Hotel Suyapa Beach Leon

Thanks to an early start, we found ourselves in Leon late on Sunday morning. This gave us some time to set out and begin to explore the town before our first activity. Leon is the former capital of Nicaragua, and it´s a very pretty, old, colonial town. Although there´s clearly more tourism here than in El Salvador, it´s still fairly non-touristy. After walking around the town a bit, we decided to sign up for a tour that had been recommended by ...

... cinema that week, Public Enemies, Duplicity and The Mist, all with varying degrees of success in the sound department - the first was way too soft and we strained to hear every word, the second was probably the best and the third was a mixed bag, too loud, too soft and the movie was pretty bad as well. Still, the movies had air con which is really what we wanted!

The one thing we really wanted to do in Leon was volcano boarding with Bigfoot Hostel. This involves ...

... write this and think back to that moment. 
After he gave be a little push I glided down the mountain... and it was sooo much fun! Not nearly as scary as I thought it would be! The 
wind, and the volcanic gravel, whipping in my face! Amazing! I got 
down to the bottom, jumped off my board, and immediately ran to give 
the other girl for a hug! What an amazing experience. Then, the guide holding the radar gun came up to me.... he told me I had ...

... 6 am Sunday morning for a full day of ziplining, kayaking, and other fun adventures. So we will see if my fiesta happens! Well – I am going to go help load up the van. Goodbye Amigos for Christ, goodbye Villa, goodbye girlscout camp room with 13 bunk beds, goodbye cold showers, and goodbye Carlos and Juanita, our friendly rats (yes, rats) that are in between the walls that wake us up during the night!

... did some medical stuff, and was heartbroken by the fact that most of the people that came to see the doctor received multivitamins, Advil/Tylenol, and cough syrup. They had to wait a month just to receive Tylenol or a vitamin! I take a vitamin, plus like 3 other random vitamins every single day and don’t even think about it – these people don’t even have the most basic medicine. We also gave out medicine for parasites, which they have ...

... was a sample of basically all their food – which was different, but good… and for a meal I got the chicken kabobs. Chicken, onion, green pepper, carrots and green beans on the side, rice…. Deliciousness. I also had one of my friends steak kabobs (surprised?) and that was almost better than the chicken! Mmm-mmmm

We then came back and went to sleep (I am writing this the next day because I was way too tired last night). I also had another good night of sleep!

... the outskirts was "shelters" made out of scraps of metal or anything else they could find. Children were walking around with nothing but underwear on (walking on this ground in bare feet which I was scared to walk on even with shoes) and carrying a stick with a hook. This hook is how the foraged stuff out of the dump. They basically forage anything they can to either use or sell. They have to get at least $1.50 worth of stuff to sell so they can eat that day – or ...

... sunset, and
I'm super stoked.
I get back to the hotel and it's already dark so
no surfing today. It sucks but that's life. I decide to go hang out in
the rancho and grab some food. 4 fish tacos, 2 beers, and 3 rum/Cokes
...I feel pretty damned good and decide to call it a night since I have
to head back to Managua tomorrow at 7am.

... Nicaragua.
We finally make it to Las
Penitas and I check into Playa Roca Hotel. The hotel is amazing. For
$35 a night, you get a private room on the beach with en suite
bathroom. The beach is at your door! The hotel also has a nice little
beach bar/restaurant. It's just a great place to kick back and relax.
So
I meet the owner, Cookie Cardin. She and her husband from CA ...

... no attempt to refute the charge) and went.

It was on the bus here that i met Jeff, an older guy who has done a lot of travelling, cycling and all manner of weird and wonderful projects over the years. He is the definitive budget traveller, full of tips, tricks and hints. It was really useful to pick his brains on my Southern-bound route and enjoy a different kind of conversation to what you often have over and over in many ...