We got up bright and early for some breakkie before jumping on an 8am shuttle towards Lanquin, the town next to the beautiful Semuc Champey. The 8 hour shuttle actually ended up taking 10 hours, but considering we didn’t get caught up in a political roadblock, we were actually pretty lucky. 

Our whirlwind tour of Guatemala coincided with the lead up week to their presidential elections. In Guatemala, political rallies and protests mean one thing - roadblocks. Yep that’s right. To protest against one political party or to show support for another, people will literally block major roads and hold a rally in the middle of the street. This includes major highways. We heard a nightmare story from a french couple who’s relatively short 5 hour hop turned into a 24 hour debacle. Hence, every single time we hopped in a bus or a van in Guatemala (which was lots in our mental week here), we did so with crossed fingers that we could somehow avoid one of these random and spontaneous commuting nightmares.

We got to Lanquin, and from here jumped in a Ute tray with all of our bags and other travellers for a half hour journey through the outskirts of town to our hostel - Utopia. We got here just in time for the big communal dinner, and shortly after hit the hay.

​We headed back and along the way grabbed a delicious late lunch from a stall set up on the side of the road. Back at the hostel we tried calling home again unsuccessfully before giving up and having a few cheeky vinos on the back deck of the hostel. Pros and cons of travelling - you get to see so many beautiful places, but you can’t help but get homesick on days like this when you’re thousands of miles away from the people you love. 

Next stop Lago de Atitlan!

Our last stop in Nicaragua was the Corn Islands, off the east coast in the Caribbean. 

After spending the last 10 days on the the pacific coast surfing and relaxing we headed back to Managua to get our flight. The journey from Popoyo to Managua on the chicken buses was a story in itself, but that's for another day. 

To get to the Corn Islands you can go via plane or via a combination of land and sea. We opted for a flight that cost less than $150US per person, an easy choice when faced with the prospect of hours and hours aboard buses and boats. We had booked accommodation on Little Corn, however all flights go direct to Big Corn, and from there you can get to Little Corn via a quick boat trip.

We arrived on Little Corn after our flight and boat combination and headed for our accommodation at Carlito's Place, on the other side of the island. Along the way we passed all the shops and restaurants on the island (all 20 or so of them) and noticed a dive shop. We had already decided whilst here we would check out the underwater world. 

We dropped off our bags at our modest, $15 US a night accommodation (only $7.50 each!!). It was a tiny shack on the beach, but it had a bed, a mosquito net, a shower and toilet and the water was quite literally lapping at our balcony. This was where we would call home for the next 4 nights. 

Whilst on the island we explored, swum, snorkelled and dived. Theres not much more to say except that the water was warm, the sun was hot and the diving is very cheap! One highlight was an awesome night dive we did (sorry we didn't get any good photos). We had a great time. Next stop, Guatemala!

Our 2nd last stop in Nica was the Pacific coast. We spent 8 days at Playa Gigante and Popoyo.

Whilst here we didn't do much but surf, read and relax. It was perfect. We haven't got much to say about here so we'll let a couple of pictures do the talking. Oh and also, make sure when here you check out the sunset, each and every day. It's a cracker. 




Next stop The Corn Islands.

We're planning a 2 - 3 week road trip beginning and ending in Las Vegas in September and we need your help!

We're hiring a van and thus far we're planning on hitting up these locations:

• Las Vegas
• Salt Lake City (1 night)
• Yellowstone National Park (4 nights)
• Grand Teton National Park (2 nights)
• Moab
• Arches National Park
• Canyonlands National Park
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Antelope Canyon National Park
• Lake Powell
• Horseshoe Bend
• Monument Valley
• Grand Canyon
• Zion National Park
• Las Vegas

We'd love any suggestions you have on any of the National Parks and anything we might have missed that's worth checking out! 

Also suggestions on places to set up for the night; free, paid or just damn beautiful, let us know!

Comment below, or shoot us an email via our get in touch page!

Cheers,
Bec & Sean

From Granada we headed north to Leon to try our hand at volcano boarding. I’m not going to lie, I’m scared of heights and I’m also scared of siding down steep rocky hills at high speeds. Hence needless to say I was a little apprehensive about volcano boarding, especially considering the record speed is 95km/h…. That’s bloody quick!
We stayed at Bigfoot hostel and had a couple cheeky bevies on the first night, after all Tash was leaving the next day. Tash proclaimed that she was going to be the fastest girl of the day tomorrow, and as I was planning on digging in my heels the whole time I was happy to leave her unchallenged. After some dinner and a couple more bevies we retired to bed. It was still pretty early, but we wanted to get some rest for the next days activity. 

The next day we boarded a bus with 40 odd other travellers and headed for Cerro Negro, the volcano we were about to throw ourselves down. 

After an hour or so on the bus with several cow on road detours, we arrived at the volcano visitor centre. Here we lined up and paid our entrance fees before heading up the volcano. The day trip was led by Heath, an Aussie guy working at Bigfoot. He really made the day by giving us heaps of quality information on the volcano, previous records, and even a story of a guy who road down the volcano on his bike and beat the world record for downhill bike speed (might I add the guy broke his bike in half and also a hell of a lot of bones).

Once up the top we peered into the crater, kitted up and listened intently on how to slide down and not die.

We lined up and headed down one at a time. I went 2nd. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to watch other people go down and work up the courage to do it myself. Like I said, colliding with rocks and heights aren’t my thing. Especially not when they’re combined. 

I flew down.. or at least it felt like it. I got half way and fell off my board. After a short tumble and a mouth full of volcanic ash i thought to myself... Hey this isn’t so bad. I fell off AND I’m okay. I was off again. I eased up a little on the heels in the rock and managed to go even faster for the last part.. I was clocked going at an insanely quick speed of 23kph…. Okay so maybe it wasn’t that quick, but hell I’d done it, lived and enjoyed it.

Sean was next, and unfortunately the stuff on the bottom of his board (put there to make you go “extra quick”) fell off in the first 5 metres, so he came down really, really slow. Regardless he still had fun.

A few other people came and went before out of nowhere someone flew down and nearly ran into us. I legit had to jump out of the way. Who was it? None other than Tash, getting the fastest girl speed of the day at 67kph. Bloody show off.

We all headed back to the hostel tired but smiling. It had been a really fun day, and much better than Sean and I had anticipated. This was hugely in part to Heath and his information, and the insights he brought to the day.

Back at the hostel Tash had to do the “Lava Shot Challenge” for getting the fastest speed. The challenge consists of 3 chilli infused shots, and then another at the end. The whole idea is being able to do all 3 in less than 30 seconds and then not vomit for around a minute or so before proceeding to do the last shot. She succeeded. The shots were done at around 4pm.. her bus to Managua City to get her flight was at 5:30. Needless to say she was drunker than she expected to be for her flight.

That afternoon Tash left. It had been so much fun being with her for the past 5 or 6 weeks and we were sad to see her go. Bye Piña!!

Next stop for Sean and I are heading back to San Juan del Sur for a few days, then up to Gigante Bay and Popoyo for some surfing and time in the sun.

From Ometepe we arrived in Granada, crawled into our dorm room and legitimately passed out. Sean and I were both feeling super shitty from our stomach bug and a good 20 hours sleep with a short break to shower and put on pyjamas was needed.

We awoke the next day feeling loads better, and headed off to breakfast with Tash and Aimee. We indulged a little at the Garden Cafe, and then proceeded to come here a few times over the next couple of days. Who can say no to a good ice coffee and a chic chip cookie?


That day we had an explore of the town checking out the lake, the buildings and the shops. We also booked a trip for the next day to Laguna de Apoyo, a huge crater lake close to town, inside an inactive volcano.

We left our hostel at 9am and were dropped at the crater lake. We had 5 or so hours to hang out, paddle board, read, kayak and do whatever we wanted. The time flew by and we had an amazing time! We'll let the pictures do the talking for this part.. it was truly beautiful and one of the nicest places we've swum in the past 9 months!

After the day on the lake we headed up to the mirador (view point) looking out over the entire lake. It was breathtaking, and truly worth coming to just for a look!

Next stop is Leon and the famous Volcano boarding at Cerro Negro!

After the madness of Sunday Funday and a somewhat relaxing Monday Hungday we headed onwards and upwards to Isla de Ometepe. We got a cab from San Juan to San Jorge pier between the 4 of us. You can also jump on the chicken bus from San Juan to Rivas and then get another bus from Rivas to the pier, but for $5 each and less than half the time we opted for the taxi. 

First off let me start by saying Isla de Ometepe is beautiful and the boat ride over is no exception. There's something pretty darn incredible about jumping on a ferry and heading towards an island made of two volcanoes! I of course wanted to stand outside and watch the whole time (this also helps me not get motion sick) and due to the breeze I forgot about the sun and resultantly got a little fried (sorry mum and dad!).

Eventually we arrived and found our accomodation. We dropped our things and headed of for some food and an explore.

The next day we headed off for a trek up Concepcion Volcano. There are 2 volcanoes on the island; Concepcion and Maderas. Maderas is the one with a lake in the centre that you can climb all the way up to, however we got told by multiple people that the hike wasn't great and there is a huge amount of mud due to the constant rain, so we gave this one a miss and decided on Concepcipn instead. Due to the recently increased volcanic activity and a high concentration of sulphuric gases at the top we were unable to climb higher than 1000m on Concepcion (the cauldron is at 1600m). Regardless this was still pretty awesome and we were surrounded by clouds.

As we walked/slipped our way back down the clouds thinned and the view was pretty incredible, it turns out even though we weren't at the top 1000m is still pretty darn high!

The return trip with pit stop for food at the top took about 4 hours walking up and down, not as bad we thought!

We got home, has some lunch and headed out to Ojos de Agua, a natural spring that’s had some infrastructure built around it to cater for tourists.

The pool was nice and going for a swim felt reaaaal good. However I would have preferred it was all natural as opposed to built up, but hey it was still fun and I even got to watch Sean and Tash attempt/fail a water tightrope!

That night we grabbed some pizza and packed our things, we were heading off the next morning. 

Unfortunately all of us were awoken in the night with a stomach bug. The ferry and car ride onwards Granada was going to be interesting… 

Next stop.. Granada!

From Santa Teresa, Costa Rica we headed north to San Juan del Sur. A town in the south of Nicaragua famous for being close to lots of surf breaks and partying. From Santa Teresa we booked a shuttle to the border. I've loved our 2 intense weeks in this beautiful little country but I certainly won't miss the cost of things here. 
6 hours later we arrived at the border and after paying all the "semi legit" exiting and entering fees, we were in Nicaragua! From here we were heading to San Juan Del Sur on the south pacific coast. We ended up paying a taxi driver to take us, and it only cost $25 and took about 40 minutes for all of us to go from the border to the front door of the hostel.

We stayed at Hostel "Surfing Donkey" which had some really nice staff, and a fun little bar and pool to cool off and relax.

First day in town we didn't get up to much, just perused through some shops and got smoothies. Oh and then we found the mini local produce markets at "Big Wave Dave's." Here we ate about 10 delicious pork and ham rolls with home made coleslaw and chased it down with plenty of equally delicious home baked lemon slices. Needless to say dinner afterwards was pretty small. If you're in SJDS on a Saturday morning, seriously go check it out!

The next day was Sunday. And in San Juan that means Sunday Funday, which is basically a gigantic pub crawl to several bars and hostels around town, many of which have pools. 

I had woken up early to go for a surf beforehand, but alas there wasn't much going on at the beach we had planned to go to. Myself and Federico, an Argentinian guy from our hostel, found a group of other travellers from France and the US who had a ute, so we ended up jumping in the tray and what was meant to be a short morning outing turned into a close to 6 hour ordeal. 

Whilst the beach that the town is situated on isn't the best, I can see why plenty of people end up spending a lot of time here due to the abundance of good restaurants and cafes, a fun drinking culture and relatively close proximity to plenty of other nice beaches. For us this time however 4 nights was enough. 

Next stop, Isla Ometepe!