One of the churches around León
The main cathedral in the center of León
The political caricature
Another part of the huge cathedral
Yet another church in León
The
market and thrift shops (bada bada badadaba bada bada badaba…cue Macklemore)
were mainly closed save for this one store that was pretty cool (cheap clothes
at like $1-2 and a bit more for jackets and shoes) and the lady running the
place was quite friendly. She talked to us for quite some time about all manner
of topics ranging from Gringos down in Nicaragua to climbing the Telica volcano
to serpents to how she prefers the smaller mountain near León because she can
actually climb that one. I saw this cool daddy shirt for 50 Cord (about $2),
but I wasn’t super convinced to buy it based on that price, so we chatter on
with lady until she was closing and then I asked what the minimum price I could
pay was (ended up being 40 Cord). Bam! So I bought the black long sleeve daddy
shirt and walked happily back toward Quetzal Trekkers with Kasper and we passed
several other churches along the way. Another interesting experience was buying
Coka Cola from a street front vendor and he asked us to drink the Coke there as
he wanted the deposit of the bottles (5 Cord each), but we were happy to do
that. Initially we were thinking of having them put the Coke in a bag with ice
but we decided against that, so we got change for the Cokes (12 Cord from a 20)
but I only got 8, so I had to politely ask for 4 more Cord because they had
shorted me the money (which would’ve paid for the bag and luckily they were
friendly enough that I was able to get my change back). The store owners were an
older couple with apparently 3 daughters (which the dad was lamenting and joking
how the boys flow through the house).After this Kasper and I tried to find some
food on one of the streets (after looking at the main Cathedral and square of
León. Success was had as we found a pizza/Italian place on one of the streets
(I’ve noticed that there are a ton of Italian places around Nicaragua
(literally tons (more than I can count))). I bought his chicken bake del Sur
jawn with actual Ranch dressing to dip into (so tasty) and for only 55 Cord!
Evan joined us (as he was travelling from Matagalpa to meet us for the hike
later that night). After some chilling at the Italian place, the three
musketeers (Kasper, Evan and I) returned to Quetzal trekkers to drop our bags
and head out to check out the street of bars and clubs (as we still had like an
hour until we had to be back for dinner). Kasper passed out in a hammock at QT
(and I don’t blame him) so just Evan and I headed out. A side note here about
QT: QT is a non-profit group dedicated to providing support for local
development and education programs for troubled and more poor kids in León
(through programs such as after school help, a mobile library (book bike
mobile), vocational skills training and other mentoring programs). QT is also
run by a group of dedicated volunteers (from such places as Germany, the US and
Canada) who volunteer for a minimum of 3 months to help the programs or to help
with tour guiding (which brings in the money for the program support and for
scholarships they offer too). Basically I whole-heartedly support this group. I
cannot speak enough about them (check them out online!) and if you find
yourself in León and want to do an overnight, multiday hike or volcano boarding
swimming and hiking experience check them out! The volunteers are super
friendly and so helpful (I even met one guy who works there with his wife (his
name is Brock and her name is Heather) who is from Bend Oregon of all places!
Such a small world! I’ve actually met quite a number of folks from Oregon; it’s
quite fascinating and makes me proud to be an Oregonian (represent!). Anyways,
QT has the hiking and tour guiding and the programs and runs the hostel there
too. The whole place has this relaxed, chill, inviting, down-to-Earth, organic
and hardworking atmosphere reminiscent of a mixture of So Cal and Bend. Whew! I
love the QT group and I really want to help them out in the future somehow (so
I’ll be back Nicaragua!).
The chicken bake del sur
Evan
and I headed out to check out the bars and clubs (just a reminder that I do not
drink, but I still go to the bars to see them and hang with peeps). On the way
I saw this Red Green inspired tour bus (with the whole roof chopped off (except
the back door and windshield) to allow for 180 viewing vertically as well as
360 horizontally). Also Evan and I picked up this guy in a wheelchair who was
in the street and put him on the sidewalk (over the steep curb) because the bus
was trying to eek past him in the crowded street (and the only thing he did was
start making sounds like aungrh and then got out of his chair and sat on the
sidewalk) (we thought that was minimally helpful and pressed on (turns out
later he was asleep on the sidewalk, so we felt good he was there as opposed to
the street)). The street with the bars was hoping in some places with this one
club open on a Sunday night (? Why?), but Evan and I checked out this placed
called Barbaro (in the guide book it was two words), which had this awesome
medieval feel to it with high ceilings and castle buttress like supports in
some places. I ordered a green tea (which they had none of) so I had to switch
to a raspberry tea (which was still quite refreshing). The drink list here was
so long (like 6-8 pages) in addition to several pages of pasta, pizza and
Italian foods in addition to steaks etc. One interesting note on the drinks was
that the place actually sold Champagne (classy!) and had this $339 bottle of
whiskey too (as well as a plethora of oddly named mixed drinks (Kamikaze was in
there, but no Buttery Nipples (I know the drink names from LMFAO’s song
Shots)). After that Evan and I checked out the club (basically just asked how
much it was (50 cord) and then left for QT (to have dinner at 9:30 PM). By this
point of the night, QT was starting to have quite a few more people in it (as
45 people total (a record for the full moon hike (which cost 45 well-spent
dollars)) and Brock was cooking coffee in a pot over the fire and stirring it
with a machete (the only true way to brew coffee (take note Starbucks)). The
dinner was a serving of shells, elbows and other pasta with a salad and a homemade
meat sauce for the pasta (so delish). Also I must confess that I indulged in
two cups of coffee from the gigantic cooler (which kept the coffee hot (that is
why I suppose English can be difficult to learn)) (I never drink coffee in the
states). Anyways it was some black-straight-up-no-sugar-no-cream coffee from
America that thrashed around my body imparting a massive wave of energy (so
much that after two cups of the stuff I was rocking in the hammock without
trying to) (in my original notes from the day (as I only brought paper to León
to write on for my journal) one can observe a noticeable shift in my
handwriting after having those two cups of coffee and I start scribbling and
was really wired on that caffeine). The dinner was also tasty enough to warrant
seconds. Also during this time, Kasper, Evan and I spoke to this chick from
Norway named Monica about her life and whatnot. I then packed up my gear and 5
L of water for the trip and we all left around like 11 PM for the base of the
Telica hike.
The gates to start the hike up Telica
Early morning haze atop Telica
The early morning at the Telica crater
The super moon setting behind the Telica crater
The path leading up to the Telica crater
The Telica crater
The
trip to the base of the mountain was gnarly because we were riding in the back
of trucks (army style with the top and just benches in the back) and I kept
thinking we could be going to do an epic night raid or something (or a hike, as
that’s equally plausible). The hike actually commenced around 11:30 PM after a
quick talk about safety and the guides who were carrying the different
resources (bathroom kit and supplies etc). Unfortunately for us, the night of
the hike was actually somewhat cloudy; mostly obscuring the super moon (the
largest moon in 2013), but still allowing a decent amount of light to percolate
to the ground (not enough to be super helpful, but enough to occasionally walk
without a headlamp light). The trip was already pretty good as it was cool and
I had my headlamp and hat on (ready to take on the hike which was supposed to
take until 9 AM the next morning (without sleep too (best reason for an
all-nighter ever))). I was walking at a decent pace and would occasionally pass
others (as the path was wide enough in some cases to facilitate a down-shift
and slingshot maneuver). There was one guide (named K up front (not Tommy Lee
Jones) from Canada) and one in the middle with another in the back (don’t
remember their names -.-). Anyways the group was actually hiking pretty quickly
as the first part of the hike was more or less over rolling farm hills and
across a planted crop field or two to reach the base of Telica. The hiking was
pretty sick as the light would illuminate just enough to avoid the rocks and
roots strewn across the trail (a good trail though, no issues with it, despite
for the occasional loose dirt area causing a minor slide). I was doing pretty
well (rolling with my headlamp and LED flashlight (one use of the multitude of
Harbor Freight lights we have)) until the danged bulb in the headlamp (still
old school with filaments *shudder shudder*) blew out, leaving me in the dark
(with quite a bit more hiking to do). Given that I was in the middle of
nowhere, I pulled out the broken backpack rubber cord (for tightening the front
part) that I had kept and tied my Harbor Freight limited edition LED flashlight
on the headlamp and continued on without issue (this put me at the back of the
group though and I spoke to the woman at the back and met Sam (another one of
the volunteers at QT who was taking his dog up the hike too)). Not too much
later, we came upon a huge field (where we stopped in between several huge
ridges to admire the hills and Telica rising up off in the distance through smoke
and clouds in the moonlight radiating through the clouds (this was around 1:15
AM). We regrouped and pressed on; anticipating the ascent of Telica. Probably
about an hour later we stopped under this tree and had snacks consisting of
Tang (and brandless Tang), carrots and epic trail mix. We chilled here for
close to 20 minutes and watered up (and realized that Kasper had gotten to ride
a horse partially up the trail (what a pro)). We then set off again and the
trail took a turn for the uphill. The trail was more switchbacks and dense
forest cover as we started plowing through the forests covering Telica’s sides.
At this point I had lent my flashlight to another woman on the trip who didn’t
have anything to light the path (and I pulled out the trusty Claro phone with
the blinding “lantern” feature (which would light up a bright white LED on the
bottom of the phone case to see) and began using that to climb with). The Claro
light actually worked really well. Around like 3 AM we rolled up to the last
slope before the valley below the crater (the crater was above a small valley
between two larger peaks). As we waited for the group, we lamented the hike a
bit (I was feeling still pretty good from that coffee and didn’t really have
any complaints). The last bit up to the valley wasn’t a challenge: save for the
occasional small rocks that would loosen and tumble a foot or so. It was 3:30
AM when we reached the valley and had to walk through a camp or two with people
in tents sleeping to reach a small fire pit. By this point of the night, my
t-shirt had been thoroughly soaked from walking for like 4 hours and I was
happy to change into that daddy shirt with the wind blowing up in the valley.
The fire we started was pretty small, but appreciated as it helped to stave off
the cold (maybe around like 50 degrees?). At this point the group also took a
sandwich break to eat the cream cheese and bread sandwiches the QT volunteers
had prepared for the hike (2 sandwiches a person). There were also tomatoes and
zucchini that could be added to the sandwich (from a designated veggie bin as
to avoid making the sandwich soggy) and this made quite the delectable
sandwich. I also made an adventure of going to the bathroom as I travelled
pretty far from the group and then found bones of dead cattle on my way back
(normal things for me I suppose) and there were also wild horses milling around
the valley (maybe they were owned, who knows). At around 4 AM, we did the
little hike more to reach the crater with the lava in it (by this point, the
moon had come out a bit more and was a huge white disc suspended above the
crater spewing sulfur gas). The crater was huge. Just basically a gigantic
seemingly infinite pit down into white gas. The guides told us to approach the
crater on with caution (as even though we had to stay between the two safety
rocks (where the seismic activity was less)) as the ledge could be unstable. So
some of us crawled to the edge to peer over into the white gas and we could
hear the roiling and boiling of the gas and lava in the crater. The sulfur was
in rare form and was pretty strong, although it started to get a bit better
after the wind started blowing. It was too dark for any sort of photography at
this point. All of a sudden out of the white gas appeared very distant lines of
red trickling around. LAVA! Ladies and gentlemen this was some legit LAVA! Not
that cooled lava rock, but actual molten rock so hot it glowed (now this was
pretty far from us (as the drop below the lip of the crater was an initial drop
of 200 meters followed up by a more substantial drop)). It was epic and made
the trip totally worth it! The lava would appear and disappear back into the
gas and we managed to see the lava upwards of 5 or 6 times (sometimes for like
15 or 20 seconds at a time). It was truly awe-inspiring (as was lying on the
lip of this enormous crater).
Super moon and Telica crater spewing sulfur
Who's that dude? (sporting my newly acquired daddy shirt)
The 3 Musketeers atop Telica (Kasper (center), Evan (right))
Watching the sunrise
Kasper watching the sunrise
The sunrise atop the Telica crater
After
about 20 or 25 minutes at the lip of the crater, we decided to head to the
other smaller peak to watch the sunrise as it was approaching 5 AM. The early
morning light immediately prior to the sunrise was this WWI-esque haze from the
smoke and clouds and the moon (which was still bright as ever). The sunrise was
incredible (although it was pretty shrouded in clouds -.-), but we could see
the sun come up over the horizon and light up the path we’d trekked up the
volcano. It also illuminated the hill we were standing on and showing this
intense view of the surrounding fields and hillsides (absolutely epic and not
describable through words). The moon also was setting directly behind the
smoldering crater (and was incredibly picturesque with the contrast between the
new day and the beautiful views and the old ancient night and active crater.
The sun couldn’t completely break (initially) through the clouds which was
somewhat disappointing. Also during this time it was another sandwich break and
I had two more sandwiches (the other I hadn’t eaten earlier and a spare (from a
mess of extras)). I also decided to talk a walk down the hill and sit down on
this rock and take in the valley. I cannot describe the feeling on being
perched on that rock and looking off into the hills below. It was akin to
seeing infinity and beauty all rolled into one lush green backdrop for this
frothing crater. The walk down was in many ways an eye-opener for what we had
accomplished (seeing the brightly lit terrain and what we climbed in the dark
was impressive). The way down was also adorned with forest and an explosion of
green in every direction. We stopped several times on the way down because the
group became more dispersed (as some folks were quite anxious to finish the
hike as it was getting close to 7 AM). For whatever reason I ended up in the
front until I decided to start being creative and take photos of everything,
but no regrets on that one. Somewhat near the entrance to the mountain were
these cool bubbling mud pits (super-heated mud bubbling and popping in the
cracked ground (it was like Yellowstone, except we could walk right up to the
pits (just don’t fall in))). Anyways, we “finished” the hike back at the
entrance around 9 AM (and the walk across all the rolling fields and hills had
been quite the taxing walk in the blazing sun after the long night). So all in
all, the entire trip took about 9.5 hours and took up the entire night without
sleep (but I have absolutely no qualms about that as I thoroughly enjoyed every
second of it). We waited for the trucks and the rest of the group to finish the
hike. Tom and Lindsey were some of the last folks to finish the hike and Tom
said Lindsey was “an absolute delight” to have along for the hike (I can
imagine as she was probably complaining quite a bit and throwing insults around
(judging by how well she did with Concepción)). Everyone on the trip was tired
(even the guides) and we were quite happy when the trucks arrived and we headed
back to QT in waves. 
Found in a field at the base of Telica (near the mud pots)
The mud pots at the base of Telica
A turkey in Nicaragua?
Unimog for the win!
Back at QTHQ breakfast was oatmeal
and granola with bananas and papaya and some melon with real milk! It was a
solid breakfast to make up for the epic hike, but I had hoped for eggs and
whatnot (but the oatmeal and granola was filling after several bowls). At this
point it was around 10 AM or so and I talked to K about QT and the programs and
how to become involved. After that we journeyed out after saying our goodbyes
to the Norwegian chicks and the QT folks (got a free QT t-shirt too!). We
managed to eventually reach the bus station and head back towards Managua
(after I had gotten separated from Kasper and Evan and I had ducked on their bus
right as it was pulling out) (the coffee I had in the morning with breakfast
did not help keep me awake and I became temporarily narcoleptic on the bus
back). The ride wasn’t bad, but we ended up at the wrong bus station and had to
take a taxi close to the other bus station and then walk through the rain to
the road to hail a bus for Granada (on the way we ended up in an intersection
and I looked at another bus driver’s face, made eye contact and he made a face
like he had no idea what was happening (it was hilarious)). On the bus to
Granada I ended up talking to another set of Mormons down here for a mission
trip. The woman was pretty young (mid 20s probably) and from the US. She first
asked if I knew about the Mormons and had to tell myself not to mention the
Book of Mormon (the Broadway show). I was so dirty and tired when I got back to
the homestay that I basically just showered and then passed out for 3 hours. I
woke up for dinner and then went back to bed. Solid trip.
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