Elaine had our first 3 weeks accommodation kinda booked up then we discovered that Hurricane Otto (November 25th) had caused problems in a village we were heading to ie. bad damage to houses, floods washing away bridges, huge trees coming down - we had planned to go to this small rural town to get bus to our next pre-planned hotel....we had visited this remote area 8 years ago and it was great ....lots of wildlife and birds and not many people.

We contacted our hotel who initially said all was OK but THEN they emailed us 3 days later to say road was not possible the way we planned and we would have to come from completely opposite direction.....this now entails long bus journeys and we'll have to stay in a touristy town half-way as it will not be possible to do the journey in one day.....it is so difficult to get bus times if you are not in the town your leaving from....but hopefully by Hogmanay we will be at our pre-planned accommodation....oh the joys of travel...

It also means that we would not be able to cross border into Nicaragua where we planned to but will cross on east side of the country instead....luckily we have
nothing booked in Nicaragua so far....thought we were being clever booking things up over Christmas and New Year.....maybe NOT so clever....lesson learned!!

All this aside, the bus journeys although quite long are relatively comfortable with pretty new buses being used...get the feeling this will change as we head north
into Nicaragua.

Anyway we are staying in a lovely hacienda at present - just off main Panamerican highway but it is set in lovely huge grounds with small stone cabanas placed
around the periphery with trees between each one and a swimming pool in centre. There are trees dotted about everywhere and rustic paths linking secret quiet areas....there is a restaurant on site which is pretty good as we are 5 km from nearest town...there are small deer wandering about, huge iguanas crawling about and various furry things including a large rodent like thing....agouti apparently and a troupe of howler monkeys high up in trees that swing through leaves as you are walking along, All the cabanas have 2 comfy rocking chairs on the small patio outside ....so we can sit outside our room and watch the wildlife passing by on the grass outside....they don't seem bothered by our presence at all....it is so peaceful....

Large pool here too for when things get hot.