Volcano day arrived at 5.30am as we had to prepare for our 6.00am transport to Pacaya volcano. We packed our bags with necessities such as water, breakfast and marshmallows to roast. We got picked up and drove the 1 ½ hours to the start point which was about half way up the 2000m climb. At the start point we were approached by numerous children all selling walking sticks to help haul ourselves up the volcano. We purchased one each and prepared to get going. The first stage was a very steep, very hard and very hot 10 minute walk to a viewing platform. It was very worrying to think after only 10 minutes of an approximately 2 hour climb I was breathing so hard and sweating so much. After 5 minutes of catching our breath we continued on a fortunately less steep incline. We follow this pattern of walking for around 20 minutes then taking quick breathers for the next hour or so. At which point we immerged for the jungle like terrain we had been walking up and on to the volcanic rock and sand. At this point we started have glimpses of the lava ahead of us as we moved slowly across the final part of the climb. As we got close to the viewing points for the lava we had to clamber over very sharp and sometimes dangerous volcanic rock. As we got close we could feel the heat of the lava and we felt a fair deal of fear and the lava rocks cracked and rolled towards where we were standing. Our guide seemed rather unconcerned but to us it felt very much like we were in a fairly dangerous environment. We then moved over to another area where we could view lava slowly flowing down. We again had to climb over some dangerous rock and unfortunately one member of our group stepped on a hollow rock and fell cutting his leg and arms quite badly. We was patched up and was fine, he had more concerns about his hangover. Up at the lava flow some people approached close enough to toast their marshmallows but we kept a more sensible distance. Viewing the lava was absolutely incredible and something I will very unlikely do again due to the few places where such an excursion is available. After about an hour at the top we had to make our way back down Pacaya. The walk down was much easier although I had a fair amount of pain in my big toe due to having sliced a good chunk off as I stubbed it the night before. Still I couldn't complain as I was walking behind the guy who had sliced his leg. As we reached the bottom the children who sold us our walking sticks came to collect them off us for resale. We had 10 minutes to grab a drink as we then headed back to Antigua for our last evening in Guatemala. On arrival back in the city we headed straight for lunch and from their straight for a nap. We were up at around 5pm to go and meet Suzie and Owen for a drink and dinner. As we walked to Cafe 2000 we went via the Parque Central so we could withdraw some money. As walked towards the square we happened to bump in to Amy and Dan who were on honeymoon from the UK. We all headed the pub and shared a few drinks. Amy and Dan could only stay for an hour as they were due to catch an overnight bus north. The rest of us moved on to a restaurant where I had the strangest Chop Suey I have ever had. A couple of drinks in a pub then an early night were the order for the evening as Sue and I were being collect at 2.30am for a shuttle to Guatemala City where we would be catching a bus all the way to the Nicaraguan capital Managua.

The alarm started ringing at 2.30 and we snuck out of our hostel by 3.00am where we waited outside for our taxi to Guatemala City. The shuttle only took us 45 minutes but we had to go through the slow process of getting our bags loaded on to the bus and some other formalities which our driver took care of for us. Eventually the bus headed off for Managua with an expected journey time of 11hours. After a few hours we arrived in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, this wasn't completely unexpected as it was a fairly standard route for buses to take. We had expected to go straight through Honduras in to Nicaragua without having to enter El Salvador. This routing meant we now had three border crossings to go through which can be fairly time consuming. It also meant that the 11hours we had expected would now be closer to 16hours. There wasn't anything we could do about it so we had to grin and bear the journey we had ahead of us. In fairness the bus was as comfortable as we could reasonably expect with reclining seats and foot rests. We slowly made progress though El Salvador, Honduras and eventually Nicaragua, along the way we took our chance to enjoy the countryside and also when possible some sleep. Before heading off we had aimed to get to León but with time slipping away from us we had to make a decision whether to spend a night in Managua or take the more expensive option of a cab to León. We eventually arrived in Managua and decided to complete the journey all the way up to León. The journey in the cab took us 1 ½ hours meaning we arrived at 10pm. We had planned to stay in a hostel called the ViaVia cafe as we had stayed in one in Copan Ruinas previously. On arrival at ViaVia we were told that all the rooms were full. However, we had a backup plan and fortunately that backup plan was opposite. We tried the Big Foot hostel and were fortunate to get the last room. Our plans for the next few days were to explore León and then its rival city Granada. I'll update you again soon.

John