Nicaragua 2022

Monday24October

This week starts with a busy Monday. Two volcanoes to climb (and descend) in the day! It is the Via via agency of León that takes care of taking us there with 7 other tourists. It is moreover always through this agency that we will go for our "volcanic" expeditions from León. This morning begins with the Cerro Negro that we reach by truck.

After 35 minutes, we see the large black cone covered with its ash and volcanic rocks. Its last eruption dates back to August 1999.

The traces on its slope give us a glimpse of how we are going to go down the volcano...  

Yes, the little expedition integrates a small atypical variant for the hikers that we are...

The descent will not be done on our feet but on boards! We don't know what to invent anymore to attract the daredevils of the planet...   I wasn't very keen on the principle, but the tour on the Cerro Negro was only offered with surfing...  

We are at the bottom of the volcano, so we will have to climb all the way up, with each our board under the arm! But it's really worth it, the landscape teleports us to another planet!

24 years that the Cerro negro has not been heard from, but the crater slopes still keep traces of its tumultuous past.

The volcano appeared only 173 years ago and remained very active. Major eruptions occur regularly every 20 or 30 years.

Vegetation never seems to have time to reclaim possession of its territory between two eruptions... Which is not unrelated to the beauty of the landscape.

And our ascent continues...

The vertical drop is not bad... Our truck at the bottom seems very far away...  

Here we are at the top! And our truck is already waiting for us at the bottom...  

We leave our boards aside for a few moments, time for us to go walk on the north side of the top of the crater.

The view reminds us that we are on an alignment of volcanoes. In the distance, we find the Santa Clara, then the Telica, which we will climb this afternoon...  

The Via Via agency takes pictures for us, so I logically find myself in the photos taking pictures...  

And off we go for the big descent! The black ash infiltrates everywhere. The yellow jumpsuit will therefore allow us to stay somewhat clean during the descent...

We are ready.

At the very bottom, the guide is waiting for us and will film everything...

And hop, everyone in turn, we get on the board and let ourselves slide!  

It's more impressive when you're not there than when you are!   The speed is not that fast and with your feet you can slow down more or less, even slow down too much... So we are not so reassured when launching but the adrenaline is not very intense... A second run would have allowed us to better enjoy the descent. But in that case, we would have to climb all the way back up on foot...  

Well, enjoyed well, all that remains is to get back in the truck and turn back to León.

Return to the civilization of León where we will be able to eat before leaving just after for the Telica volcano!  

And off we go again, also by truck, by roads that our car could not have taken.

Yes yes, it passes.

Ha there, it doesn't pass anymore...

This large herd is led by "vaqueros", farmers on horseback. The equivalent of "gauchos" in Argentina.

We have arrived and bam, the heavy downpour puts pressure on us for the start of the little walk that awaits us!

But phew, the rain doesn't last too long, and will leave us alone for most of our ascent.

This time, it's much greener than on the Cerro Negro.

After rising 200 meters during thirty minutes of walking, we approach the edge of the crater...

And here we are, at the edge of the huge smoking crater. The highest point of the volcano is at 1061 meters altitude.

The crater diameter measures about 350 meters. The last eruption (without gravity) took place two years ago in 2020.

The depth is impressive and depending on the direction of the smoke, you can clearly see the bottom of the crater.

We bypass the crater to have a viewpoint on the west, where we are supposed to see the Sun set.

The panorama is very Nicaraguan: with lots of volcanoes...  

Short stop to look closer at this vegetation that survives or relives the conditions imposed by the volcano.

The sun's rays start to change color.

High far away, even more smoking, the largest volcano in Nicaragua with its 745 meters: the San Cristobal.

Before the Sun sets, our guide takes us into a small rift that goes underground and where bats begin their nocturnal outing.

Whoa! It was time to leave the cave! The Sun does not wait to eclipse itself!

The sun does not fall, it sets. Night does not set, it falls...   And indeed, night is coming and we must quickly leave the premises to join our truck!

We arrive in complete darkness? I was very happy to have my headlamp to walk on the slippery stones... All that was left was to eat almost baguettes at the back of the truck   which will take us back to León in 1h30. Tomorrow will be quieter and will not have a volcano on the program!