After Granada the next stop was Leon, which was the Nicaraguan capital until 1857. We arrived around 1pm, having visied Masaya handicraft market on the way. There was lots of nice stuff, but I resisted the temptation to buy as I still have almost 3 weeks left and there will be lots of other markets and opportunities to shop! On arrival sme people went more or less straight out on a volcano sandboarding trip, which as you will have guessed was not for me! I went for a wander in town and decided to go to the cinema, very cheap cinema ticket, just over 2 dollars!!! Saw "Inception" which was a good film. Didn´t like it when I came out and it was dark though as I had to walk back to the hotel which is a little out of the centre and the roads were very empty and dark, very little lighting. I waited at the hotel for the people to come back from the trip whilst enjoying a couple bottles of Nicaraguan beer called Victoria Frost, which was quite light. I usually don´t like beer but this was quite nice, made a change! I borrowed a hair dryer and dried my hair for a change as we have air con its not so hot to dry your hair, was nice to not have bad hair for a change! :-) We went for dinner, although it was surprisingly difficult to find somewhere! Had a couple more bottles of beer, this time, one called Toña. A bargain at a dollar a bottle!!!

Today, Tuesday 10th August (and 3 weeks since I left England), we did a city tour of Leon. The guide was really informative and it was good to see some of the city and find out more about it, as I wasn´t that impressed yesterday, it´s not as pretty as Granada but still has colonial buildings and interesting buildings. Our first stop was the cathedral where we got to walk up to the roof where the bells are. Interesting architecture and nice views of the city. We also visited a museum which is at the former National Guard´s garrison called "La Veinte Uno" ("21") which was opened in 1921 and was the location of a lot of torture and heavy fighting in the 1979 revolution. I didn´t manage to listen as much as I´d have liked to everything the guide said as I was not feeling that well, headache and feeling a bit faint. Very hot as always, according to our GAP guide, maybe the hottest place we´ll visit in Nicaragua. We had a brief stop in one of the suburbs called Subtiava, where many indigenous people still live.

Afterwards a few of us went for lunch, found a nice cafe, with about 12 different cakes so we enjoyed a slice of cake after our sandwich! Was very nice! Lots of rockets were being let off around the area, a common occurance here, very loud bangs, almost non stop. It turned out there was some kind of protest happening, a bus full of students arrived and were gathered round the entrances to some sort of government building. Interestingly as well as lots of bangs they had a band too! A school band also walked past, they were very good especially the drummers, we saw them again later as we were wandering round. We decided to cook tonight as there is a kitchen at the hotel so we are doing a veggie pasta with fruit salad for desert. It´ll be good as though eating out is nice, home cooked food is good too and will make a nice change!

Tomorrow is an early start, leaving at 6am! We are travelling to the boarder with Honduras to go onto the capital Tegucigalpa to get our flight to the Hinduran Island of Roatan, where we will spend 3 days. I´m looking forward to 3 days beach time, including some snorkelling which is supposed to be great there! I´m also looking forward to cocktails on the beach, hopefully! Plus we´ll be celebrating one of the girl´s 30th biirthdays, what a great place to spend it!