I was dropped off by the shuttle outside of Bigfoot Hostel in the center of León, Nicaragua. Music and the shrieks of people partying spilled into the streets. It was almost New Years, so there were a lot party people in town. There was no vacancy, so I found my way to Trailwinds Hostel. Much quieter, and nicer. Plus, Trailwinds has a restaurant, Imbir, connected to it, which is considered one of the best restaurants in León. I showered, and then ate a delicious Sri Lankan butter chicken curry in the restaurant. Afterwards, I went out to wander around.
León is the second biggest city in Nicaragua. It is a very old city, founded in the early 1600’s, and was the capital of Nicaragua for many years until eventually Managua became the capital city. It features classic Spanish colonial style buildings common throughout Latin America. León is considered the political and intellectual center of Nicaragua. The people are proud of their revolutionary past with a strong Sandinista presence and FSLN flags displayed everywhere. There are still bullet holes in several buildings from the fighting that took place in the late 70’s.
The next day I explored León further. At the main plaza, I visited the Cathedral, then went to the Sandinista Museum. I got a tour from a guy whose father fought with Comandante Sandino (whom the Sandinistas and the FSLN is named after) in a guerilla war against US imperialism. Even though the museum was basically two rooms with meager displays, it was interesting to hear the history recounted, which I was only nebulously aware of due to The Clash.
Afterwards, I hoofed around and visited two other ‘museums’ that were even less impressive than the Sandinista museum. I actually paid money to get into them too. Rookie mistake.
Holy shit was it hot in León. After walking around the city for a few hours, I felt dehydrated, exhausted, and had an ass like Swamp Thing. I got a smoothie, followed by a pina colada, then went back to the hostel for a siesta.
In the evening, I booked a trip to Cerro Negro volcano for the next morning. I had dinner at another of the better restaurants in León, Bodegon, and had a traditional Cuban plate. Mmm.
The next morning, I was picked up by a van for Volcan Cerro Negro at 8am. My stomach had not been feeling well for the last couple nights and I was questioning whether I should go, but I decided to try and tough it out.
Cerro Negro is one of the things everyone does while in León. Not so much for the hike or the view, but for ‘volcano boarding’ down the mountain. At the volcano, the tour company gives each person in the group a bag with a jumpsuit, helmet, and googles, and a volcano board (basically a 1ft by 3ft toboggan-like piece of plywood with metal bottom and a rope to hold onto). You tote the bag and board up the volcano. At the summit, you sit on the board and ride it 728m down the fine pumice stone of the South face. From what I had heard, the descent is steep and fast and can be dangerous.
It was about a 45-minute ride to the volcano, and hiking took about an hour. The hike was nothing special in terms of natural beauty. It was mostly scenery of jagged black volcanic rock (Cerro Negro means Black Hill). It was sweltering hot for most of the climb, but a reprieve of strong winds cooled us near the summit. At the top, there were nice views of the Nicaraguan countryside, including the Cordillera de los Maribios volcano range.
After spending 30 minutes at the top, we all put on our jumpsuits, received a short tutorial on how to manage the descent, and formed a queue to board down the volcano. I was 3rd to go. The first 200 yards of the descent was at about a 40-degree angle. No sweat. Then it dropped off to about a 55-degree angle before leveling off at the bottom. After the drop off, I really started moving. You’re supposed to use your feet as brakes in the pumice stone to moderate your speed. I leaned back and tried to go down with both feet on the board for maximum speed, but the board started to fishtail erratically. I used my feet to keep balanced, while still moving down the volcano at high speed. I made it down to the bottom in one piece.
While waiting at the bottom for the rest of my group to descend, I witnessed several crashes. One woman, from a different tour group, didn’t foot brake at all and inevitably lost control and crashed incredibly hard. I think she broke her arm, and was unconscious for a spell. Luckily there was a doctor on the scene. She had to be carried out on a stretcher. Yikes.
On the way back, the guide announced the group would be dropped off at a restaurant for complimentary beers. The van dropped us at Imbir restaurant. Nice, I didn’t even have to walk home. I had a few beers and lunch with a few people from the tour group. After lunch, I showered and took a shaded hammock siesta to avoid the afternoon heat.
In the evening, I came across the Nicaraguita Café and had a tasty herb crusted steak for dinner. Afterwards, still weary from the volcano in the hot sun, I returned home, and watched The Force Awakens.
The next day was New Years Eve. When I woke up, my stomach was still not feeling well, but I was hoping it would feel well enough to party later. I decided to move to another hostel nearer to the party scene, Blue Hat Hostel. In the afternoon, I hung out for several hours lunching and writing at the excellent Pan y Paz French bakery and café. Good food in León.
In the evening, I returned to the hostel and found a group of people playing drinking games. I joined in for a while. After about two drinks, my stomach started going bad. I had to excuse myself to go shit my brains out. I returned and played another game of (European) Asshole, but was soon back in the bathroom. My stomach wasn’t having it.
I spent the night drinking water on the balcony of the hostel, hanging out with Waut from the Netherlands and Yessica from El Salvador. We had a good little time.
At midnight, we had a nice view of several different fireworks displays. One of the shows, I think in Granada, went on for almost an hour.
It was hilarious to watch all the drunk Nicaraguans shoot off fireworks too. Let’s just say ‘safety first’ was not their motto. We had to duck a couple times as fireworks were launched towards us on the balcony. A few mortars were errantly shot down the street careening off buildings. People were riding around on motorcycles at high speeds with Roman candles just firing away.
We joined in the firework extravaganza and blew off some fireworks in the street with the owners of the hostel and their two kids. It was great fun, especially with the two kids who got unbelievably excited in anticipation whenever a fuse was lit and were super cute playing with sparklers.
The next day was Sunday. I was up at 9am, and the entire town was deathly quiet. It was a nice contrast to the normally noisy, hectic streets of Latin America. I took a walk looking for a café, but then I realized nothing was open. I found a lone vegetable vendor selling out of the back of a pickup and scored some provisions. After a big breakfast and my weekly call home, I settled in for my weekly Sunday poker grind. I final tabled three tournaments and collected all the chips in one them to book a nice profit on the day. Running hot lately!
The next day was a nothing sort of day. I spent the entire afternoon in Pan y Paz writing and researching where to go next. I tried to book a ride to Las Peñitas, a beach on the Pacific about 40 minutes south, but had missed the last shuttle for the day. I got a ticket for the following afternoon, and went to see Rogue One in a theatre (English with Spanish subtitles).
The following day I packed up to move to the beach, and ran errands before my 3pm shuttle. My debit card had not been working in ATMs since Guatemala. The inability to use ATMs had not been a problem because I had brought money from home, and El Salvador uses USD and Nicaragua allows citizens to bank in both USD and Cordobas so both currencies are readily accepted. But now I was down to my last few bucks. I had to go through the unpleasant experience of manually withdrawing cash from a teller at a bank. It was like the DMV with a number system. I spent 1.5hours waiting inside of the bank for my number to come up. People in Central and South America regularly spend hours in line at banks. It was painful. “You all need to self-bank with Bitcoin!!!” I wanted to shout out.
I still had 30 people to go, and wasn’t going to make it to my number before my shuttle left. I waited for a number to be called that no one claimed. “T71” flashed on the overhead screen three times. No one went to the teller. I waited a moment more, then darted to the teller as though it was my number. The teller asked for my ticket and saw it wasn’t the number she called, but I smiled mischievously and she served me anyway. “Damn, should’ve done this an hour ago,” I thought. I made it to my shuttle just in time. The shuttle took me to Bigfoot’s Hostel, Las Peñitas.
Las Peñitas is a small, sleepy fishing village on the Pacific coast of northern Nicaragua. It’s a relaxing, low key place to get away from the hustle and bustle of a city like León. It has beautiful, long sand beaches that attract tourists. There’s not much to do other than the beach. There’s not a market or many restaurants, so you’re somewhat confined to the place you’re staying. It has a reputation for good surfing, but I must admit I was unimpressed after being in El Tunco.
I checked in and then went for a swim. I watched the surf, and wasn’t too enthralled. The waves were decently big, but breaking right on the beach in three feet of water. Nothing like in El Salvador. A French guy at the hostel told me there was better surfing a 10-minute walk north.
While having a beer and surveying the scene, I struck up a conversation with Simone from Switzerland. She was keen to go surfing, so we rented boards and walked to the other beach.
It was only her second time surfing, so I tried to be helpful and give her instructions, but she wanted to learn by herself. She tried to come out past the break with me, but predictably didn’t fare will and spent the rest of the time in the whitewater. I hung out catching 4ft waves a bit farther out. The waves were beach breaks, breaking parallel to shore, so I had to be content just riding in straight towards shore rather than along the face of a wave. We stayed out for about 1.5 hours, watching the sunset on the water and surfing in the afterglow until dark. It was a really nice way to enjoy a sunset.
Back at the hostel, Simone and I had dinner and a couple beers together while discussing our travels. She had to catch the shuttle back to León at 8pm, but promised to come again later in the week. I spent the rest of the evening partying with various hostelfolk, but managed to get to bed at about midnight so I could surf in the morning.
The next three days basically went by as such: wake 7:30am, yoga followed by meditation on the beach, find a secluded spot for a skinny dip, breakfast, surf until 11am, rest, lunch, write until 4pm, surf until sunset, cocktail, dinner, read, bed. Simone and her friend Marina showed up for the following two afternoons, and I surfed had dinner and beers with them. On the third day, I met Olya from Russia, and we surfed and had dinner together in the evening. I watched the sunset while floating on my surfboard each night. Idyllic.
It was a fun few days, however, life at the beach gets boring quick. The next day, I’d had enough, and hopped on a chicken bus back to León. In León, I jumped in a taxi to be taken to the main bus station where I found a 12-person van to Managua. In Managua, I then found a 24-person bus to Granada. The whole process took me from 9:30am to 2pm.
Onward. Further south and further from home, but closer to the next adventure.
