PJR

Today we planned on waking up at 8:00am, but ended up snoozing until 8:40am. We then finished packing and headed down to check out and have breakfast. We got on the 9:30 am shuttle to the airport and had a short drive over. We checked in and got to relax and walk around the duty free shops. By the way if you're looking for Flor de Cana, the duty free shop at the airport is a great place to stock up as its about $9/bottle of the 7 year Gran Reserva. They also have lots of good quality Nicaraguan cigars at reasonable prices. We spent the rest of the morning hanging out in the cafe by our terminal since they had free wifi. A wee without internet and everyone was using their i(insert name of item) ... read more

Breakfast again was delicious and this is definitely becoming one of the best meals of the day. I just cannot get enough of the queso frito as it is so delicious and the gallo pinto for breakfast hits the spot. Not sure how I am going to cope heading back to the real world after this trip and not having this breakfast everyday. Today was an early day as we were on the bus at 9:00 am to head for Volcan Mombacho. The family had arranged a fantastic caballo vallo for us in a house up in the middle of Volcan Mombacho. After the ride over, we got up to the spot where the busses drop us off in a little guard house and from here we transfer into army bus transports to go up to ... read more

We arrived today in Managua around 11:30AM and we met Ana and Arturo with most of Arturo's family at the airport. The flight in was mainly uneventful, although we did get to see Cuba from the plane and got a picture of the coastline. We were then taen onto the bus and driven to the InterContinental Real MetroCenter in Managua. The hotel is very nice and up to the standards you would expect from the InterContinental. After checking in and dropping off our bags we went back to the lobby to begin our tour to Masaya. Our tour guide was Christian, who is a German native living in Nicaragua for over 15 years. He is a great guy and very friendly. Highly recommend him. Our first stop on the way to Masaya was the supermarket to ... read more