After a chicken bus to Rivas and then a collective taxi, which Shane haggled the price down hugely, we arrived in San Juan Del Sur! The hostel we had picked for here was full, so the first activity was finding somewhere to stay! As it was the weekend this was a bit more challenging than it normally would be! Shane did well and managed to find a good value room for us, so we went for a stroll along the waterfront. There was some kind of festival/sports day going...

Granada, a beautiful old Colonial city on the edge of Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America, was our next stop. We made it there without too much drama, getting one of the microbuses to Managua, and then a kind local put us onto the "express" to Granada!!....express isn't exactly the word that we would use to describe stopping to try to pick up people at every stop, but this certainly isn't the worst express we have been on and we landed into Gran...

So we got up early to go to the border, we chicken bused it this time. It took 2 buses but we made it! A short walk across the border and a little confusion as to where you go after that, not helped by our lack of Spanish and then not having much English (although they certainly knew how to ask for money!) but 4 fees later we made it!! Onto Matagalpa, a town in the northern highlands in Nicaragua. Our plan was to stay here for a night or 2 and do a few tours t...