Regan and I left El Tunco early in the A.M. and still under the influence. I revived myself with a much needed detox smoothie and fortunately my travel buds allowed me to take shot-gun in our mini-van for the 10 hour ride. At this point in time, Regan and I were on the road with our friend Ieuan (pronounced Yayan) from Whales and he soon gained the nickname of "little brother" for all his "brother-like" tendencies, both good and...yeah.
It was easy enough to get out of El Salvador; paved windy roads brought us along the coast and eventually navigated inward towards the boarder of Honduras. The beneficial thing about this particular bus was that 1) it had Wifi so it was a good time for business if you had a laptop or iphone 2) AC = AWESOME and 3) the driver of the van took care of everyone's boarder crossings meaning, we just handed him our passports and boarder fees and chilled in the van while he sorted everything out. The bus fare for this trip is slightly more expensive for this reason, but it is easier for him and easier for us as boarder crossings can be spread out and confusing for non-native Spanish speakers now and again.
10 hours later, we were parked outside Bigfoot Hostel in Leon, and man were we stoked to check in and get a drink at the hostel bar! After a late order for pizza and a few brews, the day of traveling, and a hangover that sent me back to my college days, it was official that the day had kicked our ass and so we hit the hay and slept like babies.
The next week was culture and Mayhem, all rolled up into this detailed summary of events:
Sunday- Cock Fights: For $12USD, you get round trip transport, open-bar and a tutorial from the guide on Nicaraguan cock fighting. Now, I know some of you readers are not in support of seeing this, totally cool. I went back and forth morally about this and I still do, however for me it was a different way to see a part of Nica culture and gave me a more well-rounded view of local life down here. I also believed that judging this without having a better understanding of it would not be cool for me personally so I made moves to educate myself. Overall, I'm glad I learned about it, there's a lot more behind this than people know.
Monday- Kind of a chill day in Leon for us. Our buddy Ieuan took us around Leon, giving us the tourist tour of the city ("this bar is good" or "best street food is right here" etc.). We did some errands and shopped, and after building up a sweat - this city gets HOTT - went for an ice cream and played a little air-hockey where I proceeded to kick everyones ass. Thanks dad- for making me such a good air-hockey player.
Tuesday- Volcano Boarding. I'm Sorry, I meant VOLCANO BOARDING!! What an epic day! While all you kids where chillin' out in the snow (no pun intended) we were getting our sweat on hiking up the active volcano known as Cerro Negro, where some people have hit speeds of up to 90km/hr. LOCO! *** If you go, I would suggest acquiring a bandana you can rip in two, and tie the ankles of your suit tight to you, so that your legs don't get torn up by the volcanic rocks. Bigfoot hostel ends your tour with beer, cookies and mojitos :) What could be better?!
Wednesday- Leon does it big for 'El Classico' the annual match(es) between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. We got some drinks in and watched the game at a popular sports bar with a massive projector screen and plenty of crazy locals in support of both sides. 1-1 result and an afternoon followed by more drinks... :)
Oh Leon, layin' it on us every day and night. Regan will let you in on the rest of our crazy week.
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