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 Granada about an hour later.

We spent our first afternoon in there wondering around the town, where we discovered it is Central Americas Killarney. With loads of horse and carts lined up around the main square. Despite feeling nostalgic for home we somehow managed to resist taking a ride in them! It is full of lovely old buildings and churches, including some that only look good from the front, as they haven't bothered doing up the back! The highlight for us was climbing the bell tower of San Ingles. From here you could see all over the city and surrounding mountains, including the amazing central courtyards that all the buildings seem to have in these parts. For Shane the second highlight, a very very close second place, was managing to get a litre bottle of ice cold local beer for just 40 cordobas, which is 1.25e…bargain!!!

The next day we decided to head to Lake Apoyo, which is a volcanic crater lake. Basically over the years rain has filled this crater up, leaving behind a lovely refreshing swimming hole! It is known as the best swim in the country, as it is one of the few unpolluted lakes. Our vehicle to get there was something of a classic…as you can see by the pictures of the VW van, what it lacked in power, speed, engine efficiency it more than made up for in character!!! We spent a nice lazy day by the lake, swimming, tubing and kayaking, it was just what we needed as after a crazy few days of travelling.

Off to San Juan del Sur next, and our first view of the Pacific!