Blogs from Capital Region, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 7

Missionvango has passed relatively peacefully through Texas, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and into Nicaragua. However, we finally had the experience we have been halfway expecting all along. We were waved over to the side of the highway by a pair of police officers. Unlike the many police and military checkstops we have passed through, this pair conducted a "safety inspection". After checking for everything that they could possibly write us a ticket for (including not having a a fire extinguisher, brightly colored safety vest, road triangles, etc. all of which we had) they began to get agitated. Finally, one of the officers pointed to my Crocs. "Those are not officially approved footware for driving" he said. Are you serious? He confiscated my driver´s license and said he was going to have to mail it to the ... read more

Today is the big day. The main reason we all came down for. The wedding of Ana and Arturo. It is here at the hotel so we do not have to travel anywhere and have the whole day to spend relaxing after the past couple of hectic days. We slept in this morning, but got up in time for the wonderful breakfast buffet of the InterContinental. We then came back to the room and began to pack and get everything ready for leaving the next day. After a while of getting everything together and relaxing, Vivi went up to be with the bridal party as they got ready for the night. I went off to the pool area and spent the day with the rest of the group that didn't go to Masaya to buy more ... read more

At the crater lake I finished my final two dives of my Open Water certification with my excellent diving instructor Fidel Lopez. He's been a great teacher both with theory and practice. I feel completely confident in diving now and am excited about diving in the future. Check out his website and services at http://www.neptunenicadiving.com/ The bottom of the lake (in an extinct volcano) was very soft and you had to be careful not to stir it up by touching it. Get the buoyancy right! We saw blind fish and many crabs. Not quite as good as my dives in the Pacific off Hermosa Beach in San Juan del Sur. There I saw a spotted eel, a moray eel, a sting ray, lots of lobsters, star fish, schools of fish and it was a great introduction ... read more

Guatemala Here I Come From Woodhouse to Antigua. It’s a long haul from Mansfield Woodhouse to Antigua in Guatemala. I travel down to London the day before my flight and then it’s up at stupid o’clock to get the tube up to Heathrow for my early morning flight. I’m normally not very alert in the mornings so my first visit to the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow is wasted on me. I’m not awake enough to really appreciate it or form any opinions. Everything seems to run fairly smoothly though. In fact today is a good day - the volcano is behaving itself and the cabin crew aren’t on strike. I strike lucky because the guy I’m sitting next to on the flight has recently been travelling in Guatemala. He’s formed a very positive impression on ... read more

Never go with strangers. That's what we all learn when we're young. But as we get older (and supposedly wiser with our increased ability to judge and measure people) we create our own exceptions to that rule. After all the travel I had done over the past 10 years, I had never experienced a serious incident. This was about to change... As I traveled from Honduras to Nicaragua and spent a somewhat uninspiring day at the capital Managua, I made my way to the old colonial town of Leon, which has some interesting old buildings and a huge cathedral. The next day, I was traveling on to Granada. On my way on a minibus to Managua, where I had to switch to another bus to Granada, a local guy started chatting with me. He was young, ... read more