Back down south to the little ferry port of San Jorge to catch the hour and a half boat to the volcanic isle. It's a really cool looking place with a perfectly formed volcanic cone at either end and a little spit of land in between. One of them is still way active too, and actually erupted last month! Ooh double danger.

Shared a taxi with two more Faroe characters (turns out we randomly met one of their mates in SJDS)....the new country, owned by Denmark, we just discovered existed a few days ago. Apparently they are allowed to compete in football tournaments, although they are crap, but they are not allowed to submit an entry to the Eurovision Song Contest....which bizarrely they seem pretty cut up about. This takes the number of newly discovered countries on this trip to a grand two after the mountain kingdom of Bhutan. Oh yes, Colombus we are.

Had two lovely days of hammock swinging by the lake trying to spot the ferocious world's only freshwater Bull sharks, playing cards and scoffing the communal diner with our fellow traveller buddies. Mightily relieved that we only ended up sharing our 'rustic' cabina with a massive flying praying mantis, various moths and two marginally embarrassed mating spiders (London Zoo friendly spider programme would be so proud).....unlike the lads next door who ended up bunking down with two 'peligroso' scorpions!!

Managed to escape the ever-so-slightly hippiefied commune-esque dinner each night and made our way to the local soda restaurant in the pouring rain much to the bemusement of the locals. But got our bravery rewarded by some homespun guitar rock and an impromptu performance of the well known classic 'Everyone loves ban-an-an-an-an-as'. It almost made up for the fact that our food, which took over an hour to lovingly prepare, came complete with live bugs discovered inside the beans - at the end of the meal. I had soup, ha!

In the morning, we hopped on the school bus across the island past the little villages and farms, to stay at a traditional finca famous for growihrng one of the world's hottest chilli. Needless to say, heat freak Tim was almost beside himself with excitement at the prospect!
Another pretty place with dusty mud roads, a black volcanic sand beach and views of both the volcanoes. Cue more hammock swinging. Explored the beach which was weird with proper waves even though its not a sea, just a lake, and walked along the dusty road for a super sweaty betty hour and through a buggy banana plantation to reach the Ojo de Agua. Well worth the trek.....a secluded watering hole with super clear water in the middle of the forest. Luscious!
Obviously we sampled the famous chilli. Well, I tried a tiny bit which made me cry a little, while mentalist Tim spent the whole meal huffing and puffing and wiping his runny nose after scoffing the whole thing! Crazeee fool!

Next morning, we were back on the boat to the mainland accompanied by Nicaragua's answer to Judge Judy and on our way to the beaches of Costa Rica.....