Nica Libre

When we arrived in Leon, Nicaragua, it was clear we had entered a country that time had forgotten. Horse and carts tussled with haggered taxis and mini buses that look liked they had been bolted together with scaffolding. The town was surrounded with active volcanoes. We took a tour of the museum of the revolution and it was clear from all the bullet holes in the crumbling buildings that this was a town that had been ravaged by civil war, as recently as the late 90's.

We found out there was the possibility of doing some activities around the nearby volcanoes and one was sand boarding.

We drove for a couple of hours to the base of the Volcano Cero Negro, which some French nutcase used for the mountain bike speed record - he managed 107mph - I wouldn't say that we got too close to that speed, but when we got to the top it decided to pour down with rain, so it gave us an extra incentive to get down as quickly as possible! Both of us managed to get down the 500m face with some degree of elegance, but I cannot say that it will become an Olympic sport anytime soon.

Found a new drink when we got back to town - Local rum called Flor de Cana, orange juice, lemonade and lime - called a Nica Libre (a take on the Cuba Libre) Great drink, thoroughly recommend it!

After Leon, we hooked up with an old travel buddy Al and we all headed to a surf break just west towards the Pacific, near a town called Las Penitas. It was an awesome beach and we arrived in brilliant sunshine and clean (but large) waves rolling in. We stayed in a place just next to the estuary - it was a great little spot but the midgies were relentless! The best place to be was in the water, but the currents were strong due to the big swell so we tried to surf next to a sheltered spot next to some rocks. It was fast and furious and I struggled trying to handle a 7 foot board. The locals did not seem to have this problem, but the rides were pretty punchy! We found a great little cafe right next to the point break and met a friendly family from Colorado who had brought surfboards of all sizes with them so it was good fun surfing with them also.

That night we got caught in a thunderstorm and had to run back to our guesthouse looking like we had been for a swim with our clothes on. Then the power went off and we had a fish supper over candle light - getting used to the power problems in Central America.

After the beach we headed to the colonial city of Granada, which was really picturesque. Lots of colourful buildings and friendly people. We watched the footy and that night Al and I cracked out the Honduran cigars and Nicaraguan rum - Another power cut after another mental storm, so we had to finish the bottle...damn.

We had a bit of a journey ahead of us, as we only had a week to get to Panama City. A brief stop over in San Jose, Costa Rica, and then another boarder crossing into Panama and up into the mountains towards the town of Boquete. It was about 1600m up, so was refreshingly cool and surrounded by coffee plantations and mountains. We managed a walk around the coffee plantations and it was great to see some real Panamanian country life. We stopped off at a strawberry farm on the way back from the walk, where they had a cafe and Leah had fresh strawberries and home made strawberry ice cream - it reminded us of a good old English summers day.

After Boquete we headed to Panama City, which was very developed compared with most other Central American cities. High rises and shopping malls. Leah found a Calvin Klein underwear shop, so we blew the budget that day. We had a tour of the Panama Canal museum which was fascinating. No wonder the Americans were so reluctant to give the canal back to the Panamanians.

We stayed in Panama city a couple of nights and then boarded the plane for the next continent - South America and first of all Bogota, Columbia. Heard lots of good and bad things about the place so was really keen to get there and see what it was like - flying with American Airlines - officially the worst airline in the world. Will be in touch soon.