OK so Hi all!
 
Here I am in Sunny Granada, Nicaragua. I headed north as Costa Rica does indeed in the words of Mr Horsford Cost a Lotta, it´s known for it!

Granada is a beautiful old colonial town where brightly coloured houses line the streets, whilst the locals go amicably about there latin American business.

I have been pleased to have a new friend here for the last week, called Alice. She is also a chicken champion, (you see I am not the only one), and it is refreshing to me to be with her after the chicken fiasco!

I have gone quite brown now and am doing the typical weight is falling off, even though all I do is eat fried food and biscuits diet. It is amazing what you can do just by not sitting at a computer all day!

We took a trip to Laguna de Apoyo. This is a huge crater lake formed by a meteor crashing to earth. It is huge! The earth must have rocked and whilst swimming in it I wondered what sort of climatic events it brought, as the crater is at least 7 km across.

So finally I have had an opportunity to investigate the environment a bit.... I have been in the back of my first pick up truck!

The ecological parallels to Africa amaze me. They have Jacaranda trees here, which is a huge flowering tree with great hanging seed pods found all over Southern Africa. They also share the same paper bark trees, great tubular green trunks which peel sheets of paper like bark,I have also seen these in Africa.

I was thinking about doing some diving, but I have decided to say here and learn some Spanish first. I have already discovered where the best bar, for travelers at least is, and we are going to start working on the local ones tonight. In the name of ecotrourism I have decided to shun the cheaper, more refined looking Spanish school and have booked in to the one that funds a project for street children instead.

So in essence, it´s hot colourful and dusty, and latin beats fill the street from morning till night. The markets hum with life, and the evenings are filled with music  

Now if you´ll excuse me, I have to go and brush up my Salsa. :0)