Leon, Nicaragua

Day 414.

New day new country, in fact our shuttle to Nicaragua would be taking us through our 3rd country in the space of 14 hours - Honduras. We would not be stopping however and so we were limited to views out of the car window as we traversed the country, plus a fleeting moment or two to sample the local food at the border crossing. Passports stamped we crossed into Nicaragua around 2am, tired and all travelled out we were quick to pass out into our hostel bed.

We woke to some serious heat. By 8am I was dripping with sweat, and I wasn't alone - although granted Limbster was 'just right' . The temperature had jumped a notch as we went south and was now a solid 35 degrees. Strictly vests only from now on - if anything at all.

It didn't take long to settle into hostel life here, a more travelled route than El Salvador meant for nice hostels and good crowds, and we quickly met some great people to share our time in Leon with. After a fairly shambolic revolution museum tour in which none of us left any wiser than we started we decided to dedicate our evening to a local favourite - Flor de Cana rum plus a little live music. You might need to shower 5+ times per day but drinks are cheap here and more than make up for it - two pints of the local beer in a nice bar @ £1.50. Its easy to see how things spiralled that evening...

The following day Limbster was quick to come to mine and everyone else's rescue (once she had sobered up at 11am that was), quickly hunting us down a pool where we could relax and recover. Come Saturday night we opted out of socialising at salsa and went to sample the local cuisine together. This is predominantly great bbq meat accompanied with rice and beans - which is the staple of all diets here. After finding a local whole in the wall, and eating too much as usual we headed to the town square to soak up the atmosphere on the Saturday before Xmas, vibrant markets, children signing and lots of course fried chicken and fries!

A trip to Leon wasn't complete without visiting one of the many surrounding volcanoes. And it wasn't long until we were stood on the top of the most active one in all of Nicaragua, jumpsuits and googles on, ready to slide all the way back down on our tabogan like board. A rather unusual activity granted but certainly a first and much more efficient than our usual method of descent. Views were incredible also.

Heading down second out of our group meant the pressure was on for me and there was plenty of adrenaline on the way down, surviving a quick scare at the halfway point but all in all making good time down the 728m volcano. What Limbster might have lacked in speed she certainly made up for in style, cruising into that end zone bum still on board, and hey she also saved me having to add the slow mo effects on the video in a months time too.

Leon really did have a lot to offer and with the Pacific Coast just a 30 minute drive we couldn't miss a visit to the beach. Black sand and sunset swims never get old and today was no exception, we might not have spotted the green ray today but there would be many more like this.

It appears that traveling might well be having a positive impact on our general knowledge also, with us leading our quiz team to a triumphant victory come our last nights stay in Leon. That or the oppositions understanding of simple math was lower than average on this occasion.Les mer