It was an early start and without breakfast, we walked across town to Hotel Con Corazon for our tour to Volcán Mombacho. It was just the two of us so as soon as the guide and transport arrived, we were on the short drive to Mombacho National Park.

Being early on a Sunday morning, we were very surprised to see that a group of 78 students had beaten us to the queue for the transport within the Park. 4WD trucks, similar to those found on African safaris, were used to take people up the 5km of very steep road on the side of the volcano. Trouble was they only took about 24 people at a time, they only had 2 trucks and the round trip took close to an hour. Fortunately, our guide had his contacts and because the students came unannounced, we were given priority for the trip up.

We immediately noticed the cooler climate as we neared the crater rim - this wasn't like New Zealand where a great deal of personal effort is required to scale a volcano, you simply drive up them here. It wasn't a chilly cold either, but more a pleasant breeze in the air bringing relief from the intense heat of the town below.

As we walked round the crater rim, the path ascended and descended through the 850m elevation. On this volcano and at that height there was a remarkable difference in the forest. Below was dry tropical forest, very brown and sparse, whilst above was cloud forest, green, thick and lush. The volcano was dormant and there was a lot of vegetation in the crater, this also hid the natural spring which produces some of Nicaragua's finest water.

On the outer edge of the volcano there were views of Laguna de Apoyo, Volcán Masaya, Granada town, Lake Nicaragua and it's isletas which were formed during the last eruption. There were also some 'fumaroles' where hot water and steam belched from the ground. We were hoping to take a longer walk round to the second crater but all the park rangers were busy with the students and you were not allowed on the path unsupervised.

Back in Granada we had lunch at The Garden Cafe, a Lonely Planet recommendation and a very good one at that. It was only sandwiches but the bread was baked in-house and the fillings delicious. It was a very neat setting too, a typical colonial courtyard setting with the seating round the edge of the building and the centre planted with bright flowering shrubs and trees.

After lunch, we walked to the lake front, Centro Turistico, where the World SUP and Paddleboard Championship was being held. It had just finished but judging from the temporary grandstand and the amount of event tents being taken down, it must have been a pretty huge event. There were lots of locals spending their hot Sunday afternoon in the water and having picnics. They probably did this every week here and the Championship was only a side event to them. The beach was sandy and nice to walk on but as the water didn't seem to be too clean we skipped the swim.

Back in the centre of town, we had a drink at Cafe de la Musica. The music was only from the radio but pleasant enough and from their top terrace there was a rooftop view of the city as the sun set for the day. With darkness descended, we walked round the corner to El Zapatira, steak restaurant. It was a little bit outside our backpacking budget but it had fantastic reviews and we hadn't had steak in ages so we pushed the boat out. And so glad we did, apart from the most enormous melt-in-your-mouth steaks, the wine was good (for Central America) and service excellent. We left extremely satisfied albeit a bit poorer.