Thank you for the birthday messages everyone. I had a great one. Nicaragua has been a mix of very quiet places and very very vibrant places. We started in the south in a sleepy fishing village before moving to the Isla de Ometepe- an island in the middle of the Lake of Nicaragua (something like the 3rd largest freshwater lake in the world). It is enormous, and in the middle is an island with 2 massive volcanoes on it. We stayed on the island for 3 nights and although it hasn磘 been one of our favourite places we did enjoy ourselves. When we got off the ferry we were bundled on to the local bus - one of those old yellow US school buses. As there were already about 60 people on there we were pushed on at the back where we were crushed in with about another 30 people. I was standing on one leg with a bag of rice on the foot on the ground and the other foot in mid air with a rucksack behind me for balance which was kind of working until a local woman got on and decided to shove her shopping in my stomach and use my hip to balance herself. The bus set off and about every 5 minutes stopped to squeeze more people in. It seems there are never too many people on the buses here and there is a special code of whistles used to indicate if you want to get off or if there is someone else who wants to get on and when you are ready for the driver to move on. We are yet to brave trying the whistling and just rely on making a lost tourist face at the nearest local until they help us out. The main thing that we did in Ometepe was climb one of the volcanoes. Nicaragua is covered in volcanoes, you can see 2/3 at almost any time. Thankfully we decided against the 10 hour climb to the summit and decided on a 4 hour one instead which took us to 1000 metres. Definitely far enough. The walking involved on the turtle project was nothing compared to walking up an almost vertical muddy slope at altitude! Our guide barely broke a sweat while Sarah and I both had moments where we thought we might actually faint! Still we made it to the 1000 metres and when we got there, even considered going higher but as the clouds had come down and we couldn磘 see much we decided enough was enough and climbed down. Very tiring but we felt quite good afterwards. After Ometepe we headed to Granada for 2/3nights. A week later we literally had to flip a coin to make the decision to leave. We loved it! We were staying at a hostel called the Bearded Monkey which was definitely a party hostel. We did manage to fit in some culture by visiting a museum (our first one), a local arts market, going up another volcano (this time by truck), and walking around the city itself which is really beautiful and full of colonial buildings and history. It is quite a small city but one of those places you just enjoy walking around and getting a feel for. However, the best part was that we met some really great people and had a LOT of fun. My birthday was definitely a highlight. We spent the day at the Laguna de Apoya, a sunked volcano with a huge lake in the crater. It is stunning, and the water is crystal clear for swimming. A group of about 15 of us went up there from the hostel on the Saturday before my birthday. It was a another guy's birthday as well so we spent the day swimming, sun鏱athing and relaxing before a big party up there in the evening and we stayed over night. It was such good fun and definitely a very different way to see in my birthday. The next day we returned to Granada where Sarah told me that Sam had arranged for us to stay in a posh hotel for the night as my birthday present (brownie points building up very fast for that one!) So, we went over to our very nice hotel where we spent a long time ooing and ahhing at the clean towels and hot water. We also indulged in a massage which was amazing. To top the day off we went out for a posh meal in a smart restaurant and treated ourselves to a bottle of wine (a nice change from the beers and rum & coke). Back at the hostel the next day the partying continued. We met a group of 7 Irish guys who are travelling together and you can imagine the sort of cultural experience they are having... they came with us to the volcano and admitted that that was the first time they had done anything in their 10 week trip other than sit in bars and watch the World Cup! They were a great laugh we eneded up going back to the lake for another day with them and finally forced ourselves to leave on Thursday, with Kate, a Cypriot girl we met in Granada who is travelling with us for a while. After Granada we headed to Leon, another town full of political history. Unfortunately, I think we were destined to be disappointed with Leon after the fun we had had in Granada. Although it was an interesting place, it was not as attractive as Granada and we had a lot of hassle from the local men so we didn't stay there long. We did visit a couple of museums though and learn about the turbulent history of the area, where hundreds of revolutionaries were assassinated by the government until as recently as the 1980's. We also went volcano surfing... We trekked up the Cerro Negro- an active volcano that has erupted every 7 years exactly for the last 35 years and is due to go again in September this year! It was amazing to see as it is entirely balck from the lava, where as the other volcanoes are so dormant they are covered in forest, and when we reached the crater there was sulphur smoking out of the stone which is really hot to the touch. If you dug down about 6 inches you would burn your hand! Quite scary really! If it had blown we would have had 30 minutes to get off the volcano. Probably nothing like long enough. Anyway, it didn't erupt and we sandboarded down which literally inolved sitting on a piece of timber and sliding down a 45 degree black sand slope! Great fun, and we're still washing the volcano out of our hair. We left Leon yesterday for a long busride to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. We were just here overnight and leave today for the north coast of the country where eventually we will go to the Bay Islands, some of the best diving in the world apparently! Already we can see the contrast between the two countries as Nicaragua is visibly so poor with people begging in the street everywhere you go. Honduras, at least the towns we have driven through, seems that much more developed although I think out of the cities we will find the opposite. I have added some photos on the blog as well. The computer refused to upload the most recent ones which were of my birthday (probably a sign that they shouldn't be published) but I will do it sometime soon. xxx