Granada, Nicaragua

Granada's cathedral

The 90 minute flight to Managua, Nicaragua's capital city, saved us an arduous 36 hour bus journey across El Salvador so we arrived with high expectations but it had a lot to live up to after our wonderful time in Guatemala.

An hour's taxi ride from the airport and we were in Granada, a lakeside town in the south of the country where the temperature was a very hot 90 plus degrees, in stark contrast to the cool evenings in the highlands of Guatemala where a light sweater draped over the shoulders was required.

First day and disaster struck as I managed to drop my treasured camera whilst it was in its case so I didn't really think anything of it until the following day when we realised that the screen had smashed. In addition, we just couldn't get anything organised and Granada itself was a lot edgier and seedier than we'd anticipated.

Still bumbling along in first gear, we managed to organise a trip to the top of Masaya volcano which was a stunning sight as we looked deep into the huge crater as the sun set. The guide unfortunately thought two minutes was enough and took us to a night market which was closed.

Masaya volcano's smoking crater

We hadn't planned to spend a third day in Granada but again Nicaragua was impersonating being closed. However, we managed to take a taxi to another volcano but this one was extinct. Handy though as its caldera is now a 4km wide fresh water lake, just a beautiful place to spend the afternoon swimming in its pristine water.

Tomorrow we try and move on to the coastal town of San Juan del Sur but who knows what might happen.