Today was our second and last fun day in beautiful Nicaragua! It kicked off with our typical breakfast at Quiero Mas.  Then we hopped on to our private bus which took us to a volcano called Cerro Negro. The ride was super bumpy, and I felt like the bus was going to roll over, but we made it!

Cerro Negro!

Cerro Negro!

Once we arrived, we collected our gear to go sandboarding (like snowboarding but, you know, on sand) down the volcano once we got to the top. All of us each had to carry a board, a jumpsuit, gloves, and goggles (along with our water bottles which we brought with us) all the way up Cerro Negro. Some of us had little backpacks to help carry it, but others had to suffer carrying it by hand. (Shout out to Corey and everyone else who did it!) After we gathered our stuff, we drove a little closer to the volcano and began to climb.  It started out pretty easy then gradually got harder and harder, especially with all our gear.  The trail consisted of just tons of volcanic rocks that slid all over the place and made it difficult to get decent footing, especially for our (somewhat) recently injured Glimpser, Alice. But she was a great sport and persevered until after about an hour of vigorous hiking we finally made it to the top! And that’s when the real fun began…sandboarding!

We reached the top of life!

We reached the top of life!

Sounds crazy, right? We put on our jumpsuits, gloves, and goggles to protect ourselves from rocks and dust going down, and then, one by one, we each sat on our little sleds and just slid our way down! It was awesome! After our intense experience at Cerro Negro, we headed to a local beach for lunch and relaxation.  All of us were swimming in the ocean and having a blast. The water was so warm and refreshing…especially for us who are used to the cold water of the Northern West Coast. After a couple hours of that, we headed back into the city to a local pizzeria near our hostel for our farewell dinner in Leon.  Our night ended with hanging out and trying to embrace and enjoy our final night in beautiful Leon.

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Michele