Our time in Roatán was over and we had decided that we would skip mainland Honduras, a country that celebrates being 'murder capital' of the world - even beating Mexico's crazy drug wars!! We took a taxi to the airport by probably the worst driver on the island, for some reason he kept veering onto the wrong side of the road and then correcting at the last minute. We arrived in one piece, nice and early just to avoid any check-in issues. We'd been told that they were incredibly strict about times and even turning one passenger away from a once-a-week flight.

We were flying with Avianca to San Salvador and then on to Managua in Nicaragua. It was a little 48 seat plane with a couple of propellors that was going to take us from Honduras' Caribbean coast to El Salvador's Pacific coast. As the plane took off, we had a last look down on Roatan's western end. Cruise ships that were normally well hidden from the land, seemed enormous from above. The reef and the varying shades of blue water looked spectacular.

We had time for a small complimentary sandwich and a beer on the flight before we were descending for our landing into San Salvador. Looking out the window, it was hard to tell where the city was, there was one area of concentrated buildings but the plane flew straight past and headed out over the ocean. We went out a worryingly long way too, by the time the plane turned round you could hardly see the very low lying land of El Salvador. As it turns out, the airport is not near the inland capital city but close to the beach which explained the long approach over the sea.

It was a similar plane for the next flight onto Managua and it was a similar sandwich and beer. Again, it was a short flight, no sooner was the rubbish being cleared than we were dropping towards the runway - it would soon be time to face immigration officials again.

Walking into the terminal building we were immediately confronted by a wall of immigration officials, they stretched 30 metres left and right but with no queue - who to choose? We didn't want to arouse any suspicion, just an easy passage through. It's not that we were smuggling or anything, we just didn't have proof we would be leaving the country and from the tales of other travellers that could lead to being refused entry. We were worrying about nothing, we were only asked where we had come from today and for the ten US dollars 'entry tax'. Passports were stamped and we were on our way.

A pre-arranged private car was waiting outside to take us to Casa Aromansse in Laguna de Apoyo. Driving on the outskirts of Managua reminded us of Kenya, a bit ramshackle and a disregard for litter. The one hour drive had us heading towards the smoking Volcan Masaya - this volcano was on red alert following the two earthquakes about a month ago. We passed through the bustling and busy town of Masaya before heading down into the flooded crater of Laguna de Apoyo.

Casa Aromansse, recommended to us by Gordon and Sarah who we met in Guatemala, is built on many levels, into the slopes of the crater. Our room was enormous and took up one half of the entire top level. A deck out front had a sofa that we could relax and look across the lake. There seemed to be hammocks hanging everywhere, and not your Mexican style hammock which tightens up the centre, these were double bed size with pillows and extremely comfortable.

After the sun set, darkness quickly took over - the closer you get to the equator the shorter dusk becomes. Being in a nature reserve with limited electricity, the night sky was very clear on this cloudless night. A bright moon and hundreds of stars gave sufficient light to eat our dinner by lake.

The final piece of advice we were given before going to bed..."It's scorpion season, keep your stuff in the closet and check everything before you use it or wear it!!". That will help us sleep more soundly, I'm sure...