We managed to finally leave León, via a luxury air-conditioned shuttle bus (commonly refered to as a tourist shuttle) which we took for the benefit of Simon as he wasn't sure if he'd be well enough to negotiate the local buses. We had to get a taxi the last part to Laguna Apoyo which we had been recommended by a couple we met at the hostel in León.

We stayed for two nights in a hostel/resort place right on the laguna (an old volcano crater) where we continued to do not very much, alongside a bit of kayaking and swimming. It was really lovely there with beautiful views, and not quite as hot as León.

From there we got the hostel shuttle into Granada, a colonial city built in 1524 which is situated next to the largest lake in Nicaragua. It is a lot more spruced up than León and a lot of the buildings in the centre appear to have fairly fresh coats of paint. I think the government has put extra money into it to keep it clean and tidy as it's very touristy.

The first afternoon, we wandered round, looking at where things are and found a nice cafe and a bakery. We went round looking to book an evening tour to Masaya volcano and were offered 20% off from one company if we joined a tour leaving in an hour. So we took him up on the offer and off we went in a minibus up to the crater of the active volcano. There was loads of gas coming out of it and we were given gas masks and helmets. From there we took a walk up to see another one of the five craters and then another walk up to the highest point to watch the sunset through the gas of the volcano which was really beautiful and it was great that we were the only tour group to go there. After that we were taken to some bat caves. We went 150m into one and saw some bats flying around, then we went to the entrance of another and crouched down whilst loads of bats flew out of the cave right past us! From there, as it was dark, we went to try and see if we could see the glow of the lava in the crater but there was too much gas and everyone was coughing even with the gas masks. It was a really good tour. When we got back to town, we tried some of the local food in the central park for dinner whilst trying to dodge bird poo from the trees above! Simon had a typical local dish of Vigoron: yuca topped with chicharron (pork rind) and a sort of pickled cabbage salad.

On our second day, everywhere was very quiet as it was the 35th anniversary of the revolution when the Nicaraguan people overthrew the dictator government. In the afternoon we saw bus loads of people about to head off to the capital to celebrate. In the morning we took a boat trip around some of the 365 small islands on the lake. We managed to get a cheaper price than the tour companies offered by organising it through one of the men that try and sell boat trips on the walk down to the lake, but I think we still paid over the odds. Also when we went to pay at the end, they didn't give us enough change and tried to tell us it was because we'd got a short lift in the car to the dock. They'd never mentioned this originally so fortunately I know enough Spanish to argue the case, and we got the correct change. It seems that because Nicaragua is so much more touristy, more locals try to rip you off. This never happened in El Salvador and I don't think in Honduras whereas we've seen and heard of it lots here. Anyway, the boat ride was nice and we saw lots of people's houses who live on the tiny islands. We also went past one island where only some monkeys live: they had been put there by a vet a while ago. One, called Lucy, came on the boat with her baby which was pretty cool.

In the afternoon we wandered round some more of Granada and saw some more churches and went up the tower of one of them for a nice view across Granada and the surrounding countryside.

On our last day, we took a local bus to the nearby town of Masaya, although it took ages with the bus crawling along at a very slow speed. We wandered through the local market, trying to get to the centre of town but realised we were going the wrong way when we asked someone. After finding the right way, we found the artesanal market that the town is famous for and after much deliberation, Simon bought a t-shirt and I bought a purse. We then walked to the central park and then down to the edge of the lagoon that the town is situated by. It was a longer walk than anticipated and very hot but the view was worth it when we got there. We walked back up into town where we rejunvenated ourselves with some lunch before walking back to the bus terminal. It was interesting to visit the town as it was in stark contrast with Granada: it was filled with rubbish and it was clear that they don't employ people to clean it up like they do in Granada and it was quite smelly. But it felt a bit more like the real Nicaragua.

Katy