Leon, Nicaragua

As if the colonial city of Granada wasn't enough, we hopped on a bus to Managua and transferred to another bound for the equally colonial city of Leon.

Leon has its charm.  There's a plethora of restaurants and bars, whose numbers are dwarfed only by cathedrals, including El Catedral de Leon, the largest cathedral in Central America.

Strolling around Leon is a great way to pass the afternoon, but we weren't through with the area, so we booked a tour. (gasp!) Normally I shy away from the package tours because it's usually less for more.  In this case, they were doing everything we had wanted to do so we went for it.

What the tour meant was private transportation and our own guide so we could board down the side of an active volcano, take a dip in the Asososca Lagoon, and check out the ruins of Leon Viejo.

We knew we would enjoy ourselves when the truck pulled up with what looked like five classroom chairs in the back.   At first I thought we had to drop off furniture before heading out.  Yeah, just a quick favor for my cousin. Nothing out of the ordinary for Latin America.

Nope.  The chairs were for us.  So we hopped in and set out for Cerro Negro, a relatively young active volcano.

The ride out there was beautiful. We cut through fincas along meandering roads of volcanic sand and stone.

Within an hour we arrived on what could only be described as another planet.  It's worthy of its own post, which can be found here.

Then the fun began. We climbed up the side of the black mountain.  As we approached the top, the wind picked up, blasting us with mist from one side and sulfur fumes from the other.  After a little bit of time to take it all in, we put on our protective gear, sat on our boards, and flew down the mountain.

At the bottom, there was a lot of cleaning volcanic sand out of hair, eyes, mouths, etc.  It was totally worth it.

After boarding down an active volcano (just wanted to say it again), we headed to Asososca Lagoon.  Think warm water, rainforest, etc.  It was refreshing and a great way to rinse off after bathing in volcano dust.

The ride out there was also worth mentioning.  Recent rains had made for some rather interesting driving conditions.  I'll just say I'm glad my parents weren't watching.

After the lagoon, we stopped for lunch and checked out the lake at the foot of Volcon Momotombo.

We finished the tour with a trip to the ruins of Leon Viejo.  The original town was founded in 1524, but was basically decimated by an earthquake in 1610.  There's not a whole lot there, but the fascinating thing is that the ruins weren't discovered until less than fifty years ago.

After having just gotten back, I can say today was a blast and a great way to see some of the area outside of Leon.

Where We Stayed: Lazy Bones.  Clean cheap hostel with pool.  Another option is Sonati.

Where We Ate:  El Desayunazo is located down the street from Lazy Bones.  Great breakfast.  There's also a good bakery across the street from Lazy Bones.  We had one nice meal at Manhatten Sushi, which was a little pricier but cheap for sushi.  Via Via is another good option.

What We Did:  Volcano boarding, Asososca Lagoon, Leon Viejo, cathedrals