¡Hola! So we´ve been using Granada as a base from which to visit other places nearby, such as la Laguna de Apoyo, Volcan Masaya and Volcan Mombacho (see separate blogs). Granada is the largest and grandest colonial town in Nicaragua, more wealthy and prosperous than its liberal nemesis to the west, Leon. I expected to really like Granada, and it didn´t disappoint with its beatifully intact architecture and bright colours, but the atmosphere is very touristy...

¡Hola! For the last two days we´ve been staying in Matagalpa, which is about 2 hours North of Managua in the highlands and is off the backpacker trail a bit - it was a really fun place to stay; we both really liked it. Matagalpa is a very normal Nicaraguan town without a massive tourism industry, although the proximity to several coffee plantations that offer tours makes it a nice place to stay to explore the area. It´s a lot cooler up here, which makes a ref...

¡Hola! This is a retrospective blog entry since we´re now up in Matagalpa on the mainland (damn ¿where is the semicolon on this keyboard? - please forgive any peculiar punctuation errors) there was no internet or even a public phone available the whole time we were on Little Corn Island. And that really sums the place up - it is a totally unspoilt Caribbean paradise bereft of any real development, beyond a handful of very rustic ´resorts´ consisting of huts...

¡Hola! Just a quick note to say that we got here safe and sound with no probs, after the longest Friday ever. We've just had a nice breakfast of eggs, pancakes and coffee and we're in the hotel (Casa Vanegas) deciding our next move. We had intended just to fly straight out to the Corn Islands today, but we're having a good think about it as the weather for the foreseable future is... scorchio! no, alas, it is thunder stormio unfortunately. It's also a bit of...