I have signed up for an all day tour around the island. The highlight will be a climb part way up Maderas, one of the 2 volcanoes that form the island. Ometepe actually means "two volcanos". Pretty straightforward when you think about it. They are joined by a low flat isthmus. On our way to Maderas we stop at one of the many petroglyphs that can be found on the island. These are carvings made by the Aztecs into the abundant basalt rock. The climb is fairl...

We're leaving Granada early afternoon so I take the opportunity to have a look around Granada in the daylight. It's a much different town when the sun is up. The cathedral is relatively modest inside. There is a school group of tourists up the front who are listening to a woman who appears to be in some sort of period costume. Suddenly she starts singing. Despite the fact that I am sitting at the back and she is right up the front the accoustics in the churc...

We have all signed up for a full day tour around Granada and district. Our guide, Ramon, picks us up around 9 and we start with a driving tour to some significant places around Granada township. This includes the former railway station which is now used as a youth employment training centre, a cemetry where many former Nicaraguan Presidents are buried and the former hospital which was abandoned years ago and is now being a converted into another employment trai...

Early start, 5am departure from the hotel, with 12-14 hours of travel ahead of us. After about an hour we arrive at the wharf. First stop is Honduran Immigration. Despite having been given copies of our passports a few days before it still takes them around half an hour to process us all. We then have to walk past around 100 armed police on our way to the boat. Ah, the boat. Not quite what we were expecting. Long and narrow, a plastic covering to give us s...