Costa Rica to Nicaragua

The next day after arriving back in San Jose I was back at the airport to meet Tara and she treated me to a night in a nice guesthouse near the airport before our flight to Drake Bay the next morning. The treat turned into a trick as we seriously think it was haunted. The guy drove us there, locked us in, there was no one else there and then the tv started turning on by itself. We slept that night with visions of the creepy woman from ´The Ring´crawling out to kill us. But as I am still alive writing this you know she didn´t get me although it was a close call when we we got locked out and the caretaker turned up brandishing a huge knife to break the door open.

After the eventful morning we still managed to catch our flight to Drake Bay. It was beautiful, a still isolated and unspoilt destination well worth visiting. We got competely drenched walking in the rainforest which brought back the nightmares of my stint voluntering, seasick whilst looking for humpback whales and dolphins and zipped through the rainforest canopy again, I had enjoyed it so much the first time in Monteverde. Back in San Jose, we took a day trip whitewater rafting on the Rio Pacuare, the class 4 rapids were awesome and the scenery unbeatable, I want to go again!!!

After a final farewell to San Jose, I nearly lost Tara at the Nicaraguan border crossing as the bus driver drove off without her and it took me a while to get him to stop for her with my broken spanish. But we have both arrived safely in Granada. The town has a very laidback feel and the lake is stunning. However the tranquility was too much for us, so today we went to Momotombo Volcano. There are 29 volcano´s in Nicaragua, 7 are active and this is the most active and dangerous of the lot. But it was ok because they supplied us with helmets, torches and gas masks. It was quite cool peering straight into the crater seeing the lava but the gas was unbelievably smelly and toxic even with our masks on I started choking. We also had a quick wander into a bat cave which was used for ritual sacrifices in the old days, spooky. After walking 10 mins into the tunnels we switched off our torches and it was so dark we couldn´t even see our hands in front of us. I did have a fear that my battery would run out, it was unfounded though and I am now back in the hostel having had a shower whilst the water back is on. It is guaranteed to be switched off for 12 hours per day to conserve water but the power cuts are random.

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