What happens on the volcano, stays there

3 30 am! as if the wake up calls could get any earlier , well they can and they did! At 3 30 we were crawling out of bed and getting ready for out next adventure. At 4 we were at the tour guides office eating a breakfast very familiar to Canada. Our group was climbing the Volcano called Cerro Negro and our guides were two volunteers from Canada, Jake and Justin. Our breakfast was the first thing to get excited about, There was CRUNCHY peanut butter, bread, fruit and BOILED EGGS! they only thing i missed here was my handy dandy egg slicer!

Once about every piece of food was gobbled down we set out carrying 2 L of water as well as snacks for lunch. I'm not exactly sure what i was thinking when i signed up to climb this volcano . somehow it didn´t cross my mind that this would be difficult, that volcanoes are HaRD! No i thought because it´s a tourist attraction EVERYONE could do it , haha FALSE! Climbing Cerro Negro was the hardest thing i have ever don e by FAR. Just getting to the base of the friggen thing tired me out because we were walking on volcanic ash and sand. One step forward and two steps back. Climbing CN was a challenge from beginning to end, but 100 percent worth it. It was boiling hot coupled with a heavy day pack added more of a challenge, how ever once we made it to the top it felt like such an accomplishment and the view was incredible. The whole way up my body was screaming WHY WHY WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME! It was a continuous mind vs body challenge, but with the support of our tour guides i managed to drag my sorry butt up to the top. Making it to the top had me thinking the tough part was over , getting down was less physically demanding however it was TERRIFYING. Jake and Justin encouraged us to RUN DOWN. okay, run down the side of a volcano, are you kidding me? I was hoping maybe if i clicked my heals a little bit and wished really hard i would end up a the bottom. As I started walking down lots of loose rock would give away doing nothing for my comfort level so i thought i would be safer going down on my butt. (this isn´t an option for a reason) I went down on my butt for about half of the way and with a sore toush i thought I should walk the rest of the way. Well volcano rocks proved to be tougher than my pants and not only did I end up with a gigantic hole, I also left half by butt on Cerro Negro! - hello polysporn!

All ki dd ing aside this weekend was amazing . we got to experience a different region of nicaragua pampering ourselves a little and chall enging ourselves a lot. When we finally got back to Esteli sunday night i was plus 3 blisters, minus 1 pair of pants, red as a tomato and smelling like volcanic rock. - a beautiful terrifying exhausting weekend ? check!

peace