Our final stop in Nicaragua was to Ometepe, an island made up of 2 volcanoes in the middle of Lago Nicaragua (the largest body of fresh water in Central America) and a biosphere reserve home to five ecosystems. The 1.5 hour boat ride over was a great opportunity to take in the stunning island which was described so beautifully by Mark Twain so I won't try and do better: “Out of the midst of the beautiful Lake Nicaragua spring two magnificent pyramids, c...

Maderas beach on the Pacific side was our next port of call. We managed to persuade a taxi to drive us directly from Granada so it was a relatively easy travel, and a few hours later we were checked in at our eco-lodge, just over the ridge from the seaside. I'm not quite sure what made it an eco-lodge, they seemed proud of their 'natural room air circulation' (hippy-speak for no air-con) and professed to save loads of turtles from certain doom (we saw...

We returned to the mainland and jumped in a cab to the colonial city of Granada that sits on the edge of the huge Lago Nicaragua. As has become tradition we spent our first day wondering around the city to get a real feel for the place. It was really buzzy with lots of cafés and stalls (gorgeous jewellery - oopsie!) lining the streets and central piazza. There is a crazy daily market there also and walking through it made it feel like we were in Bangkok instead!...

After a few days of lazing on a Pacific beach we thought we'd even it up by heading over to the Caribbean side to visit the Corn Islands. A short flight in an aging turbo-prop over the width of Nicaragua saw us touching down on Big Corn, where we were met at the airport by a taxi driver name David who took us to our guest house. We hired some bikes and pedaled around the island, dodging the occasional crazy rainstorm. The island isn't big but still took a...

Apologies for the radio-silence, we've been kept terribly busy on a Pacific beach, lying in the sun, drinking a few beers and watching the sun's slow traversal across the sky. Occasional interruptions to this idyllic lifestyle included being pestered into helping to release a clutch of young turtles from their nursery into the ocean, being co-opted into many games of volleyball and generally forced to interact with the amiable bunch of fellow travelers th...