Snowboarding is so last year, this year try volcano boarding.
If you are an adrenaline junkie, adventure seeker, or just want to have a once in a lifetime experience, listen up!
Leon, Nicaragua is the only place in the world where you can volcano board down an active volcano… you heard me, active volcano. My family traveled to Nicaragua for this reason. My family doesn’t take normal family vacations: no cruises, and no massive all inclusive resorts. We are drawn to places with rich culture, and where we can do things we won’t be able to do anywhere else in the world.
My family booked our volcano boarding excursion with Big Foot Hostel, and we could not recommend it more. They took care of us the whole day, and we had such an unforgettable experience. They took us to and from the volcano, made sure we were safe, and had a cold beer waiting for us after we made it to the bottom.
You start off your day meeting at Big Foot hostel. You can stay at the hostel, or you can get transportation from where you are staying. Being a family of 3 we opted out of staying in a hostel and got a ride over from our hotel that morning. When it was time to go, we took a big yellow school bus through the winding roads of Leon, out of town, to the bottom of the volcano.
When you volcano board you ride down on a wooden sled basically. It is a wooden toboggan that has a rope for you to hang on to for dear life. The sled weighed about 20 pounds. In order to board down the volcano, you had to walk up it. You had two options when hiking. You could carry your own sled the whole way up, or you can simply pay $5 to a local and they will carry your sled up for you. We were also given a big orange backpack to carry up as well. Blake showed his masculinity and carried his own, while mom and I could not get $5 out fast enough. These poor guys would be carrying 5-7 sleds with them as they hiked up the volcano. Nicaragua in December is their dry season, therefore it was a warm, sticky 94 degrees that day. Also with the ground being volcanic ash, it was dark black, so the heat just radiated. After many water breaks and rest stops we finally made it to the top of the volcano dripping sweat, but its all about the experience am I right?
Finally, we made it up to the top. It was a beautiful view, but the nerves started to kick in. We were instructed to open our backpacks, and found these gorgeous neon orange jumpsuits. So after about 10 minutes of trying to put these bad boys on, we were given our goggles and we were ready to go. The orange jumpsuits acted as protective gear so you weren’t getting pelted by volcanic rock as your board down going about 50 MPH.
So here we are at the top, waiting for what it felt like hours until it was finally my, Blake, and mom’s turn. We made Blake go first. Plus this was the one thing he really wanted to do on this trip, so he was the guinea pig of the family.
Next up was me. Let me preface with this: I am a huge klutz, and if anyone was going to fall off of their board in the whole group it would be me. The guy pushes me off and says lean back if you want to go faster and then sit up and dig your heels in the ground to slow down a little. So here I am boarding down an active volcano… fast. I started off by laying down to gain momentum, then about half way down I noticed I was going way too fast, so I sat up and dug my heels into the ground, but I was a little too late. Next thing I know I am flipping over the front of my board eating volcanic rock and rolling down to flat land (if you ask me I stuck the landing). I was hysterically laughing. After everyone made sure I was okay, we all laughed at how comical I looked flopping down the volcano.
Lastly it was my mom’s turn and she definitely took the thrill out of it. I have never seen someone move so slow down the volcano. She was taking her sweet time taking in the view. But I give her so much credit for doing this with us. She was the oldest in the group by at least 15 years, and she was such a trooper. Guys, I have the coolest mom.
So after everyone went, they told us that the fastest boy and girl would get a prize. So we were all crowded around to see how fast everyone else went. My mom went a whopping 25 MPH, Blake did an impressive 50 MPH, and they still didn’t say my time. They crowned the fasted boy going 55 MPH, and then the guide goes, “The fastest girl out of the day, even beat the fasted boy’s time going 59 MPH… Brittany.” I was stunned. I had no clue that I was going almost 60 MPH down a volcano. But hey, I got a shirt so I cough that up as a win.
Volcano boarding was the highlight of our Nicaragua trip. It was exhilarating, got your heart pumping, and we got a lot of laughs out of it. If you ever find yourself in Nicaragua, you will regret it if you don’t spend a couple days in Leon, and go volcano boarding.
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