Volacnoes, Flor de Caña and a Splurge!

Flo says:

Not content with simulating one natural hazard we
arrived in Nicaragua to promptly shoot up the nearest
volcano and then come hurtling down its sides on bits
of plywood in very attractive outfits "a la
Guantanamo". Just to add to the thrill we were
informed before hand that the volcano has a 7 year
cycle of eruptions, last blew in 1999 and usually goes
between October and January (It’s called Cerro Negro,
watch this space!) So that pretty much brings us up to date. Yesterday we
went on a day trip to the remains of old Leon
(destroyed by yet another nearby volcano some 500
years ago) and hitched a lift back to town with a jeep
full of drunken, middle aged Spaniards who insisted on
plying us with beer and food and offers to visit their
hotel’s swimming pool - we may still yet, as now I
miss them!

Included in the pictures are a couple of Leon (from
where I last wrote). One of a beautiful ex-convent
turned into a fancy restaurant where we splashed out
on three course dinner and bottle of wine for ten
pounds! It was worth it for the chocolate mousse
alone! Another is of local kids celebrating the local
saint’s day by taking their aggression out on a
cardboard animal and then scrapping over sweets. That
evening Leon went firework crazy with huge crowds
running screaming away from descending fireworks –
lots of hysterical teenage girls!

Emma Says:

After this experience we decided I had had enough of extreme Honduras and it’s crazy activities so we headed through Telegusapa (apparently Honduras ’s very dangerous capital city) into Nicaragua via the las Manos boarder. Our fist destination was a city called Leon (where I am currently sitting) where one of the appeals is that it is surrounded by active Volcanoes (how very appealing). As I was on a break from extreme activities it will be of no surprise to you that (onfiltered= dodgy bowels) we found a nice active volcano and decided to go up it and have a close look a the sulphuras (sorry I think it now officially called Sulfur, but I don’t care) clouds that were steaming out of it. I was not that calm about this experience either as our guide very casually told us that the volcano has a 7 year cycle of eruptions (last eruption 1999), that it was showing sign of increased activity over the last 2 weeks and that it would take a 4.5 Richter scale earthquake to set it off. However I calmed myself with the knowledge that I had a 1 meter long piece of ply wood with me that I could use to make a quick escape down the side if I felt the slightest rumble. Scarily there was a rumble, luckily it was thunder, unluckily we were at the top and walking into a rather grey cloud at the time. Well as you may have realised we survived these event and survived traveling down the side of a volcano at 30km per hour on a piece off wood and we are current looking forward to meeting with a bunch of strange Spanish people that we hitched a lift with yesterday. We were bored of risking our lives at the hand of mother nature so we decided to accept a lift and food from strangers. What ever would Charlie say!

So last time I spoke to you I was in Leon Nicaragua,
after spending 2 hours writing an e-mail Flo and I
felt like a treat and found the poshest restaurant in
Leon for a drink. We discovered that the food was not
that expensive so we decided to come back for the most
decedent and posh meal we ever had with a lovely
cheeky bottle of wine. As we dined in the decadent
garden the locals decided we needed some fireworks to
make the occasion extra special. How can we afford
this you all think, the bill came to little over 10
pounds each.