We arrived into Corinto, Nicaragua on this the 11th day of the cruise. From here on in, this is all new for Deborah and I – anything south of Acapulco, Mexico is virgin territory. We had arranged a tour with one of the ladies that I conversed with on Cruise Critic – a $50.00 US p.p. – 7-hour tour. It's about a one-and-a-half hour drive in thankfully an air-conditioned, 12-passenger van into Leon. This is a city of about 350,000 people and likely just as many dogs, cows and horses. On the way into Leon, I’m sure that we saw about 350 horses tied up just next to the main road chewing grass. We can only guess that this is government’s way of keeping the roadsides mowed. It’s definitely a very poor country – our guide said that if someone can make $2.00 per DAY – they are doing very, very well for themselves.

The Chinese have just recently negotiated with Nicaragua to construct a new canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific to compete with the Panama canal and will lease the land for the next 150 years – hiring some 300,000 Nicaraguans with an expected cost of "$50,000 million" according to our guide. There are five active volcanos in the immediate area and apparently one of the hot sports here is “volcano boarding”. They slide down the side of these volcano – riding the ash from top to bottom on what are very similar to snow boarding rigs. The lowest temperature ever recorded here in Leon was 14 degrees C (60 .0 F) with temperatures reaching 43 degrees C in April.

Today’s heat and humidity in town brought back memories of growing up in the south for Deborah – boy was it hot. I could feel the sweat running down my legs. We stopped at the Vayoy Restaurant and had a great little lunch for only $10.00 for the two us. I’ve attached some great pictures of some very old churches and cathedrals. The outsides of these white places are covered with a dark mould that comes from the constant state of high humidity. Apparently Nicaragua is now one of the safest destinations in Central America and they take a very tough position on the drug distributors. Rum is one of their largest exports here in Leon. Our guide said that is company has so much rum in stock that if they closed their doors today, they would have enough stock to continue to supply their worldwide distribution for the next fifty (50) years. Costs for one liter in town is just shy of $10.00 US.

We got back on board with time to spare and pulled up anchor for our next stop – Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica. We have a tour set up again tomorrow but first it’s off to the Pinnacle Grill again tonight for our anniversary dinner.

Dinner tonight was again over the top. There is absolutely NO comparison to the regular Rotterdam Dining room. For a mere $30.00 p.p. at the Pinnacle Grill you get a dinner that is amazing. Everything is cooked to perfection. For those who really know me, you know that I have a real aversion to carrying out “doggie bags” – well last night they after we had ordered our Chocolate Volcanic Eruption dessert they brought us a whole other cake for our anniversary – but – it was wrapped in a huge aluminum foil package about the side of a real duck (see photos) – there was just NO way that I was carrying this through the halls back to our cabin.

We awake to sunny skies today on Day 12 – October 16th. We’re scheduled to arrive in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica today at about 10:00 a.m. today. While the ON LOCATION program calls for “chance of rain” – I think not - the skies are clear and the temperature is about 84 degrees F. Today’s tour will visit two places – Carara National Park which is about 45 minutes from Caldera where we hope to see the scarlet macaw, howler monkeys and waterfalls while walking the trails in this supposedly amazing rain forest. From there we’ll hop over to the Tarcoles River to get on a boat and cruise the river looking for the magnificent American Crocodile, one of the biggest crocs in the world. Hopefully the boats are in good shape and we’ll be able to report further on our return.