The active Cerro Negro in Nicaragua is just 728 meters high but sliding down its ash-covered slopes on a board is a thrill that allows participants to say they have surfed a volcano. "It is a unique experience," says Ana Muller, a German tourist who enjoyed the "adrenaline." The Cerro Negro is a boon for tourism in a country that has been hammered by a political crisis sparked in 2018 by the brutal repression of street protesters and exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES