The border crossing between Guatemala and Nicaragua was much less of a hassle than expected. Lots of time and patience required, but another crossing with polite business like staff and officials. Our first night in Nicaragua was a true backpacker experience. Lots of beer and North American tourists, which was a strange and slightly surreal experience after so long without seeing other gringos.
The following week consisted of drinking, relaxing, and catching up with a friend on the volcanic island of Ometepe. Twin volcanos (one active, and one dormant) on an island, in lake Nicaragua. My sister Tessa arrived in Nicaragua a week later, and we spent time hiking, horse riding and swimming. The islands main draw card is the twin volcanoes, Conception and Maderas. Conception rises sharply 1610m from the land in classic volcano form, puffing clouds of smoke. Maderas, lies dormant, and slopes more gently to a point of 1394m, with thick jungle covering the path to the top. Most visitors to the island choose at least one of the two volcanoes to climb, and I preferred the shadier and slightly more leisurely option of Maderas. As it happened, a group of 12 others were climbing conception the following day, so we decided to tag along. The climb was steep, basically scaling the volcano directly up one side. It was also difficult going, scrabbling up a recent rock slide. Sharp loose rocks moved and slid under your feet making every step up (and down) tricky. On the way up, I decided I was never going to make it, and on the way down I fell more times than I could count. Luckily we had three wonderful guides, who followed right behind me on the way up, and held my hand half of the way down. One section of the decent however made it all worthwhile. Tiny volcanic gravel and a steep decent allowed you to slip and slide, at a run, so you basically flew down the mountain side. In the following days, while we waited for our legs to recover we kayaked the mangroves, rode horses, took a sunset boat cruise and swam down a river to its mouth at the sea (well, lake actually).