On July 4th weekend of 2017, I embarked on my first journey to the wonderful part of the world called Central America. It has always been my dream to climb a volcano so what better place to do that than the beautiful country of Nicaragua?

Nicaragua is home to roughly 24 volcanos and countless lakes! I was able to spend 5 incredible days touring 3 of their renowned volcanos and I was blown away by the beauty of the country and the hospitality of the people.

Day 1: MASAYA VOLCANO

On my first day, I toured the Masaya Volcano. This is one of the active volcanos, near Managua and I could actually see lava inside of it! The tour company, Tierratours, picked me up from the airport and shuttled me to the base of Masaya National Park. Due to the stage of eruption Masaya is in, tourists are no longer allowed to walk up and tours of the park are limited to 60 people at a time, for 15 minutes. Seeing this volcano was probably one of the most exhilarating 15 minutes of my life! I was literally able to get right up to the volcano and feel the heat coming out of it.

After my 15 minutes were up, I got driven back to the base of the park and to my hotel to change for dinner. Dinner that night was at a great restaurant called ‘Cocina de Dona Haydee’ in Managua. I enjoyed my dinner at this restaurant and the beer was cold and delicious.

My accommodations:

Hotel Casa Real – De Hotel Seminole 3c, al norte 1/2c, al oeste., Managua 14101, Nicaragua

Book it here

Day 2: CERRO NEGRO VOLCANO

On my 2nd day in Nicaragua, I boarded the bus to head to Leon. It was pretty chaotic at the bus station but I located the bus for Leon and waited on the line. The buses wait at the bus station until they are full and then they leave. It was approximately a 1.5 hour ride from Managua.

I arrived in Leon in the morning and had most of the day to explore this colorful city! I had lunch at a family-owned cafe and walked around the city for a bit then went to the hotel and used the pool.

There was a power outage in the city which apparently is just normal and no one seemed bothered by it, everyone just went about their day. Being that all the power was out in the city, I figured I’d try & see if I could get a tour of the Cerro Negro Volcano. I was able to secure a tour that included volcano boarding, through a company called Volcano Day. It was great to be able to book things on the spot! Tourism hasn’t quite picked up in Nicaragua as much as some other countries so it’s pretty easy to book things once you arrive. I got picked up from my hotel and taken on a chicken bus to the volcano site.

Once I got to the volcano, I got my boarding suit and board and started our trek up to the top of the volcano.

After I was all suited up, it was time to start boarding! Boards down the volcano could go up to 70mph. Everyone had a great time!

Let’s go!

After my adventures at the volcano, we all got a few drinks at a bar in the city and then parted ways for dinner.

My accommodations:

Hotel La Perla – Iglesia La Merced 1 cuadra al norte, Leon Nicaragua

Book it here

Day 3 – 4: TELICA VOLCANO

After my exciting day at Cerro Negro, I woke up ready for my overnight hiking & camping trip! I booked this trip through Quetzaltrekkers, which is an incredible non-profit organization made up solely of volunteers, from all over the world.  The money received from the trips they run go to benefit local children in Nicaragua, providing things like homes & schools for the country’s underprivileged.

My hotel was right around the block from the Quetzaltrekkers office, so I walked there and met up with my awesome tour guides and the other person on our tour. Our 2 tour guides were Sam from Ireland and Rachel from Oregon.

From there we walked into town where we met our chicken bus to take us to the volcano. Chicken buses are widely found all throughout Central America, and are pretty much just school-bus type vehicles crammed with tons of locals. It was such a crazy but fun ride to the volcano site!

This tour was an overnight tour covering roughly 24km of ground with some steep uphill and downhill along the way – approximately 15km on the ascent and 9km on the descent. Because the tour is so steep and you are required to carry sleeping bags, sleeping mats, 4 liters of water, food and a backpack, there are horses available to assist with carrying the packs. When we got to the park we met our horse.

At that point we were ready to begin our ascent toward Telica!

After about an hour or 2 of hiking, we stopped in a remote village where a lovely local woman cooked lunch for us. She had also made a delicious drink from an orange-colored fruit! This drink was so amazing! When we tried to ask her what fruit it was, she couldn’t understand our English, so we never actually found out.

We spent about an hour with her. She had chickens roaming around her yard and hammocks for us to rest. She did have an outhouse but there was no running water or electricity.

After our time was up, we finished the remainder of our trek up to Telica.

We got to Telica around 4pm where we set up camp. Quetzaltrekkers provided us with sleeping mats, sleeping bags tents. Once everything was set up at the campsite, we went go watch the sunset at the summit of Telica.

Back at the campsite, Rachel had been cooking dinner while Sam (our tour guide) had brought us up the summit. When we returned, a delicious vegetable pasta with tomato sauce had been cooked for us over the fire. We all enjoyed the delicious meal then roasted some marshmallows afterward and then it was time for bed. We had to be up early the next morning to catch sunrise and start our descent back down the mountain.

We slept pretty decently. The sleeping mats and sleeping bags were comfortable and it wasn’t too hot or cold, however during the night, cows roamed around the area where the tents were. They weren’t too loud to the point of keeping us up but we definitely heard their footsteps hitting the ground.

Sunrise the next morning was beautiful! We got up at 4am and headed up to a higher point on the volcano to catch it.

After that we had breakfast and started our descent back down the mountain.

When we got back down the base of the volcano we waited for our chicken bus to head back to Leon.

—-> MUST PACK ITEM — hiking boots! You will want a good strong pair of these for this hike. I have Merrells and they worked great and kept me blister-free!

Book this tour (& so much more!) here

Day 4: LAS PENITAS BEACH / MANAGUA

When we got back to Leon, we went back to the Quetzaltrekkers office to gather our things and decided I wanted to spend my last day on the beach! Las Penitas is a beach about 20 minutes away from Leon. It was gorgeous and highly recommended for me to visit. Las Penitas donned beautiful black sand and not many people were there so it was pretty nice practically having the beach to myself!

When I got to Las Penitas, I walked into a cute little beach lodge called ‘Simple Beach Lodge’. It is owned by the sweetest Argentinian woman who speaks pretty much perfect English! I was able to rent a surfboard from her for as little as $6 USD for 4 hours!

I arranged for a cab from Leon to take me there and got the driver’s cell phone number and arranged that I’d call him when I was ready to be taken back. It worked out great. There aren’t too many cabs near the beach area so it is best to pre-arrange something with your driver ahead of time.

The waves were pretty strong and the sand was hot but I enjoyed my time there. There are also bars and restaurants so I sat down and had some lunch as well.

After that, I headed back to Leon to grab the bus back to Managua, where I would be spending my final night.

I had an amazing time on the Telica tour and at the beach! I would definitely recommend booking a tour through Quetzaltrekkers over anyone else. The fact that they are non-profit working for the betterment of the people of Nicaragua was one of the reasons I chose to book through them.

Back in Managua I checked into my hotel and found a nice steakhouse to eat at for dinner.

My accommodations:

Lost Inn Managua – Planes de Altamira 1, 14034, Managua, Nicaragua

Book it here

Day 5: FLY HOME 😦

The morning of my last day I had a tasty breakfast provided by the hostel free of charge then went to the airport to catch my flight back to New York.

I hope you enjoyed my Nicaragua blog! I definitely recommend checking out Nicaragua. There’s so much more to see than what I saw but 5 days is a perfect amount of time there.

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