5th, 6th & 7th July 2008: Long day travelling to Granada leaves most of us (especially me) feeling grumpy and homesick. Not really helped when we check into our hotel to find bugs in the beds!! Saving grace is that there are rocking chairs in the lobby, which help to calm our frazzled nerves slightly. Take a walk round Granada which seems very pretty in parts. Go to the square and buy candy floss. There is some kind of carnival / dance competition / fete going on, with the stage appropriately set up right outside our hotel! Watch some of the action before heading off to eat. Dance the night away in Cafe Nuit, mainly to ensure that by the time I get back to the hotel I´m so tired I forget that there are bugs in my bed and go straight to sleep!

This morning wake up tetchy, hot and homesick, but mercifully manage to take a shower before all water in the whole of Granada disappears for the rest of the day. Was planning on spending today sulking but instead decide to go kayaking on the lake which turns out to be a much better decision! The lake is beautiful with great views across to Granada. Try to remember what Simon has taught me about kayaking and manage not to capsise. Despite that I still manage to fill the kayak with a substantial amount of water (I think my padding technique may need some refining). After a couple of hours of physical exercise we return to the hotel feeling much better. Have a great pizza (properly cooked) for supper,

Today we went for a full day trip, firstly to Masaya where we visited a pottery factory and watched a small boy called Stalin (surreal) make pots before some of us attempted (and failed) to copy him. Bought a plate which may or may not make it home in one piece! We then headed to a volcanic lake (Laguna de Apoyo?) for a swim and some frisbee before lunch and a walk around a market. We then visit a fort (Coyotepe?) which is dark and depressing, with torture chambers used as recently as the 80´s. Eerie. We then head to Volcano Masaya and see sulphurous gases spewing out of the crater and parrakeets that apparently like to defy death that choose to live in the crater. We walk down a lava flow tunnel before going to a bat cave and watching the bats spill out of the cave at dusk. Head back to the volcano to watch glowing lava before heading back to the hotel to sleep.