Off to Leon!! Up bright and early this morning for our long day of travel to the city of Leon. Around 6:30am after some delicious tamales (I picked up from a little old lady) Luis and I headed for the dock to catch the ferry back to the mainland. Unfortunately the ferry wasn't leaving until 9pm and we had to take the Lancha - a very old ferry that rocked like a leg-less rocking chair. From the moment I got on the boat I felt sick from all the motion and the terrible slow journey lasted a staggering 1.5 hours. On arrival at the dock we were ushered onto a boat and with some luck the chicken bus was headed for the capital Managua - where we needed to go. The journey was only about 2 hours and cost us an unbelievable $2, on the bus we met some girls who lived in Managua and we shared a taxi with them to the minibus terminal. From here we boarded a minivan headed for Leon - we couldn't believe how easily everything was falling into place and how early it still was. Half way to Leon the van started to shake and then a little bang meant we had a blowout - luckily the driver had a spare and after 40 minutes hovering under a solitary tree (away from the sun) we along with the other 10 passengers were good to go again. Arriving at Leon bus station was quite an experience and we were thrown straight into a mad mess of markets and vendors selling everything you can imagine. We found a nice little resteraunt selling pork ribs and steaks straight from their BBQ: I had pork ribs, fried bananas, salad and fresh melon juice: easily one of the best meals in Central America so far and for less then $2. We then made out way into the centre and found our hostel - Latina hostel and got settled in. The hostel is small and really nice and for $6 a night with breakfast included a real bargain. We chatted with the guy running the hostel: about tours and shuttle connections before heading out into the centre to have a look around. The city of Leon is beautiful as has some beautiful old churches that we wondered around. We made it to the Central Market: so nice to feel like I was back in South America with the typical central market. Huge papayas, ginormous avocados and all kinds of cakes and sweets flooded every corner of the market. We tried coco cakes, papaya glazed and sweetened, soft banana jelly and fried yuka balls in honey - life is good with all these wonderful sweets. Luis headed back to the hostel whilst I wondered around a bit more and took some photos. Later on we met up with the English girls who had just arrived and were ready for a beer and to relax. I couldn't find anything for dinner and so decided to buy some things at the supermarket and have a bit of a cook-up. In theory the cook-up sounded like a good idea but unfortunately in hostels with kitchens usually everyone is wanting to use the kitchen at the same time, along with the fact that most hostel kitchens are poorly setup. I struck out and both had to wait ages for a couple that decided to use all three burners and cook a very extravagant meal and being confronted with no cooking oil, no knife and other essentials. I ended up just chucking everything in a fry pan, frying the crap out of it and adding tomato sause and surprisingly the result wasn't too bad but it would have been far better and probably cheaper eating out. At around 10pm everyone decided to get dressed up and go to the salsa night, I initially didn't want to go as I new I would get stuck out until late and as I wasn't drinking: fade early. I went anyway and on arrival were met with a cover charge for a Nicaraguan bar? The place was half full of gringos and the other half locals all of which were dancing salsa. It was quite interesting to watch; with the guys all pulling strange faces and trying to move their hips like the ladies. The locals obviously didn't like all the influx of foreigners and did their best to bump and push us out the way and give us dirty looks. The English girls with 7-8 beers under their belts headed straight to the dance floor and started dancing; Ronald and Luis followed. Every 10 minutes they would drag me out for a dance and I would get super embarrassed - move like an idiot and then run for a corner. And just like that all my confidence is gone again - for a long time I needed to have a few drinks to relax and have a dance but then I didn't but tonight was proving very difficult. The guys continued dancing, doing shots and throwing down their best salsa moves whilst I stood in the corner wishing to be anywhere else. In the end Bianca kept dragging me out on the dance floor and trying to teach me some simple steps but met with such a pretty girl, a lack of confidence and rude locals bumping and hitting me I failed time and time again. I watched as all the gringos chugged beer after beer, smoked cigarette after cigarette inside the club and put on their best sleazy moves on the English girls - some of which seemed to work - I realized how much I have grown out of this scene. The night went on forever and I did my best to stay awake and keep a smile on my face, at 12:30am the bar closed but Ofcourse everyone wanted to continue. I was told it was too dangerous to walk home at night but after getting a lift to the church I decided to walk anyways as the hostel was only 10 minutes further on. The hostel was locked up when I arrived but after yelling out; the old lady who does the breakfasts came out and with my bad Spanish I explained I was staying and asked if she could let me in. A lot of things came out of tonight; like the fact I really need to learn some basic salsa moves, I probably need to have a few drinks to relax a bit more and the last place I want to be when I travel is out at bars with the all-to typical drinking backpacker crowd. At this point I am happy with my plan to Volcano board tommorow and then take the shuttle to Honduras at 2am.

OBSERVATIONS:
- Seasick on Lancha back to mainland
- Chickenbuses to Leon - one flat tire and only 5 hours travel time
- Leon: city of churches
- Salsa Night - Need to learn some basic salsa steps