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Bit of a mission journey from El Salvador to Nicaragua... The day started with a ride in the back of a pick up truck followed by 5 chicken buses, a tuk tuk, a cycle rickshaw, a 2 hour dip in and out of the dump that is Honduras and 2 border crossings. It was worth it though as Leon is coool. Or should I say hot. A ridiculously hot city - we positively melted walking around the town snapping away at stunning colonial buildings, shrivelled old people in rocking chairs and amazing painted murals from the days of the Nicaraguan civil war.
And seeing as it was so hot, we thought it would be a great idea to get even hotter and go up... another active volcano! A-ha but before you skip this part thinking youve heard it all before, this volcano trip wasnt all that conventional. After our epic list of transportation methods, we decided to add another form of getting from A to B - using a plank of wood to slide down. Yes, slightly bonkers but so much fun.
It started with a trek up the volcano which was hard enough as it was only it was made worse by us having to carry up said (heavy) plank of wood. After peering into the smoking crater at the top, we got kitted out in our "safety suits" - essentially a bright orange boiler suit (or boiling suit judging by the sweat patches). Sorry, it was very un-pc but orange jumpsuits complete with orange bag to put over our heads... We simply had to take the opportunity to pose as detainees of a certain high security centre...
Anyway, back to the safety point. These suits are meant to protect you from the sharp lava scree but you can imagine I wasnt that delighted when I looked at our guides lacerated arms from a previous outing... Ouch. Then we were shown where you "board" down the volcano - " you see where this 45 degree angled slope disappears from view - well thats the steep bit where you can really get the speed up..."
With the all time speed record set at 82 km per hour by some crazy guy, we took it in turns to race down in pairs with the boys of course putting all manner of pressure on themselves to outdo each other. Seeing as I value the softness of my skin more than I do having my name on a record board in the hostel, I did it the lame way digging my feet in as much as possible to slow myself down. Ant kept his feet up on the board and got the speed up... but had a massive bail out mid way down. Hmm the 82 km guy is safe - I came in at 28 km per hour with Ant at 35 km per hour. Sorry Ash I cant remember yours! Once again I did wonder why we keep putting ourselves in ridiculous situations but once again we survived to tell the tale - with not a scratch on us.
From there we headed down to the colonial city of Granada and saw more buildings, murals and people in rocking chairs, except from the seat of the musical tractor train (so cheesy but so cool!) rather than sweating it out walking around.
The time then came for us to say goodbye to our month-long travel companion... Had such a good time with you Asher Dee - its just not the same going out for dinner without you asking whether your dish "es grande?".
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