Surf, Eat, Sleep..Repeat. Playa Santana and Popoyo

Been at Playa Santana and Playa Popoyo for the last week doing nothing but surfing. i spent the first two nights at Santana which is about 5km south of Popoyo. Santana is a great beach break and had lots of makable barrells. the swell was only 3 ft but there were perfect head high waves with offshore winds all day. After two days i headed down to playa Popoyo to save some money and surf Nicaraguas ¨best¨ wave. The wave is a fun reefbreak with both rights and lefts. Unfortunatly the wind turned onshore for the last couple of days when there was a 5 ft swell but the  waves were still surfable. After surfing 5 to 6 hours a day my body is tired and ready to move on. Tomorrow i am going to catch a bus to the city of Esteli where i can hop over to an epic sounding canyon called Somoto before eventually heading to El Salvador.

Volcanoes, Volcanoes, Volcanoes...Granada and Ometepe

After backpacking volcan el Hojo, I spent a night in Leon and headed to Granada with Linda and Miriam. There we met up with some of their friends, one of which, Roberto, was a granada local. the next day Roberto took us on a secret trail up volcan Mombacho. The hike was supposed to take two hours but ended up taking about 6. Along the hike we got to eat many wild fruits and even got to try the fruit of coffee beans. The views from the top of the volcano were beautiful and we could see granada and out over lake Nicaragua. After the steep hike down we indulged in a large meal at the Granada market. The next day we headed to Isla de Ometepe to climb to San Ramon Waterfall on the Maderas Volcano. After a good night sleep, we headed up to the waterfall and bathed in the pool at the bottom. The waterfall was beautiful and refreshing and we had it all to ourselves. Today i left Ometepe and parted ways with Linda, Miriam and the others to return to playa santana and popoyo for a week of surfing.

Cerro Negro and Volcan Hojo

Just got back from a two day backpacking trip to a few volcanoes in Nicaragua! although it was less than 25km i am exhausted. The trip started with a hike up volcan Cerro Negro the second youngest and most active volcano in Central America. The volcano has had something like 26 eruptions in the last 100 years. It was really beautiful to see an active volcano. We walked in the crater through clouds of volcanic gasses reeking of sulfur. after the climb up we skied down the gravel slopes of the volcano.
          Once at the bottom we started our hike to Volcan Hojo passing numerous volcanoes on our way. The hike was about 8 km and took us 2 hours. once at camp we set up our tents and hiked up to the crater and to "El Hojo", the huge sink hole for which the volcano is named.

       The hole was much bigger than i expected and about 120 ft deep. after exploring we hiked back to camp and made some food. Unfortunately the local guide we had hired was not prepared and had forgotten all but one sleeping pad and sleeping bag for the four of us. we made the situation work and had a dinner of bread cheese and beans before falling asleep to thunderstorms and curious cows prodding our tent.


    We awoke early this morning and began our decent down. the hike down took about 3 hours. at the bottom we came across a huge lake at the base of another volcano. it was very beautiful and refreshing. We swam to cleanse the sweat and dirt off of ourselves before finishing the last 15 min of our hike. Overall the hike was amazing!