so much fun. One of the guys from Iceland took a good fall on the way down but apart from that we all made it alive. We stopped off at a Nicaraguan farm on the way back to get some fresh sugar cane to revive us and then had a celebratory mojito at the hostal to congratulate ourselves! 

11 horas de viaje desde San Salvador y llegamos a Leon, pequeña ciudad al norte de Nicaragua con más iglesias que ladrones en el rastro. Nos instalamos en el BigFoot y estamos hospedados en un dorm de unas 12 camas. El sitio esta chulo y nos encontramos con un australiano bastante majo que conocimos en El Salvador.
Como a una hora de Leon estan las playas de las Peñitas. Nos tiramos como una hora caminando  por la playa y al final nos tiramos en el agua para refrescarnos. Se pone a llover en plan lluvia tropical mientras estamos en el agua. Al salir, nos sirve de ducha para quitar la saly y a los 5 minutos sale el sol de nuevo: perfecto!
Como a una horita de pickup esta el volcan del Cerro Negro. Este volcan solo tiene 160 años por lo que no tiene vegetacion en sus costados. Nos tiramos como una hora y pico subiendo bajo un sol imponiente. Pero la recompensa va a ser buena: tenemos unos trineos de madera para poder tirarnos sobre el costado con mas pendiente. Es ahi donde Eric Baronne batio su record de velocidad en bicicleta hace unos años. Cerca de 170 km/h...Nosotros hemos sido mas razonables aunque yo creo que Annemarie estuvo cerca de los 50 km/h, bajo como una bala! Una bala naranja, ya que llevamos unos monos super sexys dignos de la peli de Stanley Kubrick!