My journey from Guatemala to Nicaragua was far from smooth. First, I got a shuttle at 4am from Antigua, to Guatemala City (Guate). The driver dropped me off in the middle of a deserted road, in front of a hotel. Luckily there was a friendly guy at reception. He gave me directions to the King Quality (bus company) station, which was about a 15 minute walk. I had no intention of walking the streets of Guate with my backpack at 5:30am, so I asked him to call me a cab. The 'station' turned out to be an office building which wasn't open yet. I was joined by a Honduran girl who had been in Guate for a beauty contest and was equally as terrified as I was about standing in a deserted road. Finally the guard woke up and let us sit in the reception of the building to wait for the bus.

I asked a Nicaraguan guy on the bus about the arrival time and any border fees. He seemed to take an interest in my travels - we spoke (well, I tried to speak) in Spanish about family, travels, work etc etc. Then, about half an hour later, he suddenly started asking me what I thought about relationships between people of the same gender, and telling me he thought I was beautiful. Awkward. I made my excuses and pretended to fall asleep in my seat. At the border of El Salvador and Guatemala, the bus stopped. There were some money exchangers there and I had around $75 of Quetzales that I needed to change. A guy typed some numbers into his calculator and told me he would give me $50 for my Quetzales. I had done the maths beforehand and knew I should have gotten around $75 but seeing him put it into his calculator put doubts in my mind. I took $50 and went back to my seat. As I thought about it I realised he had a dud calculator and had cheated me, Scumbag. I went back and stood in the doorway of the bus. He was nowhere to be seen. Surprise surprise. I explained to another one of the money exchangers what had happened. I was furious and not thinking straight. This exchanger asked to see the $'s I was given. Stupidly, I handed them to him and watched as he ran off with my money. Another scumbag. My actions were incredibly naive. You learn from your mistakes and move on though. Hopefully that will be the worst incident for me, and hopefully there is such a thing as karma and both those guys got hit by buses...... :-)

The journey from Guate to Managua was supposed to take 16 hours, getting in at 11pm. We ended up getting in at 3:30am. That's 23hrs travelling! I shared a cab with 3 Americans and we found a hotel/hostel to lay down for the night. The next morning I booked an appointment to see an Orthodontist a few days later to have my braces removed. As soon as that was done, I headed for the bus terminal to get to Leon.

Leon is a colonial town Northwest of Managua. It is similar to Antigua in terms of the narrow streets, small colourful buildings and ornate churches and a backdrop of volcanoes. I would say that Antigua is better preserved though. I checked into BigFoot Hostel and spent the day walking the streets nearby. Unfortuntely my mouth was on fire as I had had some kind of reaction to my mouthwash, which had caused my tongue to swell and ulcerate. Nice. As a result, I had to hunt out a place serving soup for lunch. I couldn't wait to be able to eat some decent Nicarguan food! It was an early night for me before heading up Volcan Telica the next day.

The Telica trip wasn't cheap, at $45. However, it was worth every penny. There were 6 of us in the group. We set off from Leon in a heavy duty 4x4, and I soon saw why. Once we left the highway and started the ascent of Telica's base, the 'road' was pretty much just a lane of boulders. We all bounced around in the back as the driver expertly navigated over the rocks. We reached the trek start point at 3:15pm. We walked for about 35 minutes taking in stunning views of San Cristobal (Nicaragua's largest volcano) and it's smoking peak, as well as the beautiful surrounding countryside. We reached the crater which was obscured by a screen of sulphur gas. Nonetheless, it was clear just how vast the crater was. After 30 minutes or so we moved further around the crater to watch the sunset. I sat and took in every second. All I could see was an expanse of flat countryside penned in by mountains on the horizon. It was truly a beautiful sight. Once the sun had set and darkness loomed, we made out way back to the crater. If you shut your eyes, the noise from the crater would have you convinced that you were standing at the seaside. Once you opened them though, you'd see a circle of glowing orange lava. I could have stood there and looked at the lava forever. It was an amazing sight! The walk down was interesting. Guided only by our flashlights, we followed the tour guide down the rocky slope of the volcano. This would definitely have breached about a million health and safety laws back home!

My final day in Leon was all about one thing - Volcano Boarding! We took off from Bigfoot at around 2pm armed with a cooler of beers and our equipment, headed for Cerro Negro. Volcano Boarding was a concept started by an Australian who used to own Bigfoot. You effectively sit on a narrow wooden sledge made of two planks of wood and slide down the side of the volcano, dressed in an over-sized jumpsuit.

We stopped a couple of times to see some interesting volcanic landscape, from unusual rocks to vents emitting sulphuric gas. Next we stopped at the crater edge. Incredibly the guide shifted a couple of inches of gravel from the ground with her shoe and we took it in turns to touch the floor - it was red hot. Amazing. Finally we arrived at the boarding spot. I watched the first couple of people go down pretty slow. I sat on my board ready to go. I looked ridiculous in my suit and goggles. Looking down was terrifying. It was a long way and the slope was about 45 degrees. The stories of broken bones, terrible gravel burns etc were reeling through my head. When I got the signal, I set off. It was an incredible feeling. Things were going really well. The wind was sailing through my hair (as well as a lot of gravel) and the adrenalin was pumping. Then I hit 50kph and lost control of my board. I went flying off. Instinctively I put my arms over my face as I rolled 4, 5, 6 times, with my board going flying over me. I got back on and went slowly down the remainder of the volcano. I thought I would get top spot on the crash front, but an American girl beat me to it. Not only did she go the fastest (80kph!), but she also went flying face-first into the gravel at that speed. She came away with just a small bump on her head. Incredible.

On the way back we all talked about our experiences as we shared a couple of beers. I met some very interesting people, including a really interesting French guy who had opened two French bakeries in San Cristobal, Mexico and was living the high life.

The next day I headed to Managua where I got my braces removed - what a relief! It felt so good to finally be rid of them! From there I headed straight to Granada.