Volcano-Boarding Nicaragua

Luminous orange overalls flap in the strong wind as the egg-yolk sun approaches the horizon. It’s been a physically tough hike to get here, stumbling over loose rocks, my face caked in black volcanic dust. Atop the cone of Cerro Negro, one of the youngest active volcanoes in Central America, the countdown has begun. All that’s left to do is sit down on my wooden sleigh, lean back, grit my teeth, and hurl down the side—zero to 40 kilometres an hour in eight, thrilling seconds.

You can always tell the “next big thing” by watching the trends of backpackers—and they’re heading in droves to Nicaragua. Sure, the beaches, colonial towns, people and prices are a budget traveller’s dream, but it’s adventure activities like volcano-boarding that are the true draw. It took years to find the right apparatus for such a feat, with everything from surfboards to used mattresses tested for the right balance of speed and relative safety. Invented by an Australian who once owned the Bigfoot hostel in the nearby city of León, one thing was certain: while Cerro Negro appears to have soft, sandy, steep sides, the granite dust is as sharp as broken glass. Hence the protective overalls, eye-goggles, and the option to remain seated. Wiping out might just tear you toshreds.

León, with its rich colonial history, is the most popular city in Nicaragua, and from the roof of its cathedral—the largest in Central America—you can see 11 of the 13 surrounding volcanoes. They sit like a chain of pearls on a necklace, and when they erupt, as Cerro Negro did as recently as 1999, it can cover León in a layer of fine, ashen dust. Not that it bothers the backpackers at Bigfoot Hostel. Even though the volcano is at the tail end of its regular eruption cycle and could explode any day, Bigfoot is doing a roaring trade, with about a dozen backpackers heading out daily, a wooden sleigh in hand, anticipating the ride of a lifetime.

It’s a 40-minute drive to the Cerro Negra National Park, and it’s no accident the adventure takes place during late afternoon. The sunsets in this part of the world are spectacular, night after night, from November through June. We pay a small fee to enter the park, grab our boards and start the climb up the backside of the ominous-looking black pyramid. Once we begin our steep ascent, the wind picks up considerably. Seeing the lava from the last eruption spilled over the countryside like thick oil is both beautiful and frightening. The loose rocks are sharp but we scramble up, shifting the awkward weight of our boards from arm to arm, until we arrive at the edge of the cone a half hour later. There, we come face to face with steaming-hot sulphuric ash. This close to the crater, the ground is so hot it can melt the soles of your shoes, so we keep walking around the lip, a silent prayer that the monster below us remains asleep, at least for today.

With the sun perfectly poised, our guide Gemma explains how to use my feet to break and steer. “And keep your mouth shut unless you want to chew rocks for dinner,” she warns. “Spine straight, lean back and smile for the radar gun at the bottom.” A thin metal sheet is fixed to the bottom of the wooden sled, along with a piece of plastic that increases speed. As I begin my 400-metre descent, the grating sound of granite against metal recalls an engine, revving up the faster I go. Rocks and sand attack my goggles, stabbing my lips, filling my shoes. I’d scream, but it’s wiser to keep lips pursed. Volcanoes have always offered fun for the thrillseeker, but here in Nicaragua, never before have they been quite so accessible. Safely on the bottom, we crack cold beers, compare experiences and head back to town under a bright canvas of stars.

If you go:

Volcano-boarding in León is operated from Bigfoot Hostel, with trips leaving every day. Lasting four-and-a-half hours, round trip, the $23 US ticket includes guide, transportation, overalls, boards and goggles. For more information, visit bigfootnicaragua.com

Robin Esrock is the co-host of the OLN adventure series, Word Travels.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Thrill Seeker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.