Goodbye Nica Hello Rica

The colonial charms of Granada pulled me back for another visit but sooner or later a traveller has got to leave town...with a heavy heart I started to move south knowing that it was going to be my last few days in Nicaragua - a country I had really enjoyed

Sailing past Volcan Conception

The easiest way to make my way to the border was by boat - a 16 hour overnight journey - no cabins or soft beds just a bench but one thing I have become good at us sleeping anywhere! By about 6 in the morning we were approaching San Carlos.  After a quick breakfast you'll find it difficult to believe that I got in another boat! - to be honest there's no real alternative here - this time only 4 hours! The boat took me back into Lake Nicaragua and then up the Papaturro river to the riverside community of Los Guatuzos

Arriving at San Carlos on the Rio San Juan

Fish market San Carlos

Heading up the river

Turtles basking in the sun

Swampy!

Kayaking on the Rio Papaturro

Iguana chilling on a branch - this guy weighed about 15kg!

 This area is ecologically protected zone with dense jungle full of noisy howler monkeys (no need fir an alarm - at 6am they created their own special kind if dawn chorus!) and beautiful river scenery - the highlight being kayaking up the river with kingfishers and egrets swooping across, caimans ( a type of small crocodile) lurking in the reeds, lazy turtles basking in the sun and dozy iguanas sitting in trees

River bird drying out

 Soon it was back in the boat to head up the Rio San Juan to El Castillo - literally The Castle This quaint riverside town is famous for its fort built to keep pirates from passing up river - it was built opposite a set of rapids called "The Devil's Rapids" - a place on the river where ships had to slow to navigate - making themselves sitting ducks!

El Castillo

The Devil´s Rapids

The view downriver from the fort

Having a beer on a rocker on my balcony in El Castillo - rocking chairs are all the rage in Central America

A couple of days later I caught the early boat back to San Carlos and hopped on another - yep - boat! This one took me down river to the Costa Rican border...