From the cloud forests of Monteverde we headed to La Fortuna, a town situated by Volcano Arenal. The bus ride winding down from Monteverde and then the small launch boat we took across the lake were was absolutely breathtaking and reminded me a little of the Lake District except with a blinking big volcano in the distance! What is so fascinating is that no one realised it was a volcano until 1968 when it suddenly erupted. It very sadly wiped out a nearby village...

So after a magnificent time spent on the islands of Ometepe and in Nicaragua in general, it was time for us to cross the border over in to Costa Rica. Border crossings are generally a bit more stressful as you have to factor in a few different modes of transport (as most transport companies won't travel over the border itself), change money without getting ripped off, keep track of passports, etc, and this crossing was no exception. We started at 6am with a t...

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!...