From La Fortuna we had an early start to make it to Granada for that night. We had been advised that many travellers do not make it but as we were determined, we were at the bus station at 6.15am ready for the public bus to El Tanque (a 10 minute journey away).

When we arrived at El Tanque we saw a group of tourists waiting, luckily as we were the only ones paying attention we were able to flag down the bus to Penas Blancas and grab seats together before the others realised it was the right bus! Cheap as chips - $7 for a 5 hour journey to Penas Blancas, a town at the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

At the border, we did not have any issues apart from having to wait a while to get an entry stamp. It was minutes before the bus we wanted was due to leave for Rivas, but luckily as the bus was leaving the driver stopped for us two! At Rivas, it was a throwback to our Indian days.

The centre was bustling, lots of loose chickens, stray dogs, everyone spitting in the street, dust in the roads, horns honking and people selling fruit on the side of the roads. We stopped here for lunch and unlike Asia nobody spoke English so both of us attempted to communicate our lunch order in Spanish. A 'friendly' guy wouldn't leave Nick alone and was trying to teach us some more Spanish but we felt like saying 'we're a lost cause' but he didn't lose patience with us!

Once we had some lunch in us we managed to catch a chicken bus to Granada, and it's evident why it's called a chicken bus - everyone is cramped together like chickens on a battery farm! The entire journey from La Fortuna only cost us $11.20 (£7.50) in total! Compare that to $95 we were quoted for a shuttle bus!

Anyway, a little bit about the town we took a lot of hassle getting to. Granada is a very well preserved colonial town, apparently a lot of Americans retire there! Granada was locked in a bitter rivalry with Leon (our next destination) and they had a full blown civil war. The Leonese hired a crazy American to conquer Granada, burning the city down and leaving a placard saying 'Here was Granada'. Crazy! Even today the 2 cities are still rivals and at different ends of the political spectrum. Granada is stunning and easily a place we could have stayed in for many more days! But, back to the itinerary!

We had found this really good hostel on tripadvisor, Hostal el Momento and from the moment we arrived we knew we wanted to stay there. It has a cute courtyard and feels very homely. A retreat from the chaos of Granada.
Helen was face timing with her parents, and afterwards the owner approached her and asked if she was from Liverpool. Turns out Helen still has a slight accent even though she's lived in London for 4 years and been away from home a year. The owner himself is from Liverpool!

We wandered through Granada, heading to Lago de Nicaragua and hired a boat to drive through the islets. Most of which are lived on by the super wealthy. There is one island thats occupied by 4 monkeys who have supposedly been placed there by a local vet to live the rest of their days out. You can't see across to the other side of the lake, it's that big (20th largest freshwater lake in the world) AND....it's inhibited by Bull Sharks! We were dreaming that we would see one breach...wishful thinking!

Wandering through Granada we saw many of its churches and it's Cathedral. While we were there the town was ending its week long celebrations of the Assumption of Mary and they were having lots of horse parades so the town smelled very horsey! A lot of them were Stallions so obviously there were some out of control riders...we enjoyed watching some of the festivities, nearly every resident was dressed up in jeans and a checked shirt!

On our last full day, we decided to book ourselves in for a spa treatment which would allow us 'free' access to their pool. We soon found out that the pool is owned by three ducks (see pic) who are absolutely territorial and kept attacking us at any given opportunity. The morning was spent sunbathing (the Nicaraguan sun is absolutely vicious!) until it was time to return to our hostel to watch the Everton Vs Man U game. We won 1-0 and our hostel had 2 other Everton supporters so we were best pleased with the result! Funnily enough there were no Man U supporters in sight! Nick pleased with the result returned to the pool to sunbathe, Helen couldn't stand the heat so faffed around until it was time to return to the spa for our treatments. Nick opted for a sports massage while Helen went for a chocolatherapy wrap! Yes, Helen was covered in chocolate and exfoliated by the cocoa bean. The end result: baby smooth skin!

There are some very good restaurants in Granada, our favourites were El Zaguan and the Garden Cafe. Nicaragua so far, has not been consistent in providing top notch food so these places were an absolute treat!

Reasons why Nicaragua reminds us of India
- the guys spit in the street
- Rivas was a busy market town with dusty floors
- they cramp you into the buses and collect the fare once on the move
- ladies selling food and drinks wander up and down the bus
- they have tuk tuks here!
- there's lots of stray dogs on the streets with insanely cute puppy eyes!
- the roads are dusty and full of pot holes
- lots of disabled and homeless people bother tourists for £