Day 9

What an incredible day!

This morning I woke up at 7am and took a shower, you know the one I said I would take last night…..I didn't have the energy last night. Well, then we went to breakfast at the place that is right around the corner from where we live and will probably eat there every day! The food is really good so I definitely don't mind eating there all the time.

After breakfast, Brad dropped Greg, one of the volunteers who is staying until tomorrow, and myself off at the bus station with Esmir. We then road a shuttle bus to León. Once we arrived in León we took a I guess you call it a bike ride, it was a guy who peddled from the back and we sat in the front in this little carriage type thing. It was pretty neat and he drove just as crazily as the cars did. The city of León was so unique and such a cute little city.

We were brought to this place called Sonati Tours. They do many tours of León such as turtle watching and kayaking. So you may ask, oh Mekaila did you go kayaking or turtle watching? NO! I went volcano boarding! What is that you might ask, well the name describes it all. We slid down a volcano on a board. It was crazy! I couldn't believe I did it!

Ok so we took a jeep to the volcano and there was a group of 6 college students who were crammed in this little jeep with us. They were really nice and hopefully we will keep in touch. Anyways we got to the volcano and hiked up it. It took us about 45min to an hour to reach the very top. It was definitely not the type of activity a clumsy person should do. Lets just say I tripped a few times, but no injuries thank goodness. But the view was amazing and it was such an amazing thing to be able to do! Oh did I mention this volcano is active?! Yes that's right I hiked up an active volcano! It is Nicaragua's youngest volcano, only 16 years old. The last time it erupted was a little less than 4 years ago. It was funny and somewhat scary because the guy told us that if we feel it begin to rumble we need to get off immediately! How crazy!

It was so hot on the volcano and then the sun added to it. The view was incredible though. There were parts of the volcano that were steaming because it was active and could erupt at any time. We were able to see other volcanoes from the top of this one. The others were a lot older and covered with grass and trees where this one we were on was completely covered in black rocks and ash.

Now for the even crazier part! If it wasn't bad enough for me to climb up an active volcano, but I took a board and slid down this huge volcano! Ha it was amazing! We had to wear this really funny and big jump suits so we wouldn't get too dirty and were covered so no rocks could cut us. We also had these big cloves and goggles on. That was it! Down we went! Fast too!

I fell off my board and toppled a little ways down but was able to get back on the board and finish going down. Once we reached the bottom we were covered from head to toe in ash. I am still trying to get little tiny volcanic rocks out of my hair! The jump suit didn't fully keep out the dirt. But who doesn't love getting down and dirty?! I most certainly do! :) It was overall an incredible experience and even though I was afraid I'm so glad I didn't let that stop me!

We then headed back to get on the shuttle to Managua and arrived back in Managua at around 7:30pm where Brad came and got us. We said good night to Esmir and headed back to the hostel to shower. It felt so incredible to be clean again!

Dinner tonight was a special treat for sure! We went to this nice restaurant and I devoured my food! I was of course hungry after my crazy adventure but also it was so good! Then for dessert we all shared a 'local banana split' which was plantains, ice cream, and cinnamon drizzle. It was the best dessert I have ever had! I love the food down here so much! I have tried so many new things here and love every experience I have had so far!

Well Sunday begins the work with the kids again! I am so excited and can't wait to see them again! But for now I am off to bed to get some rest! Have an incredible night! :)