Hola!!

So we´ve had another few crazy travel days from Honduras! Glad we only spent 2 days in the Bay Islands. There wasn´t much to do really, and so it got pretty boring. The second day Erynne showed us this bar by the beach where the drinks were cheap and you didn´t get bitten by sandflies, so we just chilled out there reading our books. Apparently Roatan is only good for diving because it´s cheap, but if your not diving there´s not much else, plus its quite expensive.

We had a 5.30am start leaving Roatan for another long day of taxi, boat and bus. It was a good chance to catch up on sleep:) We arived in Tegucigalpa at about 6pm and left next morning at 4.30am and for the first time I think we were all quite glad for the early morning. It is the scariest city I´ve ever been in. Sean warned us not to go outside AT ALL. Our choice that night was to go to the mall in a taxi as a grop or sit in and order in food. We all went to the mall, which was pretty good for the western comforts! And I got to watch Harry Potter yay!!! I went all the way to Central America just to watch HP:) Amazing!I´m so glad I survived to tell the tale though. Me, Sabrina and Erynne got a taxi home, and he was mental! Sabrina kept telling him he was crazy and then pointed at a police car telling him to "be good" haha! Didn´t make a difference. I was clinging to the dashboard! We didn´t get much sleep that night due to the music and horns honking and just the general sounds of people being killed haha!

Eventually we got to Grenada, Nicaragua! The pic above is Guatemala, but there was no option for a Nicaragua pic. This place is gorgeous. It reminds me a lot of Antigua with its little cobbled streets, except that you can tell they´re a lot less used to tourists than in Guatemala.

Yesterday we had a good long day around the volcanos. We firstly went to swim and relax on this lake called Laguna de Apoyo. It is a crater lake on top of a dormant volcano, so the water is lovely and warm. It scary when you think about how deep it is, its about 175m deep! There was a little platform you could sit on and loads of rubber tubes to float about in, so that was nice and chilled. We had lunch there, and then the tour people picked us up about 4 for a night hike up the Masaya Volcano. It was amazing, mainly because there was no hiking, they drove us to the top! Pacaya volcano nearly killed me on the hike! We got to the top of the crater, but I couldn´t spend long outside the bus. Because it had been raining, there were more gases than usual and it was shocking how much they got on your chest! Everyone was coughing away, the air was thick with the smell of sulphur. It is only the one volcano that is active, but it is surrounded by four extinct volcanoes. We had a walk to the top of a crater of one of the extinct ones, and that gave a good view of the smoking active one. There was a sign saying "do not pass, risk of landslides" and its so funny as our guide just strides past it and leads us to the top!

After that. the sun was starting to set so we were led down to this little hut where we were given hard hats and flash lights. He then took us down to the mouth of a bat cave, and this has definitely been one of my favourite expèriences so far! We had to turn our torches off when standing right next to the mouth of the cave and hundreds of bats were flying out. We could take photos, and with every flash you got a glimpse of these bats flying at your face. They never normally hit you because they´re so good at finding their way in the dark, but on my way out one caught me on my shoulder, it was so leathery! Those bats were insect or nectar bats, so not vampire bats I´m afraid!

He then took us in to what they called Lava tubes. Its tunnels that have been formed by air pockets in the lava. And they are massive, like 12 feet high on some parts, so you have to imagine how enormous these air pockets are. We went farly far in, but they do go quite deep. He showed us cracks on the roof of the cave where they had been bombed during the civil war. Apparently in the 80´s, the young rebels would hide in the caves from the government forces. When the government found out they had the caves bombed, but they are so strong they resisted the attacks.

After this he took us back to the top of the Masaya crater, except this time we stood on the opposite side from where the gases were blowing (thankfully!)! He said we may be able to glimpse a bit of lava, but there wasn´t any to see. He said it had been two weeks since he had seen any. We could hear it though. The roar is terrifying, it sounds like so much pressure. One of our group is a geography teacher, so we get a free extra guide haha!

Today me and Debbie have just wandered around Grenada. Its such a pretty city, and even though its not that big we still managed to get lost. We swear at one of these cities, we will pay attention on Sean´s orientation walk. We spent about 2 hours trying to find the Bell tower, and no one can understand how we couldn´t find a tower! We found it eventually though, and it gives you amazing views of the city. We had a little nose around some of the shops too, so its been a nice relaxing day!

We leave for the island of Ometepe tomorrow, and its not an early start yay! So night out tonight for our last night, and I think some people have got their eye on a karaoke bar, eeek, wait until they hear me sing!

Hope everythings good at home! Be good to hear your messages: Mum and Jenny teach everyone else how to do it!

Speak soon! Love xXx