Bienvenidos a Nicaragua

We crossed the border into Leon on the Tica bus and were greeted by men standing outside the border fence waving wads of cash offering to change your colones into cordobas, each one attempts to shout louder than the other every time someone approaches claiming to offer a better rate. Transactions are made through the fence as security looks on, without much interest. I tried to change my currency at an actual bank in Leon and the security guard told me it was not possible and instead directed me toward a random man at the street corner holding wads of cash. Driving through Nicaragua it is common to see vehicles, motorcylces, and horse drawn carts, all sharing the road. And why only have one person on a bicycle when you can fit a whole family on one? Much more efficient way to travel, or just hop in the back of someone's truck for a small fee and the they usually take you wherever you want to go. It's a strange contrast, people walking around with Smart phones and others with ox and cart or sometimes just a man powered cart loaded with firewood.

We are staying at a Hostel run by an organization called Sonati http://www.sonati.org/en/ which is 100% non-profit with all proceeds going to support environmental education in local schools. Environmental education is so important here because the government does not have an efficient garbage or recycling program and therefore people do not know what to do with their garbage aside from throw it on the street. Another problem that we were alerted to while on our hikes was the rate of deforestation. Farmers are clearing the forest to make room for growing crops but at the current rate it is going to destroy the natural habitat, and it causes other problems like landslides because the forest is no longer there to act as a buffer. In a place with so many inactive and active volcanoes, landslides are a big problem and cause a lot of destruction. Sonati aims to educate children in hopes that they will grow up to think differently than their parents and become future leaders in protecting the environment because when we protect the environment we are essentially protecting each other as well. 

We went on two treks with Sonati, one involved climbing up Cerro Negro, Leon's youngest volcano that errupted in 1999. It's so young that it is still black and smouldering at the top with no vegetation yet. That's why it is possible to toboggan down because it's like very rough sand on the one side. So we hiked up one side that felt like climbing up to Moredor and when we got to the top it was so windy and my friend almost got blown right off the volcano! But we saved her, no worries, and put on our jumpsuits, gloves, and goggles and sat down on wooden toboggans and slid down to the bottom, whoo!! I only wiped out twice, which appeared to be the norm, and at the bottom I discovered I was covered in volcanic ash from head to toe, but nothing a little cold shower couldn't fix. 

The next day we hiked up Telica, another active volcano, with two girls from Denmark and a local guide. First we stopped at some natural hot springs, but not the kind that you could swim in, just pits of boiling mud bubbling up from under the ground and steam everywhere which is collected and and transported in pipes to provide energy to the city. Next we hiked, and hiked, and hiked, until it rained and then we found shelter under a Mango tree but not before we were all completely soaked from head to toe. So the rest of the hike was down in soaking wet shoes, and clothes, the clothes were not so bad because they dried fairly quickly afterwards and prior to the rain I was really hot so that part was refreshing. But the shoes, well, on the way back down I discovered that both my heels were raw and bleeding, so I wrapped them up in gauze and continued on. The views were indescribably incredible, and once at the top of the volcano, we could peer into the depths of the crater and see lava flowing at the bottom and listened to the steady flow like that of a fast moving river. The amount of steam rising from the crater is incredible and if the wind picks up it is intensely warm and foul smelling, like sulfur. We watched the sunset as we ate supper, a picnic on top of an active volcano, I didn't even know that was on my bucket list, but I think it should be on everyones now. The way the sun lit up the entire valley before it disappeared for the night, left us all awestruck. There was no way I could take a picture that would capture the perfect beauty of that moment.  

I also cannot properly describe my experiences without mentiong food, so I will only tell you about my new favorite snack, plantains that are fried like crispy chips and served with hot sauce, que rica, so delicious. 

Entonces, me encanta Nicaragua y estoy disfrutando mi tiempo mucho en este pais.