El Hoyo Backpacking Trek
Anyone who visits León, Nicaragua should book an adventure through Quetzaltrekkers León. Their el Hoyo backpacking trek was one of the best travel experiences I’ve ever had, and I would highly recommend them to anyone who wants adventure, beautiful views, and time spent with good people.
After backpacking the epic W Trek in Torres del Paine, Patagonia, my life was changed. I knew that I would try my hardest to include adventures like this in my future travels abroad. When my boyfriend and I booked cheap Southwest flights to Costa Rica, we began researching nearby countries and our adventure options. Luckily, I stumbled upon Quetzaltrekkers León. Volcano boarding AND an overnight backpacking trip on a volcano? AND profits go to kids in Nicaragua? I couldn’t have possibly been more sold.
Quetzaltrekkers León
Quetzaltrekkers is a fantastic non-profit that helps disadvantaged youth in Nicaragua. I went on and on about how great they are in another post.
Quetzaltrekkers offers day hikes (including volcano boarding), 2 day hikes, and 3 day hikes. Explore their website to see if one of their other treks sparks your interest, but for us, the 2 day Volcan el Hoyo backpacking trek seemed perfect. You get to volcano board down Cerro Negro, put your packs on, and journey up to el Hoyo. You get 3 volcanoes and a crater lake swim packed into 2 days. It was AMAZING.
The Pre-Hike Details
Use the Quetzaltrekkers website to book your hike. They update the dates of their hikes around 2 weeks in advance, which gave us a little anxiety that they wouldn’t offer the hike on the days we were in León. If you email them, though, they say that they can try to book hikes by request. The Volcan el Hoyo hike was luckily scheduled for when we needed. Email communication with them was quick and friendly.
They ask that you come to their office the day before your hike to pay for and secure your spot. Our flights changed and we were unable to get to the office the day before. They were really nice about it and said we could pay the morning of. They asked that if we were to cancel our hike that we donate the cost of the hike to the kids, which let me know they really stick to their purpose.
The cost of the trip is $69. This includes volcano boarding (which is usually $30 on its own), transportation, guides, good company, camping gear if you need it, breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the first day, and breakfast and lunch on the 2nd day. And snacks.
Finding the Quetzaltrekkers Office in Leon
Quetzaltrekkers is centrally located in Leon. It seemed very walkable from any of the hostels. Taxis are also readily available if you don’t want to add extra walking to your 2 days of walking. You’ll quickly learn that Nicaragua does not really do addresses. When you GoogleMap Quetzaltrekkers León, the address is 3 blocks North, ½ block West of Iglesia La Merced, which is hilarious and pretty meaningless to me. If you use the maps.me app or ask at your hostel or just look out for the signs, I promise you will easily find them. They are near the corner of 2da Av. NO and 3rd Calle NO.
Standing outside Quetzaltrekkers the morning of our hike
The morning of your trek
You show up to their office at 7am, fill your backpacks with 8 liters of water, food or tent (all provided, split between people), sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and your personal items. I suggest bringing a change of clothes, sunscreen, toothbrush & toothpaste, a swimsuit, towel if you want, headlamp, sunglasses, rain jacket, a bandana to cover your face while volcano boarding, camera, and whatever else you need. It’s only 1 night, and you have to carry the weight. Pack light. They do provide sleeping bags, but I would highly suggest bringing a liner or your own bag. Mine was a bit smelly. 🙂
Your guides cook breakfast for you before you leave, and you get to meet your fellow hikers. As we did introductions and started joking with one another, someone said, “well, it seems like we have a good group for this!” They were right. Doing something so out of the ordinary with a bunch of strangers from all over the world is refreshing. I truly enjoyed getting to know everyone.
And Luna! They have an adorable dog that lives with them, and if everyone on your trek votes to bring her along, you get an extra awesome companion. She went from being a street dog to living the best life.
Little Luna!
The el Hoyo backpacking trek begins
An hour bus ride takes you to the Cerro Negro hike and volcano boarding. You get to carry your board past craters, black ash, and beautiful scenery to reach the top. Then the fun begins. Suit up and fly down the side of Cerro Negro. It feels like Mother Nature purposely made it this way to exhilarate humans.
Your adrenaline is pumping, but this will quickly be replaced by utter exhaustion while carrying heavy packs up the volcano. I’m all about honesty on this blog, and this hike was freaking hard. My boyfriend, Kyle had never been backpacking before, and I probably should have picked an easier trip for his first. It is A LOT of uphill. Depending on when you go, it can be really sunny and hot. And the packs. Gosh, they were heavy. The water alone weighed almost 18lbs. My pack felt like it weighed 60lbs (but going with my honesty, it probably weighed 45).
Thankfully, your guides and group will take breaks. It gets easier after the first hour. You will get delicious lunch, hopefully the cream cheese, veggie, life-saving baguette that we were fed. I kept repeating, “You are hiking through the Nicaraguan wilderness right now. How f-ing cool is that?” in my head, and this seemed to propel me forward. It is doable. I have yet to go backpacking and finish thinking it was easy. But there are reasons I keep backpacking. The main one being the reward once I reach my destination.
Reaching the top
Oh, it’s all so worth it.
You reach the top and catch views of Momotombo volcano and Lake Managua. It was breathtaking. After setting up tents and snacking again (I am all about the snacks), you hike farther up to look at “the hole,” the weird, crater looking hole that no one is entirely sure how or why it exists, and catch the sunset. My eyes well up a little thinking about that sunset. It was perfect.
THIS SUNSET.
A little about the guides: Pim and Femka were both Dutch. They were volunteering and traveling. They were funny, informative, and patient; and they both clearly love life. They were very organized, knew the trails, and kept good spirits the entire time. And they fed us. I love anyone who gives me food.
Pim cooked a ton of pasta while we did our sunset hike. We sat around the fire, ate too much, told stories, and talked about future adventures we hope to do. Being around other travelers with such different experiences is always inspiring.
(For those of you who worry about where and when you go to the bathroom on trips like this – They provide a “shit kit” with a shovel and toilet paper. And if you need to pee during the hike, just walk a bit into the woods. It’s always better in nature anyways.)
Your campsites by “the hole”
Day 2
You will want to wake up early to catch the sunrise on Momotombo volcano. I guess it is normally a more brilliant sunrise than what we experienced, but I couldn’t complain after the sunset we were treated to the night before.
After a hearty breakfast and taking down camp, you begin your hike down. I say “down,” but it was still difficult. Day 2 has 2 destinations. The first is a colorful crater lake, surrounded by trees. It was SO refreshing after 2 days of sweaty hiking. We swam and had lunch. As we were packing up, a dozen cows appeared from the trail, coming toward us. As we all watched, they walked into the lake and proceeded to pee and poop directly into the water we had just been so “refreshed” by.
Don’t let this deter you. I’d swim in it again if given the chance.
The crater lake that you get to swim in
The second destination is a shower, a bed, and (for us) some celebratory beers. A 1 hour hike and a couple chicken bus rides and you get to wash away the dirt and sweat, take a nap, and, if you liked your fellow hikers, hopefully meet up with them later that night in León.
For more backpacking inspiration, check out the 10 Best Bucket List Backpacking Trip Ideas.
This was my first time doing an organized backpacking trip, and I 100% recommend it. Quetzaltrekkers did an excellent job. They even give you a free shirt at the end. Snacks and free shirts? What are you waiting for? Book the el Hoyo backpacking trek with them and enjoy your adventure.
It looks like you had perfect weather for this trip! Do you do any other hikes in Nicaragua?
We did! Unfortunately, we only had a few days in Nicaragua, so we only had time for the 2 day hike. I would love to go back someday and do more hiking; it was such a beautiful place.