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You are here: Home / Archives for volcanoes

Photo: Cerro Negro’s Crater

September 22, 2011 By Jillian

Does strapping a snowboard to your feet and boarding down the side of an active volcano sound cool?  We thought so too, so on our journey through Central America we stopped in Leon, Nicaragua, specifically to try out “volcano boarding.”

The only probably is that in order to come down, you must go up.  So we trudged up the volcano for what seemed like an hour.  Walking up the cinder cone of a volcano is something akin to taking two steps forward and one step backward.  You slide back almost as much as you move forward.  Somehow we made progress up the steep slope along side our guide, who then took us into Cerro Negro’s active crater (pictured here).  His advice was to stay away from the gas…

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

IF YOU GO: Tours are easily booked out of Leon, Nicaragua. Check with the various tour operators and hostels before booking, a personal recommendation from another traveler is essential. As always, check what equipment is included, and double check all of the details. Most of the tours were priced per person, we went as a group of three, which was frankly awesome standing atop the volcano without 40 other people! Wear long pants and be prepared to be covered in volcanic rock, which is sharp. Our operator provided safety gear and equipment, necessary to protect your joints and limbs from the volcanic rock. Definitely plan to wear gloves.

Filed Under: photos Tagged With: adventure sports, hiking, volcanoes

Photo of the Day: Inside a Crater

April 13, 2011 By Jillian

We signed up for volcano boarding in Leon, Nicaragua.  What we got was a tough hike up the scree of a volcano, a hike inside the crater of an active volcano and an awesome run back down on a modified snowboard. (Trust me, click on the link to see the crash video.)  This picture was taken inside the Cerro Negro crater rim.  The white clouds are gases released from fissures in the surface.  Smelled like sulfur and you could feel the heat from several inches away.  Cerro Negro is Central America’s youngest volcano, having only appeared in 1850.

To see a few of our favorite photos from Nicaragua check out our PHOTO PAGE. Tell us your own favorites to be included in this column!

Nicaragua is a great place for family holidays, there’s plenty to do from surfing to hiking and cultural tourism!  If you’re in the area, read our review of Va Pues Tours!

Filed Under: photos Tagged With: hiking, nicaragua, volcano boarding, volcanoes

Va Pues Tours (Leon, Nicaragua)

September 19, 2009 By Danny

Although other companies had cheaper volcano boarding in Leon, the thought of going with 30 other people was, well not what we wanted. We arrived at Va Pues around 5pm and immediately negotiated a sandboarding trip for the next day. With tourism down, they were more than happy to negotiate the price and in the end we paid $3 per person more than the larger tours, and ours ended up being private. Our guide, Wilbur was excellent and on our hike to the volcano he explained the geology of the area, pointing out recent lava fields in the distance. Relaxed and flexible, Wilbur didn’t hesitate to add an additional hike into the crater at our request. Patient, intelligent and fluent in English, we had a great time with Wilbur and Va Pues. Although we took a sandboarding tour, the company offers tours out of Leon and Granada, Nicaragua.

Filed Under: Featured, Operators, Reviews Tagged With: boarding, volcanoes

Biting Fish, Torrential Downpours, Volcanoes, Oh My!

May 8, 2009 By Jillian

After Finca Ixobel, I wasn’t really sure what to expect when we got to Rio Dulce. Manatees, kayaking, eco-lodges, sounded like our kind of place. As we hiked to Rio Dulce’s famous hot spring waterfall, we encountered Guatemalan children along the way.   Given that I had only studied Spanish for two weeks, it was no surprise that they seemed disappointed when I handed them mangoes from my bag.   We reached the hot springs and jumped in.  A strange mix of hot water from the waterfall and cold water from upstream, the water was refreshing and relaxing at the same time. We swam to a cave behind the waterfall, enjoying the water…until we started to feeling small pinches, like mosquito bites. Not paranas, but little tiny fish were trying to nibble our legs.  Freaked out Becka jumped out of the stream and not surprisingly, Danny climbed the waterfall to jump into the pool below.

Crossing another hot springs off the list, we decided to head to Livingston the next day via boat. Of course that night was a torrential downpour of what seemed biblical proportions.  Debating the boat ride to Livingston, we stood on the dock trying to gauge the weather. All of a sudden we heard a gasp from below. Two river otters peaked there heads out of the water, shook their noses at us and disappeared. If they could do it, so could we. An hour and a half later down the river, we found ourselves on Guatemala’s Caribbean coast. Completely different than the rest of Guatemala, Livingston has a Garafuna population of Africans that crashed on the coast hundreds of years ago. The area around Livingston has a island feel, complete with palm trees, Caribbean patois and I’m sure if we looked hard enough Rastafarians. 🙂

Heading south, up next was Lake Atitlan for a few days of relaxation. Really, we needed more relaxation after hot springs and waterfalls. Just the joys of travel! Panahachel (aka Gringotenango – place of the gringos) was little more than an extremely commercial tourist trap, so we quickly headed out of town and took a hike around the lake. Cautioning us that it is dangerous and people get robbed, the tourist office advised us to hire a guide for $40 U.S.D. Right, no way that was going to happen. Hiking through the little towns along the coast reminded me of Cinque Terre in Italy. It was just as beautiful and although the hills were steep, “En Serio” (Seriously) Becka said at each uphill climb, it was just as fun. We arrived safely in San Marcos late in the afternoon and headed back to Panahachel in time for happy hour.

One item remained on our must-do Guatemala list, hiking Volcan Pacaya. One of the most active volcanoes in the world, Volcan Pacaya lacks the safety measures of the Western World so you can actually go right up to the lava. Booking a volcano hike in the afternoon during rainy season may not have been the smartest thing we’ve ever done, but we’ve definitely done worse. Not letting it dampen our spirits, we bought trash bags from the local kids and fashioned ourselves rain ponchos. Climbing the mountain the rain came in sheets, eventually creating mudslides. We gave up trying to stay dry and as we picked our way through the intense fog we could feel the waves of hot steam hit our faces long before we could see it. Walking in gravel of volcanic rock the guide pointed in the distance and we saw a river of lava. Inching closer (two steps forward, one step back), with no barriers, no ropes, nothing to prevent us from reaching out and touching the hot lava except for our common sense, we got as close as we dared. We may have actually been closer to lava in Hawaii, since we could see it flowing under the ground, but here the river of lava was completely above ground and from several meters away we could feel the heat and the steam. It was like being on the Discovery Channel… except for the rain. Like true discovery channel hosts, we inched closer to the lava and watched it flow like molasses down the volcano. Unlike Hawaii where the lava entered the ocean, creating new land, the end of our lava flow was lost somewhere in the storm. Two other RTW travelers, Tracy and David pulled out marshmallows, a frying pan and eggs. It might be pouring rain, but they were going to feast. Pulling away some hot rocks, they fried eggs in the rain and promptly enjoyed a soggy but delicious egg sandwich while graciously proving us with all the marshmellows we could stand. Victorious, we headed back down the muddy path which was now more of a mud slide than anything else.   Definitely one of the coolest things we’ve ever done.

Filed Under: Central America, Guatemala Tagged With: hiking, hot springs, lava, swimming, volcanoes

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