Queridos Hombres,

I am becoming more Central American by the day. Today whilst on the bus to Costa Rica my slumber was disturbed by the driver´s mobile phone flying out the window whilst we were heading down the highway. This was followed by him reversing up said highway for 100m or so before disembarking to search for it.The old Ravi would have found this irritating, but the new laid back and slightly tanned one merely shrugged his shouders and went back to sleep muttering something about getting there eventually.

Now a number of you are wondering how the wife is and how the marriage is going. Well, let me tell you that like every good Indian Bride she is keeping quiet unless spoken to and walking a good 10 paces behind me at all times. I jest naturally. In fact while a lack of cleansing, toning and moisturising is playing havoc with my general level of beauty she continues to look more and more radiant with every passing day. This may just be an optical illusion and she may not have changed one note but it is my degeneration in attractiveness that has widened the gap. Fear not readers, the marriage is going well and she will be granted some blog time later in this edition. Although we have successfully made the 2 month mark and you may wonder what I can offer you in terms of advice I feel it important to venture the following: Never under any circumstances should you rent a tandem Kayak. It will only lead to arguments and eventually divorce. Particularly when one member of the tandem leads you down a canal of over-grown mangroves where 3 million mosquitoes descend on you to pepper your backs with bites. Let´s not dwell on who did what and whose fault it was, the important thing is that we are now talking to each other again.

One thing I am craving out here is a bit of Sport viewing. So it was with great excitement that I managed to catch the first half of Liverpool - Man U the other day. In fact it has been great fun to travel around Central America whilst the World Cup Qualifiers have been going on. The other night on Utila in Honduras we were enjoying a quiet drink in the imaginatively titled ´Treetanic´. If you ever get to Utila you must go here. It took 17 years to design this sprawling jungle of caves, alcoves, tunnels and treehouses, and was clearly aided by a shed load of narcotics. Anyhow, the news came though that Honduras had beaten Jamaica 3-2. Cue mass hysteria, much tooting of horns and the arrival of some steamingly drunk Hondurans. Having learnt of England´s earlier triumph over Croatia 4-1 it was with great delight that I stood shoulder to shouder with my Honduran brothers as ´We are the Champions´ by Queen played over the stereo bonded by the knowledge that both our respective nations would never ever win anything. Actually speaking of England, the big news in Central America is the success of Sven Goran Eriksson´s Mexico who are inevitably on a course to meet Capello´s England in the quarter Finals of the World Cup, triumphing on penalties. Rumours of Sven´s affair with Mexican songstress Gloria Estefan are as of yet unconfirmed.

Anyhow, the trouble and strife is wanting a few words so without further embellishment here´s Mrs K.

Finally! For those of you who had not previously been aware, my husband likes the sound of his own voice nearly as much as the sight of his own face. Fear not, despite the blistering heat, I am still wearing the trousers!

Since the last update from Hell on Earth (Tegucigalpa) we ventured South to Granada, Nicaragua´s old colonial city, described by Lonely Planet as the ´high point of many travellers´s time in Central America´. The 10 hour journey was made far more bearable by the adorable Nicaraguan grandpa who was driving our bus like he was driving Miss Daisy, a first in Central America.

The highlight of our two days in the city was a seeing hands massage. For the uninitiated, this means stripping down to your underwear and lying on a massage bed while a man doing his best Stevie Wonder impression feels around to find where your body is. Either this is a genuinely fantastic way to help the blind Nicaraguans in the work place, or a stroke of pure genious for a number of men looking for a quick fondle. We appeared to escape pretty lightly and having duly extolled the virtues of the massage to our travelling companions later found out that their ´boob massage´ had certainly been missing from our experience. So, relaxed and tension free, we set about exploring the city.

Since then we have made it to Costa Rica, another stamp added to the growing collection, via Ometepe a volcanic island on Lake Nicaragua. The scenery here is breathtaking and the lake the temperature of a bath.

Tomorrow brings zip lining through the Cloud Forests of Monteverde.

Hasta luego...