Sandboarding Down An Active Volcano

What about that doesn't appeal to you? I first heard about the activity from Ruairi, who I met in Bogota. He had the beginnings of an impressive scar on his forearm, nearly extending from his elbow to his wrist. "Right now it looks like I have psoriasis, but it was actually a burn," he told me when I asked what he did to himself. I learned that he had been sandboarding down Cerro Negro in Nicaragua when he sustained the injury. A post-it fluttered into my brain.

A lack of time meant I had to meticulously plan my movements and omit many sights I originally wanted to see. But the post-it note had long been transcribed with permanent marker somewhere between Colombia and Costa Rica, and I stopped in the nearby city of Léon just to tick it off my list.

The popular hostel Big Foot offered sandboarding, but in the sitting down position, like, sandsledding. But I wanted to stand up. I checked out Tierra Tours and they offered it standing up. I signed on.

The first part of the tour was hiking up the rocky side of the cerro. The black jagged rocks ranged in size from loose gravel and sand to basketballs, and it was hard work! At the top it was windy as all hell, but the view was fantastic; the volcano range in the near distance, steaming vents, the crater and the super steep sandy side we were going to board down. After some group shots along the rim of the crater and donning safety gear, we strapped on our boards.

I was slow going. It was so steep I was on my ass more than my feet, and the resistance was huge compared to snowboarding. The rigid board was difficult to manouvre, especially since I was already fatigued from the hike up. But I had a few good short runs and returned to Léon happy, the 28USD in my pocket replaced with handfuls of volcanic dust and sand.