This is Cerro Negro, a volcano that appeared suddenly in 1850 as a result of the Cocos tectonic plate subducting under the Caribbean tectonic plate at a rate of 9 cm every year and as such is one of the most active volcanos in Nicargua. It has errupts on average every 8 years, and hasnt kicked off for 13 years, so its overdue and experts are expecting a large erruption very soon. So whats the best thing to do at a place like this? How about climb up it and then...

Arriving in Leon in what can only be descibed as a tropical storm, a few inches of rain below our feet and drivng terrencial rain pounding us. We ran for cover in our new hostal called Lazybones. A nice relaxing place with lots of hammocks around a courtyard, swimming pool and a pool table. Only downside is the owner is a miserable bloke who is not willing to talk to his guests! So Leon, A city of around 200,000 people and a sister city of Oxford! Its a very ol...

Our first stop on Nicaragua is the northern highlands town of Matagalpa, this is the chocolate and coffee capital of the country. The town is rather nice, a bit run down but in a nice way, the Nicaraguan people seem nice so far. And the new national beers are going down swimmingly. Things are nice and cheap here for us. a 3 hour bus costs about 70p, a 1 litre bottle of tasy beer costs just over a pound. Of course we couldnt miss the opportunity to pass up on ch...

So we are now in Nicaragua, crossed the boarder (which was surprisingly expensive!) and had a day of many buses to get to our destination. You all know by now about the long and many chicken buses you have to take to get anywhere in Central America.....but hopefully this photo will give you an idea of how crazy they are. The bus is speeding along in a hurry as usual.....and this guy jumped out the door and climbed up on the roof to put some luggage up there, not...