Up at 5:45am (it's not all lazing about doing this travelling marlarcky!), to catch a couple of buses to get to Penas Blancas, the border crossing, about 4 hours later. This was actually one of the more poo border crossings on the grounds that they couldn't organise a p1ss-up in a brewery! The queue to get stamped out was huge & no-one (including other travellers) seemed to like the queueing system, with pushing & shoving aplenty & the staff working at a Caribbean pace. (Who would've guessed we were English!!). From there, there were no directions from when you left the Costa Rican side & walked the dusty 200m to the Nicaraguan immigration office, trying to avoid the hundreds of people trying to get you to change money with them! We did finally manage to get through & caught a taxi to the ferry port in Rivas. The (literally!) millions of small lake flies were particularly pleased when we arrived all dressed in their favourite colour, black! Hector, the tourist info chap there, had a laugh with us & booked us a room in Chaco Verde on Ometepe Island (formed from 2 volcanoes & their lava flows) in Laco De Nicaragua. The 1 hour ferry ride across the lake on a ferry owned by an ex-drug lord from Colombia, was a smooth & pleasant ride & we caught a taxi at the other end with another(!) young American couple on their honeymoon. When we got to our place though, it was a complete dive & not worth the $25 a night we'd paid. More like $5 a night, with mould everywhere, a filthy bathroom with no seat on the toilet & no light. Now most travellers would probably be OK with that, but being older & travelling in a little more comfort, it wasn't quite our cuppa. But there was nothing else tonight. So in the gap in the torrential rain, we grabbed food at the only other place next door & went back, trying to ignore the damp smell. Luverly!!