A Day of Adventure (Photo Blog)

After walking, taking a bus, and all piling into a taxi, we found a truck that could take us down the winding dirt roads to the entrance of Cerro Negro. We danced, sang, and laughed as we flew down the bumpy roads. We were so excited when we caught our first glimpse of Cerro Negro appearing in the distance.

We finally made it to the Welcome Center of Cerro Negro where we paid our entrance fees and received our instructions which were basically “Hike down this path until you reach the base of the volcano. Look for the side that’s lower to the ground at the base; you can climb up there. Once you get to the top you can surf or run down and then come back here the way you came.” Yes, only in foreign countries could you climb an active volcano with so little instruction and no guides.

We reached the base of Cerro Negro and looked up at the large black mountain. With clouds rolling in from the morning’s rain and blocking out all of the sunlit, Cerro Negro looked much more ominous then it actually is. We took a good look at the volcano and then the boys sprinted off towards the base ready to start the day’s adventure!

We found the area with the most gradual incline and begin to work our way up the mountain. The beginning is large pieces of rock to climb over, but as you progress up the volcano the terrain changes to a thick black sand.

There is a beautiful place to stop about halfway up that overlooks the surrounding mountains and valleys. I love the way this gorgeous lush green landscape contrasts with the rugged beauty of Cerro Negro. And I’m not going to lie, I liked having a moment to just sit and soak in God’s beauty. I discovered today that I’m really out of shape and that I really miss having my best friend, Steph, here in these types of adventures. My type of climbing is much more leisurely and includes a lot of picture taking and sitting and talking about how pretty God’s creation is. My youth, on the other hand, wanted to sprint straight to the top of the mountain.

Also on the way up you get a great view looking down into the volcano’s crater. Today it was impossible to tell what was steam rising up from the crater’s crevices and what were clouds that had rolled in with the day’s storm. Cerro Negro usually erupts about every 7 years and is actually overdue for another eruption which apparently here makes it the perfect destination to allow tourists to roam freely with no supervision.

We celebrated making it to the top and conquering Cerro Negro volcano! It was fun to be at the peak all together. However, the fog was so thick that it was impossible to see anything from the top which made me even more glad that I had stopped at that mid-way overlook to take in the view and get some good photos.

The fog not only made it impossible to see the surrounding views, but we also couldn’t see the bottom of the mountain or where we were supposed to surf/run down. Lindsay was the only one in our group that had been to Cerro Negro before so she begins to search for the slope of thick sand where we can run down the mountain. She finds an area of thick black sand and we all begin half running and half sliding down the incline. Super fun and a little scary not being able to see the bottom!

We realized about halfway down that this was not the right path to go down as the decent became increasingly more steep and the covered in a loose gravel rather than a thick sand. We ended up sliding part of the way down on our bums which was still fun, but painful (I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to sit comfortably for at least a week)!

Our adventure had finally come to an end. We walked back to the truck laughing as each person shared what it was like running and sliding down this mountain. We looked to see who was covered in the most dirt, had the most rocks in their shoes, etc. This is definitely a day that we will not soon forget! I’m so glad that I was able to share this adventure with Lindsay and some of our youth.