The reason for actually going to Léon was doing the ash-boarding during a full moon, which is today. But Mother Nature decided to let the rainy season kick in a bit early so a lot a lot of clouds and no full moon...
So I signed up for the afternoon tour which was from 2pm till 6:30pm. There was a group of 14 in total and we were all looking forward to it. nA big orange truck picked us up and it was about an hour drive to the Volcano Cerro Negro parc. We paid the entry fee of $5 and got dropped of a this big pitch black mountain called the Cerro Negro. It's the youngest volcano in Central America and showed itself around 1850. Since its birth in 1850, it has erupted approximately 23 times, making
Cerro Negro the most active cinder cone volcano in the history of our
planet. So the perfect spot to go ash-boarding...!!! :-)
We got off the truck and had to hike up the mountain carrying the board as well as a nice jumpsuit and goggles to protect us from the ash and rocks during the decend on the board. The speed record currently stands at 82km/h so we'll be trying to break that. But first the hike. The clouds created some overcast and kept the sun and heat away from our heads. There was a path going up the slopes, but that consisted of loose rocks and ash so a bit a slipping and sliding along the way. Short breaks were made to keep the group together and got some info on the history of the Cerro Negro. Interesting, but we came to ash-board so let's keep going!
On the top of the volcano we peaked at its crater and felt the heat coming from underneath the ground. Just digging a bit deeper by hand was enough to burn your hand. Nice experience, but time to head for the edge and get our jumpsuites and goggles on! At the edge we got some intructions on how to actually do it. That wasn't that hard: it came down to just sit down and aim for the bottom, and don't try to steer because you can't...
Everybody got excited and was geared up to shatter that speedrecord. One of the guides was standing at the base with a lasergun, so time to roll! Of course we needed a volunteer to go first and a guy from Australia and myself raised our hands and the first race was about to start. We got our asses on the pieces of plywood and were ready to rip the Cerro Negro to pieces! The countdown started and off we went and shortly after take off I noticed that you indeed couldn't steer and I crashed and had an early ash-lunch. The Aussy-guy kept going and I got back up to keep the race going. Along the way I noticed that shifting your bodyweight was the way to steer and I picked up some speed, quickly overtaking the Aussy who has some of his own learning moments in crashing. I picked up some more speed and headed for the base and slowly came to a stop. My top speed: 46km/h... :-( Damn, I was expeacting to be at least in the 70-range, but it's harder to do than I thought. Still had a blast and at least I beat the Aussy!
Two-by-two the group came down and it was comforting to see that everybody had their own problems getting down the slopes. Speeds where around the 20 and 30-range so I didn't do too bad. And in the second-to-last run my speedrecord of the day was shattered by a girl with some real talent: she clocked 47km/h and it was her birthday so she deserved the eternal glory and fame.
time to get out of the jumpsuits and head for the truck where we had a pleasant surprise: home made granoly-bars and cold beers to top it of! Sweet treat after the ash-boarding! Tired from the day of hiking and boarding (oh, and the HUGE hangover from the night before) we headed back to hostel to have some chill time and take a well deserved shower. (note to self: ash does get into every part of the body and one shower doesn't really do the trick...)
