Ephemerica

To the north of the city of Leon is a string of 10 volcanos which rise up out of seemingly nowhere from the flat coastal plain. The youngest of the volcanoes is Cerro Negro, which is only about 150 years old and around 700 meters tall. It is also covered in black rock and shale (the others are covered with vegetation). We decided to take a tour up Cerro Negro and try “volcano boarding,” which is like sledding, only on fast, sharp rocks for 400 meters at a 40-47 degree angle. You sit on this small plywood board with a sheet of aluminum attached to the bottom of it, holding on to a rope handle with one hand, and then shoot down the side of the volcano, with only Flintstone brakes (i.e., your feet) to slow you down. According to our guide (and his radar gun), the fastest boarders can reach up to 60 or so kph. Matt and I each got up to over 40 kph or so, which seemed plenty fast to us! In addition to the thrill of the descent, we also got to peer into an active crater (Matt even descended to the bottom of the crater- the sulfur fumes were too much for me). You can check out the promotional video for the tour here.

We also took advantage of Leon’s close proximity to the ocean to visit the beach towns of Poneloya and Las Penitas. There isn’t much to do in the towns, just a couple restarants and small hotels, but there is a nice beach and it was good to see the Pacific again. We have been within a few hundred kilometers of the ocean a couple times, but haven’t actually see it since Mazatlan.

In Xela, one of our fellow language students, who had lived in Managua for 6 months warned us against spending time in Nicaragua’s capital city. He claimed that you have to be there for at least a month before you enjoy it. Unfortunately, the only way to get from Leon to Granada, the next large city on our agenda is to go through Managua. We decided that we would try to stay in the small town of Mateare after Leon, then take the bypass highway to avoid Managua. The Footprint guidebook recommends visiting Mateare, but they don’t say whether there is lodging to be found. When we arrived in Mateare nice ladies at a refreshment stand informed that the only place near to us with hotels is Managua. So, we were forced to push on until we either ran into a roadside hotel, or reached Managua. About 13 km outside of Managua, we found a hotel called “Bubbles of Love,” an auto hotel (meaning you drive your car right into the private garage connected to your room, then close the garage and no one can see who is entering the room). Since it was pretty hot and we really didn’t want to navigate Managua traffic, we decided to check it out. Bubbles of Love is most definitely a first rate auto hotel priding themselves on customer service and privacy. They charge per 3 hours, but midnight-7am is one time period. Since we were not their typical type of customer, they agreed to knock off one of the time periods and give us a 50 cordoba discount and some free OJ in the morning as well. As for customer privacy, they have room service where you call and request your food or drinks, then they place it in the cubby and ring a bell signaling that your order is ready for you. The bill is also paid through the cubby system, so that you never have to actually see anybody while you are there. The room itself was also one of the nicest we have stayed in for a while, though we still lost electricity for a while.

It was at Bubbles of Love that we looked ahead to the ferry schedule for the boat that would take us from Granada to the Island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. We found out the the boats only sail twice a week giving us the choice of going directly to Granada and spending only a day there, or spending a week in/around Granada. Since the guidebooks had lots of good things to say about the region between Managua and Granada and we still had plenty of time before we need to meet Becky in Costa Rica, we decided to take our time.

The following day, we got lost in Managua before heading east 30 km to the arts and crafts center of Masaya. We passed the entrance to Volcan Masaya National Park on the way (6 km before Masaya) and stopped to get more info. We discovered that there is a paved road leading to the top of the crater. So the next morning, we set out on unloaded bikes to ride up to the top. The volcano is active, so after we paid our admission to the park, we received a flyer on what to do if the volcano starts throwing rocks—hide under your car. Hiding under the bikes it seemed wouldn’t be too much help, so we just hoped that the volcano was feeling calm that day. The park also contains a great museum on how volcanos form and erupt as well as some of the local ledgends concerning these volcanos (there are two volcanos, Masaya and Ninidri, with a total of 5 craters between them). The climb to the top was short but steep. We were very happy to see the park rangers selling cold sodas near the parking lot. We hiked around the top a bit exploring the two of the craters and getting some good views of the surrounding country side.

We decided to take two days to travel the 16 km between Masaya and Granada in order to take a little detour to swim in the crystal clear crater lake, Lake Apoyo. One of the Granada hostels owns a house on the lake (the Monkey Hut) with rooms for rent as well as a beach, dock, kayaks and inner tubes for enjoying the lake. We had a wonderful time swimming and floating in the lake and relaxing on the deck overlooking the lake. I took advantage of the library to read Tim Cahill’s book Road Fever, about his 23.5 day record breaking drive from Tierra de Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in 1987. It was a good read and interesting to see how different the politics were in many countries 20 years ago. Anyway, after our day on the lake, we started with a brutal climb back out of the crater, followed by an easy downhill stretch to Granada, where we are enjoying the city until our ferry to Ometepe on Monday.

Posted by cindy on June 30th, 2007 | Filed under: Nicaragua