Nicaragua

From Los Naranjos in Honduras to León in Nicaragua is around 450km. For us, this would be a mammoth day-long trek, beginning at 6am and taking in 5 buses, 2 taxis and a border crossing, before finally arriving at 7.30PM exhausted and hungry. After a good night's sleep, we set about exploring León. It's an interesting city and the guidebook description of 'faded grandeur' probably sums it up best. There are churches aplenty, many of them colourful and bright, but all of the buildings are in the early stages of decay, with crumbling plaster and flaking paintwork. After spending a morning wandering the streets, we are left with the sense that this was once a really beautiful city, but it's definitely in dire need of some work today.

Faded León

By far the best thing we did in Nicaragua was volcano boarding. It's a simple idea: take a wooden sledge, carry it up a volcano and slide it back down. What they don't tell you during the sales pitch is the searing heat during the 2-hour climb, the fact that the slope runs at a 41° angle and includes a vertical drop, or that it's made up of tiny volcanic rocks, which are liable to hurt you when you career off your sledge at high speed. Nevertheless, it was fantastic fun. Ali, despite a wipeout halfway down, clocked a respectable 35mph during his descent, while Babs quite possible broke the record for the slowest finish, though she blames that on a faulty board. Women drivers, eh? And to make the whole experience that little bit more exciting, there are drinking games throughout. In fact, one of Nicaragua's enduring lessons will be how to win a game of 'tip cup'.

Speed demon!

After a fairly action-packed day and night, we were in need of a little relaxation, so the following morning we hopped on a bus to Las Peñitas, a sleepy fishing village about an hour from León on the Pacific coast. It's a lovely little place with a small collection of bars and restaurants along the beachfront. We spent the day here sunbathing, relaxing in hammocks and collecting some of the shells scattered down the beach. After watching a stunning sunset from one of the bars, we caught the last bus back to León and went for one last meal before leaving the next day. We felt like treating ourselves a little, so went to a highly-recommended italian, which was absolutely amazing. Even Ali, who is as fussy as they come about italian food, was impressed. It was a great way to end our stay in León.

Las Peñitas

The following day we caught the 2-hour bus journey to Granada, another old city located further inland on the shores of Lake Nicaragua. Granada is a lot like León in terms of architecture and atmosphere, but here a lot of effort has been invested to restore a lot of the old buildings. The result is a much more impressive city, where lots of cafes, bars and restaurants are housed in grand colonial buildings. The best example we found is the aptly-named Garden Cafe. It's a great little place with a back courtyard of little tables and hammocks arranged around a lush garden. The sandwiches here were amazing too and, with a little library in another room, it's easy to see why we kept going back! Our hostel in Granada was a somewhat odd place. It had lots of good points, like a large kitchen, free PCs with internet and even a small pool to cool off in. But it also attracted more than a few weirdos, including one vet who claimed to have contracted almost every known disease and a young American with a fear of everything foreign (which begs the question, why come to Nicaragua?!).

Tip Cup carnage

After a few days of sightseeing and avoiding the weirdos, we decided to catch the weekly boat across Lake Nicaragua. The fact that this boat takes 14 hours to cross the lake should give you some sense of its size. It was a reasonably comfortable journey, punctuated by 2 unexpected events: first, the screening of a horror film about killer farmyard animals - it was a serious gore-fest, like The Evil Dead meets Emmerdale - and a little strange for an overnight ferry; second, the theft of our ipod cable after loaning it to another passenger to let him charge his ipod - it would mean $10 for a replacement but, more than that, left a poor impression of Nicaraguan honesty.

Granada

The ferry took us to San Carlos on the opposite side of the lake, but we waited only a couple of hours before catching another boat to our final destination, El Castillo, a tiny village 2 hours down the Rio San Juan from San Carlos. It's a tiny little place made up of one main street and an old Spanish fort on the hill overlooking the village. We only stayed one night here, mostly because we could see all the place had to offer within a few hours. We also had one of our 'lost in translation' moments when ordering a meal, which left us with a $17 bill for a whole chicken. The young girl serving clearly thought we were millionaires by ordering such an extravagant dish, though perhaps the presence of the family 'vampire-cat' during our meal was intended to make sure we didn't do a runner. We did have a lovely room overlooking the river though, where we spent the remainder of the evening on the balcony with a few beers, digesting the meat and the bill.

Vampire cat

The next morning we set off on the return journey up the Rio San Juan to San Carlos. We left in darkness and, as the light dawned, we were enveloped in a deep mist. It was errie to see trees, huts and small wooden jettys drift into focus and back out again as we motored by. Three hundred years before us, Horatio Nelson made a similar journey up the river to conquer the fort at El Castillo. Like a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean, it's easy to imagine his ship quietly sailing towards the unsuspecting village, shrouded in mist, before launching a surprise attack. Thankfully, our particular voyage was free from pirates and we reached safe harbour back in San Carlos. A quick and pleasant breakfast followed before we moved on to the dock, where we wait looking forward to the river crossing to Costa Rica.