In Leon we went to a famous big black active volcano and went volcano boarding. Now this volcano became famous for a Frenchman breaking the land speed record going down it on a push bike, he went over 200km an hour.. I mean the bike did break and nearly killed him but was still pretty impressive. I didn't managed to go anywhere near those speeds on my sled; but that's why it's been ranked number 2 on the world thrill seekers. It really was an effort carrying the board up the volcano, although it was only and out 10/12 kg, it was super awkward to hold and made the hour walk up a lot tougher. Amazing to stand at the top and see where the last eruption about 15 years ago had occurred, obvious by the large areas covered in black from the lava, and older ones where the trees around were a bright green/yellow colour from all the fertile sulphur land. To prove we were standing on the most active part of the volcano, our tour guide told us to dig a small hole with our foot and put our hand in.. Well we had only gone down about half an heel in depth and it was like putting your had on an oven door. He told us that they had actually brought up a few potatoes before and buried them to see if they would cook, and sure enough they did... Although they tasted a bit sulpherish.. Hot stuff!
We all got suited and booted in our bright orange jump suits, googles and a bandana to cover our mouth. And when I was stood at the top it just became apparent to me that I was actually about to ride down a super steep volcano on a flimsy sled. We lined up on the faster track of the two as there was no gradual decline in steepness but all of us fell off about 3 time on the way to the bottom. He said just lean back and when you feel yourself pulling to the left, just tap your right foot gently on the floor and it'll correct you... Sure sounds easy enough but when your balance is all shifted to one side, you had ash and pebbles spitting up in your face as your speeding about 50/60kmh it's not so easy to just tap a casual foot down. The second time I fell off I carried on sliding down the volcano but my board had dug in further up and it was near impossible to climb up and get it. Every time I tried pulling myself up I was just sliding further away.. It was like trying to walk under water, I was going nowhere. In the end I managed to grab the string you used to pull the front of the sled up and carry on. At the bottom there was a bloke from the hostel with a speed gun and only clocked me at 26kmh cause I had just fallen off.. Could be worse, could be Jord with 21kmh who had to do an ice bucket challenge as the slowest person in the whole group. His second forfit was the chile shot challenge back at the hostel, 2 regular shots followed by a double of some rum left in a jar with chilies and jalapeños for I don't know how long.. Anyway Jord was on antibiotics so he volunteered me to do it instead.. I couldn't even taste the alcohol at all just the chilie heat wave as it went down.. Well I managed all 3 shots without spewing and got a cheap vest for my efforts so wasn't all bad!