Hadnt realised I hadnt updated my blog in a month. Been having far too much fun so i guess a valid reason! probably will forget a lot. so last one i left it at waiting for kerry to retrieve her card from the ATM which took forever from Saturday til Tuesday afternoon. Theyre so slow in central america! Well they call it chilled! So meanwhile Id stayed on Ometepe. I had become good friends with the guy who rented me the ATV and gave me a riding lesson on his bike, Robinson. We had been hanging out a lot and riding around on his bike etc. Just literally chilled for the extra days there then on Wednesday i took the ferry to meet up with Kerry and get on our way up north of Nicaragua, Leon. Finally on route, we passed through Managua and made it late afternoon in the city of Leon. We spent the first few days in Leon checking out the famous sights, such as the largest cathedral in central america, and finding Spanish schools and switching hostels. We chose a school and got enrolled for the monday, and organished a homestay.

In our hostel there were 2 of the most interesting backpackers ive met so far. Amber a 9 year old girl and her mother Tanya originally from Zimbabwe. So interesting, Amber adopted me and Kerry as her best friends for the 3 days we were at the hostel together. We played mermaids in the swimming pool, discussed her imaginery future and taught her how to play pool. Was so refreshing. She had never been in school for a long period of time, and was homeschooled, shes bilingual and the most mature 9 year old i have ever met but with a very childish playfulness. Such a contradiction how one minute youd think she was 16 years old the next she wants to play mermaids!

Sunday afternoon I moved in with a Nicaraguan family. Mi mama was called Coquito and she has 3 children but grown up. Eldest son Alejandro lives and works in Managua with Pharmacuticals and has his own car etc, doing well for himself, second is Marlen her daughter, 26years old been out of uni 1 year and is working in some religious job, not sure what but she lives in the house here, and youngest is Alvaro whose 23 and still studying in uni, lives at home, high expectations of him too. Coquito i later found out did have a husband but they are separated but he comes by every few days for food and chats etc. She kicked him out 7 years ago as like many central americans he was addicted to alcohol and was out of control so enough was enough. The house is actually a comedor and a tienda, (a cheaper, local restaurant selling typical Nicaraguan cuisine in the front of the house, and a shop) so i got to meet lots of people. and the food was great too. I love nicaraguan food more than any country so far. Tipico is Gallo Pinto (Rice and Beans) with fried cheese and meat of some sort and plantain. they like their fried chicken here. i loved living there, although my room was a sauna and my mattress was actually a thin bit of foam over wood so basically I was sleeping on wood!

Monday morning came and I began another week of Spanish school. This time i specifically asked for conversation and corrections of my speech. This was great for me and a real confidence booster as even though i havent had lessons since may i have picked up so much and was able to have 3 hours of conversation with my teacher and one hour of grammar everyday and check things i wasnt sure on. A lot of things make more sense now. My teacher is only 22 and her name is Kenda, very sweet girl but like most central americans, they have a very childish sense of humour and one of the things i will always remember is one day she needed to see how my reading of spanish was to grade me and i ended up reading her a tortoise and hare type of story thats famous here and she was falling around giggling at it! Made me laugh too that she was finding it so funny. Felt like i was reading a child a story at times!

Some nights Id come back from my classes and id have a 1 hour straight conversation with Coquito about life, love, relationships and religion, some topics i never thought i would ever be able to discuss in Spanish! It was tiring though!

I did a cooking class one day at a comedor with the teachers and we made Sopa de Queso (cheese soup) when i heard it was this i thought id misheard but actually it was amazing, not the kind of cheeses we have in england, very different tastes but it was delicious with huge chunks of vegetables and cheese tortillas, its a tradition usually only consumed during holy week Semana Santa. Another activity i took part in was going to Las Peñitas beach one afternoon with the teachers. Me and kerry just caught some rays though and barely spoke spanish! Nice beach however!

As soon as my homestay was over, I decided to go back to Ometepe for a few days to chill with Robinson and go to a hostel on a part of the island i missed last time. I left my bags with Coquito and off i went alone through nicaragua and managua too. Got there and had to call Coquito to let her know all was well and i had arrived safely!!! so amusing. I became part of the old expat group in Moyogalpa chatting, drinking tea and sitting outside the front of my hotel with the old man who runs it bob, putting the world to rights and watching the bikes ride by in the quiet streets. You can always tell when the ferry comes in cus Robinson rides by being annoying shouting HELLO MATE to me, then a hoard of people walk right past the hotel!

2 days in I went over to Santa Cruz, another part of the island where i had heard of a party hostel. OMG i loved it, everything wooden and so well made, plenty of hammocks and chill areas, good food cheap drinks and great atmosphere. First hostel i have fell in love with since Black Cat in Antigua Guatemala. The first day I spent with 2 american guys watching inbetweeners on their laptop, it was a great afternoon, then commenced the drinking at about 5. Still going at about 10 we were all a lil bit wasted and the owner Morgan got all angry with the pool table and threw a few very irish strops, throwing the cue across the room and kneeing the table. Reminded me of most British men throwing strops! was funny tho. So next day bad hangover and just sat in the hostel with the staff Richard and Beena. A policeman turned up at about 1 and wanted to be given money n beer for bribery. they do that here. greases the wheels if something happens with the hostel or morgan gets into trouble. So me and Rich sat with him and got him drunk on beers, i took a few sneaky photos of the copper with an AK47 getting wasted. the gun was fully loaded too. was like hmmm this is interesting. then the copper asked for my phone number and i pretended i didnt remember, little did i know this 60year old copper had been telling rich how beautiful i was when ihad gone to the loo! Amusing. He also told me about 4 times how his wife had died 8 months ago and he had 12 children but 4 died of various things so now he has 8. Strange. He left after about 2.5 hours of sitting with us!

Morgan arrived at 5 ish and saw i still was hanging from the night before and gave me rum and rapture an energy drink here on the house and promised my by the bottom i would be cured. I was DRUNK! so funny. still better than a bad headache.

A few people arrived that i knew from San Juan del Sur in the afternoon i managed renting out robinsons ATV and 2 dirtbikes for the next morning which made him a shed load of money! Robinson, his dad and others delivered the bikes at 11 in the morning and we watched as one of the aussies tried to learn to ride the dirtbike and immediately fell off into the trees! So funny. I hopped onto robinsons bike we wished them luck and we rode back to Moyogalpa where i decided i was serious about learning to ride a dirtbike. on the way back i had ridden Robinsons 220CC dirtbike but it was too tall for me so i was on tiptoes and couldnt support the weight of the bike so when i got back to town i rented a 125CC engine dirtbike and immediately felt so much easier. I rode off to a beach on my own and back and loved the wind in my hair. Didnt fall off either. Later that night Robinson came over to my hotel and we went for a ride, went about 12k out of town in the dark just riding and then back and i reached about 80km/h i think it was. sooooo sweet!!! I had the bike for 24 hours so next morning when the aussies broke the chain on the atv i rode out to meet them but i beat robinson there by about 5minutes even with stopping because it was torrential rain! theyd got it fixed by a local guy on the side of the road who ended up causing more problems by cutting the chain but oh well! Then robinson joined and we all rode the 18kms back to Moyogalpa, and i beat them all back, thats with overtaking, avoiding animals and heards of cows and in the rain. I was buzzing when i got back so fun. he called me up to tell me what an awesome rider i was, how much confidence i had and how he was so shocked at how fast i had mastered it! I couldnt keep off the bike so i went out of town on my own again and rode to the beach Jesus Maria for my last hour with the bike. When i got there i only stayed literally 10minutes. In that 10mins, people had come and gone and just as i left i was being naughty riding one handed whilst on the phone (on a dirt track not a road by the way) then had to slam on the breaks as a tree had just fallen blocking my path. id cut the phone off in order to stop the bike and then once i realised i had no way of passing thorugh i called Robinson and he and his dad came out about 20mns later and broke branches and everything that was blocking the road and i held a huge branch back bending so he could ride my bike through. It was a valid reason so i didnt get charged for the bike being half hour late!!! was so funny. 30seconds earlier and that wouldve landed on me.scary thought.

My birthday was 1 day away and i wanted to stay and party in morgans hostel on ometepe so i called kerry and she agreed to come to me.

On my birthday I woke up and went to internet to talk to mum and dad then went off to hire the ATV quad. A present i granted myself. Fun. I rode the 28kms to santa cruz got a bed for me and one for kerry then ate n headed back to Moyogalpa. So fun riding fast alone. Kerry missed the ferry by 10mins so she had an hour wait. i waited until 5pm then picked her up on the ATV and we stopped for some booze in the tienda and off we went. by the time we left it was 5:30 and getting dark. I had forgotten that the lights on the atv are as good as useless. it was stressful to say the least! I had 28kms to drive and i sped the first when i had light but i was still far away and the roads get really thin and windy and also with huge holes full of water and rocky roads too. i was dreading some areas more than others. just on the paved road was bad enough animals run out in front from nowhere. i followed a truck some of the way to use his lights but i kept getting grit in my eyes. also saw flashing blue n red lights n was really worried as my license was in Leon, luckily to police overtook me n went flying off. heart in mouth moment. well i had money to bribe them anyway, thats what robinson told me to do as i had forgotten my license! slip them a couple 100s and all is good. lol. it took us just over an hour to get back and really scary journey but we made it in one piece without breaking the ATV.

Saturday night my birthday i got ready and Robinson turned up with 2 american friends of his and me kerry and the guys all had some drinks, i smashed him at pool and we generally had a good night. when the guys left to go back to moyogalpa we drank a bit more, morgan gave me a rum n rapture on the house again and we went to sit in hammocks chatting til 4:30am, sobering up for the morning drive to town.

Next morning we went back to moyogalpa, and somehow got covered in horse poo along the way, somehow i was driving trying to avoid it but it was spraying anyway. so funny when i delivered the ATV at 11 and it and me was covered almost head to toe in poo. bet the sisters loved me for that as the men of the business were out in manauga buying another ATV.

Day after, Monday, me and kerry travelled back to Leon, I collected my bags from coquitos and we headed to a supernice hostel called tortuga booluda which is where i still am one week on. they have a kitchen, supernice staff, free pancake breakfast, computers, a pool table and great atmosphere. On my second day here the two americans with inbetweeners turned up and been hanging out a bit with them as kerrys been dedicated to studying and didnt go out. Been lovely to cook my own food. I went to coquitos for lunch one day and we had a good ole gossip and catchup. She was trying to set me up with her eldest son too which really made me laugh, her rolling off his good points.

There had been 2 tropical storms and a hurricane in Mexico which had caused such devastation in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras, during the time i had been on ometepe and when i returned the weather was bad. streets were rivers every day and rain did not stop. i realised the severity reading bbc news online and saw photos of salvador and guate. the bridge from honduras to nica had been washed away and you couldnt get here, lives were lost. homes disappeard, so many landslides and businesses gone too. The dog sanctuary in salvador where i worked was underwater and they evacuated most dogs to temporary homes but some remained with katty and georgi and when i spoke to her she was planning a full evac.

A few days with normal rainfall has helped and the storm is gone, however there is now talk of us expecting to be hit by a hurricane today or in the next few days. We will see. all the locals are talking about it.

Friday morning i finally got to climb Volcano Cerro Negro and surf down it. It was a hard hike and the sun was peering through the clouds so i got burnt but no problem as by today im ok, skin is used to the sun now so its browned my arms. Before surfing they took us into an area where the rocks are steaming with sulphur gases and smelt so bad we were all struggling to breathe when we had a group photo! we got to look into the crater which was so cool. i decided the risk of taking a camera was too high in terms of likelyhood to break so i didnt take it but regret it a lot now. some others took my email so i hope they come through with the photos for me. We got to the area we surf down and put on flourescent yellow jumpsuits and goggles and got on our boards. it was the first run since the rain so was fast. took about 1minute to get to the bottom and unlike most of the others, i didnt fall off my board. i think i got up to about 40km/h speed as i lent back and let the board take me until i began to cross over other paths and endedup creating a sideways path right near the bottom. was so fun though. and something not many can say theyve done. did it with a charity called Quetzaltrekkers which is totally non profit and all money goes to the children of leon, most are street kids with glue sniffing addictions. it was enlightening to learn about the work they do and such a good cause.

Kerrys spanish teacher was curious about the way i look as its so unusual for them to see here and now all the stares and comments i get make more sense now. she and the spanish teachers had been discussing it. Apparently black hair and blue eyes with pale skin is unseen and theyre thinking wow. explains a hell of a lot! still doesnt excuse the men of leon to be such animals. theyre insane and i have been grabbed in places i should not be grabbed on the street by a stranger and just walking 2 blocks men of all ages, cannot help but comment. i got called chelita and chela which means white girl and linda hermosa preciosa and mamacita which all basically means beautiful. they do it to all tourists but it has been noticed i get it more often. I HATE IT. they have no respect for women here. Latinos in Nicaragua live up to the latino rep of disrespectful cheaters!

Another interesting fact is the elections here are on Nov 4th and recently the political agenda for the parties has been crazy busy, but its mainly the current guy in power a sandanista guy called Daniel Ortega. He has power and bribery and brainwashing down to a tee. If the people who are supposed to support him show signs of disloyalty there are consequences from what ive heard, and he uses bribery and brainwashing by sending people round all day everyday with speakers playing popular english 80s music which he has changed the lyrics to vote for him. the most common Daniel song is stand by me but he has changed it into spanish saying again again again you will win. hmmm ive also seen the fact that if people promise to vote for him they get given corrigated iron sheets for roofing. i heard a loud truck coming today down the road so we all looked out of the door and it was a pickup truck full of roofing iron and the driver telling people to vote for him. He doesnt do anything good in the long run however. The country is so poor. its actually unbelievable. i was in guatemala just before the elections and in the months before all 28 candidates had their propaganda posted on every rock in the cliff and landscape and every lampost. and everyone was given a fair chance. but its totally different here. havent even seen anything for the opposition party but im guessing there is one. Daniel controls tv and radio etc so they have no chance! such a shame these people know no different. he plays on the change since the civil war saying he made the difference. parades every weekend for this guy and he does nothing when he is in power from what ive heard.

Im planning on leaving early hours of Tuesday morning to go to Costa Rica and continue on maybe a little faster now as im becoming complaicent.