Oh well, back to 'reality' of a sort. As predicted, it was truly sad leaving Nicaragua, so I'll dwell a little bit on what I'm now missing. The lovely Xalli hotel, with its beachside hammock and opportunities for jumping in the lake in the afternoon heat, was a fine place for my final three nights. Cheers to Rosalyn and Jonathan and all the lovely staff there for a island life experience, Although I must express a level of personal outrage for the lack of a...

The First Rule of Anywhere is, of course, to sit still. And that's what I'm doing in that hammock in the picture. I've just had my lunch delivered to me and watched a horse go for a drink in the lake. Then, I witnessed a fight between a squirrel and a blue-tailed magpie (urraca) for the scraps of my sandwich. The magpie won the territorial fight, the squirrel retreating at pace, but it's still a bit uncertain about how close the bread is to the hammock. More...

If you're on bookface, you'll have seen the picture of the volcanoes of Ometepe. The island is simply those volcanoes and I think I need to go to see them in a bit of detail. Those of you familiar with my previous motorbike adventures will be aware that 'accident-prone' just about covers it. So it makes complete sense to hire one. To give you a steer on some omens for this adventure (on an Island that traditional Indians regard as full of such stuff) there ar...

...as in I love it here too much. OK - I will leave San Juan del Sur given the usual danger of being too Alan Partridge in one place, but I'm taking Cath's advice and heading to an island lake with TWO volcanoes on it. Yes two. More comedy dog and parrot moments have been vague distractions, but swimming in the surf has been a fine thing too. Today a couple of kids came and joined me. Not sure why - maybe it was the comical sight of a very white, old, overwe...

As I'm here sitting on a hammock with chillout music on the hotel stereo and the Pacific at the end of the garden, I thought I might as well set the scene. And that's it set. Also, there's a small menagerie here. Comedy moment just now when one of the dogs fell in the pool he's not allowed in. This set the parrot off. Jesus it's tough. Jesus Christ, incidentally, watches down on us here. Big statue on the hill. Lovely to talk to people at home this week. ...