We arrive at Granada, and as this is Chris' second visit, I follow him from the bus to his recommendation of the Bearded Monkey Hostel.

Along the way we meet Mike from Canada, who was also on our bus & a also a tout who wants to get paid for taking us to the hostel

We arrive & check in and arrange to meet up again later for dinner.

I ran into Tony & Paul from Omentepe as they had also recommended this hostel & arrived on the next bus after us.

I meet up again with Chris & Mike and Chris continues to be our guide for the evening! He takes us to a side of the road food stall selling tacos & enchiladas. Must pronounce 'en - chee - ladas' as she didn't understand Chris when he said enchilada?!

All was deep fried but tasty! Coming served in a banana leaf with coleslaw & wrapped up tight - all that for the equivalent of $1.50!

We ate back at the hostel & grabbed drinks from the bar - the power going out just before he could whiz my cocktail :-(

We'd also got back just in time before the storm had hit, so sat in the dark, eating our food, me drinking my stirred margarita and watching the rain.

The plans to head out were starting to look grim, but the power came back on an hour later, Chris and I headed out immediately leaving Mike to catch up on some internet stuff.

As it was still early we bar hopped along Calle Caldeza, sitting out front and getting harassed by the kids selling chewing gum, cigarettes and an assortment of items made out of blades of grass.

Chris was also getting harassed by the trio of musicians walking around who were trying to play us romantic music for tips! I left Chris to explain to them in Spanish no and why not!

The following day was all about food thanks to my guides recommendations from his previous visit ... we headed for breakfast at the Garden Cafe, snacks & coffee at Nectar then Dinner at Third Eye.

Why was it all about food?! Because it was so good here!!! A lot of meals in Latin America can be bland and boring - you can get so over rice beans and chicken! This was the most exciting food I'd seen in ages and Third Eye was my favourite - Asian inspired decor and ambience making me feel like I was on my balcony at home, delicious seafood curries, good wine and good company!

I did do some sightseeing between all that food, wandering around to get photos of the brightly coloured buildings and interesting locals. There wasn't a whole lot else to do except climb more volcanoes ... I mean how many can one person climb?!

Waffle Cafe for breakfast the following day and had yummy blueberry pancakes!

Chris and I both headed for Managua, Nicaragua's capital which is supposed to be quite dangerous (as are all
Central Americas capitals).

When we arrived he negotiated a cab for me to the Ticabus terminal, we farewelled each other and he bordered the shuttle for Leon.

As usual I was ripped off and ended up paying more then the negotiated rate of $20 colones ($30 which is only 50 cents more but it's the principle!!!).

NB. I'm posting this a couple of weeks later and have met a couple who tell me 1 in 50 tourists in Managua is robbed! That they met a couple who did the same afternoon taxi journey as me and got taken to a place and where searched, robbed and their banks drained. I guess it's just the luck of the draw?! Eek!