Volcano Boarding and the Pacific

I'm desperately looking for an urban center that I like in Nicaragua, I came to Leon. It's, again, more of the same but definitely the most charming city in Nicaragua so far. There's a ton of churches and also a really great art museum. Somehow it owns a few original Picasso sketches..I don't know how, guess the owner had alot of money. The main reason for coming to Leon though was to hike up and board down an active volcano. Cerro Negro is a relatively new volcano that last erupted in 1999. It's the second I've hiked up but the most volcaney looking volcano that I've been up. All blackened volcanic rock and sulphur clouds. Once you get to the top, they give you a penitentiary style orange jumpsuit, safety goggles and a "Board." My jumpsuit was of course too small and came to about 6 inches below my knees. The guide said it was supposed to fit like that...but then why did everyone else's come to below their ankles? Anyway, I decided to go first against a german guy. One side of the volcano is eroded so that it's more sand-like than the other faces but still pretty much just rocks. You sit toboggan style on the board and they just push you down. You're supposed to put your feet out and use them in a braking type style to steer the board. Easier said than done when you're going 40mph down a volcano on a piece of wood. It took about 20 seconds until I did a face plant on the volcano and my board went careening down the volcano ahead of me. I caught up to it eventually but lost the race. The damned suit left my legs exposed so now I have gashes up and down the side of my left calf. Not to mention that I'll probably be finding volcano dust in my stool for the next week after eating about a pound of it.

Afterwards, myself and some other people from the trip got a bite to eat and a girl with us got her bag with her passport taken right out from under her chair. We were all sitting there...it was like a ghost took it, truly incredible. We went with her to report it. The police station in Leon looks more like a place where you would get robbed than to report a robbery. I waited outside while they got the woman to take our report since I didn't want the roof to collapse on my head. When we were giving our account of what happened, I couldn't help but notice a pile of AK47s just leaning against the cabinet like they were nothing more than envelopes. I probably could've stolen one but I can't take anymore weight in my pack.

I was going to go to Honduras the next day but it would've taken too long to get there by the time I got up. I saw a sign in the hostel bathroom for "Rancho Tranquilo" which was owned by a Californian named Tina. Tina's place was as far out of the way as you can get. Nestled on a little peninsula jutting out into the Pacific ocean, it was perfect. I swam and boogie boarded mainly.

Tina's boyfriend is involved with a sea turtle rescue project which I volunteered with for a bit. I spent the nights stalking the beach with a flashlight looking for mothers laying eggs. The idea was to take these eggs and put them in an artificial nest (vivero) to protect them from poachers and also to supply ideal hatching conditions. The problem is that the fishing stock in the ocean is nearly gone and so out of work fisherman turn to poaching sea turtle eggs and then selling them in town for a quick buck.  Sea turtle eggs are a kind of spanish fly around here and local men do shots of them to increase sexual potency.  It was a frustrating experience because at night when the turtles usually lay their eggs (probably to use the darkness to protect their eggs?) you are searching the beach along with 15 other poachers looking for the same thing as you...and they're way better at it. The poachers always find them first. You can buy the eggs from the poachers but they won't sell unless you give them the same price that they could get in town and since the project is operating with basically no money, we can't afford to buy them. Noel, a local kid helping with the project said that only 5 years ago, you could walk on the beach for 5 minutes anytime after nightfall and almost trip over a turtle laying eggs. Now you're lucky if you walk for 6 hours and find even one. The whole experience for me was like watching extinction happen in real time right before your eyes. If you have any spare money, you can donate money here:

http://seaturtlerescue.org/how.html

I can't think of a better way to use your money...unless you need it for your mortgage payment and in that case, shame on you, who has a mortgage in this economy?

I'm back in Leon today. Leaving tomorrow for Ometepe again. I'm going to work on a farm again...