I'm currently sitting on a deck beside the Caribbean Ocean, enjoying my morning coffee- fresh brewed Nicaraguan. We've been here for a few days and I think it's time to try and write a bit about our time in this country before it all gets obscured by sea and sun.

I left off with us having crossed the border into Nicaragua. From there everything got a lot smoother. We made our bus to a town called Rivas, found bank machines and even managed to find people who could verify the exchange rate for us; being English teachers, math is not our forte, and I found myself upon arrival in Costa Rica, withdrawing thirty dollars instead of the intended three-hundred. The hope was to not repeat that mistake. We grabbed a taxi to the pier and hopped on the next ferry to Ometepe- an island made up of two connected volcanoes. The one-hour crossing was very rough, and it was hard to imagine that this was actually a lake and not a sea. More awful was the discovery that this "lake" was home to the elusive fresh water shark. All my illusions of safety vanished in that moment.

I've said for many years, and it still holds true, I hate points of disembarkation. You arrive somewhere hot and tired, achy and sweaty, and immediately get swarmed by touts trying to sell you everything from transportation to accommodation to tours. And all you want to do is put your bags down and get your bearings for a moment. Arriving in Ometepe's port town of Moyogalpa was no exception. With some hassle and expense we managed to get to the far side of the island where we wanted to stay. We did not make it to the hostel in the hoped for time frame of "before dark", but luckily they had a room.

We dropped our bags and started chatting with a couple of guys (a Belgian and Swiss) who told us they were going to climb the smaller of the two volcanoes the next morning. Next thing I knew, Ola had signed her name to the list. Having heard that the climb was slippery and muddy and did not provide good views as a result of cloud coverage, I declined the offer to join.

The next morning, off they went. I spent the morning exploring the coffee plantation and petroglyphs around the hostel. I opted to take a guide which was a good thing since it's become very clear that I don't "see" what others do. I saw squiggly lines and circles, but he was insisting that there were monkeys and turtles carved into the stones. I decided to just take his word for it. It was a fun challenge for me as my guide spoke next to no English; I always enjoy the chance to test how far I can push my Spanish skills, and was pleased with myself for understanding a great deal…or at least convincing myself that I understood a great deal regardless of the accuracy of my comprehension.

In the afternoon I took the local bus into one of the villages to check out some ancient stone idols. They provided a good two minutes of entertainment, but the bus ride was interesting. More old school- buses, decorated with multiple Jesuses (or Jesii as Ola refers to them) and buckets of fish in the aisles. When I got back the climbers had returned, tired and happy with clothes and shoes so caked in muddy clay, that's all you could see. As an aside, Ola finally managed to dunk her shoes in the ocean and give them a solid scrub yesterday- at least you can see the general colour of them now.

The next morning, we went with our new friends to a spot called Ojo de Agua. An area in the isthmus of the island with mineral spring fed pools. It was a beautiful place to relax and swim and hang out. We stayed until the hoards arrived with big baskets of food and gaggles of small children. The "tranquilo" done, and so were we. Our friends went to catch a boat off the island and we decided to walk the 14km back to our hostel, popping into the Lake for a swim half way.

The island is beautiful and was the perfect introduction to Nicaragua. We ate well, were surrounded by fantastic nature, swam in Lake Nicaragua, drank great coffee and met wonderful people. We allowed ourselves the luxury of three nights in one place, but it was time to move on, so we packed our bags and on the third morning, hiked the one kilometre to the main road to catch the 5am bus to the port.

We were Granada bound…