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 some protection from the sun and 2 outboard motors. And we are going to be in this for the next 2 hours as we cross the Gulf of Fonseca. At least there are decent lifejackets. About 45 minutes into the trip we are advised it is about to get rough. I think this was because we were crossing the section of the Gulf that was open to the Pacific Ocean. It did get rough and those of us up the back got very wet. Fortunately it only lasted for about 30 minutes or so. We started approaching land and to our surprise they anchored the boat in the shallows and we waded ashore onto Nicaraguan soil. The strangest entry to a country I have ever had. With no one in sight I felt a bit like an illegal immigrant. A short bus ride and we arrived at the immigration office. Literally located in the middle of nowwhere. An hour long wait in the heat and humidity while they processed us. Apparently this was an express service as it commonly takes a couple of hours to get through this process. Welcome to Nicaragua!! We still had around 6 hours of bus travel to go and it was around 5.30pm before we arrived in Granada. Nicaragua seems to be a poverty stricken country. Many of the small villages we passed through had very basic housing indeed. Horse and carts were quite common. And yet a shopping centre we stopped at was very modern and the people there seemed to be middle class. Probably a country where the gap between the haves and the have nots is quite wide. A much needed shower at the hotel to wash off the encrusted salt and we headed into town for an orientation tour and some dinner. Granada seems to be very much a tourist town. There seems to be one strip where the restaurants and bars are and we are advised not to venture outside this area at night. One block either side of our hotel and you are in some very dodgy areas. Not quite what we wanted to hear but not unexpected either.