Hiding in Managua

After the most wondrous sleep in our massive bed we went down for the all you can eat breakfast. I 'only' managed some fruit, a pancake and a waffle with rich, dark chocolate sauce. Anna managed marginally better but our pre-brekkie swim to work up an appetite never happened.

We checked out and were given yummy truffle chocolates. This place just gets better! Then we spent the afternoon lazing by the pool. For once it was pure sunshine which was a bit hot for us so we chose sunbeds half in the shade and went for frequent dips with the ducks. The ducks didn't appreciate our presence and tried to bite anyone who came too close. We had nachos for lunch then around 4pm we went to the bank and then the pharmacy to pick up some anti-malarials (£6 for both of us for rest of the trip - Honduras is meant to be high risk; so were the San Blas but we didn't realise!).

We got our backpacks and walked towards the bus stop when we were stopped and herded onto a small minibus. It was jam-packed already but they squished us in on top of everyone. Thankfully we soon got seats and the bus raced along, barely stopping to pick up or throw off passengers. It's not called the Express service for nothing! It took just over an hour to reach the capital, Managua (25C).

We got an official taxi (225C) for the short ride to the Tica Bus hotel ($23), which is a bit of a dingy place with shared bathrooms, but is part of the terminal so is much safer. Now we are inside it's recommended we stay inside! Managua is renowned as a dodgy place, there are some horror stories involving taxi kidnaps & robberies and people warned us to be careful. However, you can't really avoid it going to Honduras unless you take a slow route on the chicken buses and we don't have time. Tomorrow's bus leaves at 5:30am and there were no buses to get us here that early so we were forced to spend the night. There is a small shop on-site so we had a healthy dinner of crisps and m&ms and are now holed up for the night!

Tomorrow we cross the border. I knew nothing about Nicaragua before our visit. It has unexpectedly turned into one of our favourite countries and we'd love to spend longer here and hope to return. It's cheap, it's not shiny and Americanised, it's completely charming and it has the best coffee and chocolate so far. But most of all, the people are absolutely lovely and welcoming, as are all the Latinos, but here even more so. Plus it has a chocolate hotel - need I say more?!Read more