Getting in to Nicaragua entails braving what an American expat at the crossing described as "the worst border in central america". This basically means as a 1km slug across a muddy no-mans land full of trucks and hidden pot holes (I fell in one). At each end there is also the customary hidden immigration office and bizarrely complicated system for getting your passport stamped: you have to "tip" a lady outside for an entry card before handing all your documents to a vaguely official looking person who promptly disappears with them for half-an-hour and you're not quite sure where they've gone... Still we managed to complete it all with little hassle and Alice even picked up a little suitor along the way. A little boy selling trinkets made from palm leaves came up to ask her "does anybody love you?" and give her a heart shaped one for free. Maybe I should be worried about the competition out here!

First stop in Nicaragua was San Juan del Sur, apparently one of the top draws in the country and a great place for surfing. Unfortunately for us Nicaragua has been experiencing some of the worst weather in recent history and so the whole town was a bit damp and dreary. We did manage to take a trip to a local beach and go surfing for a day but the waves were so huge getting out to beyond the point they broke was such an effort we rarely managed it. We then decided to cut our losses and go to Isla de Ometepe, an island formed by two active volcanoes in the centre of a huge fresh water lake in the middle of Nicaragua. Getting to the island on a little ferry which was definately looking a bit the worse for wear we were disappointed to find that the island was also suffering from the current poor weather. The lake waters had risen and consequently swallowed up the supposedly lovely beaches, and a large mud slide closing the road to all but the most intrepid of taxi drivers almost prevented us from seeing more of the island than the main village. Still in the sunshine I imagine that it would be really nice as there are lots a hikes and nature reserves to visit.

All this was a bit depressing and so we thought that if we couldn't do beaches we would do culture instead. Civil war was sparked in the 1800s when two major cities, Granada and Leon, both wanted to be the capital of Nicaragua. We decided to visit both of them and see which we thought should have won (in reality neither did and the capital is now situated halfway between the two). Granada is at the north end of lake Nicaragua and so was our first stop. Its a charming little town very similar to Cartagena in architecture and cultural styles. It is also very heavily geared towards tourists and full of American expats and spanish schools. On our trips around the center we managed to pick up a scraggy stray dog that initially followed us around for no reason, and then ultimately ended up following us around because Alice couldn't resist feeding it. The fact that it kept getting chased out of every restaurant and shop we went into didn't seem to deter it one bit. Alice also took a day trip to a local village famous in the country for producing arts and crafts stuff. It turns out that the ideal of a cute gift out here is two taxidermy toads having sex...yeah. Leon is rather more run down than Granada but nonetheless is still quite an appealing city with lots of crumbling old churches and (cultural) graffiti thoughout the center. The hotel we're staying at also has free internet, a pool table and a lovely swimming pool to bribe us into liking the place. As the sun has returned we're definately thinking we made the right move getting up here so quickly!