Nicaragua here I come!! Up at 5am with once again an uneasy belly made me a little nervous for what could be a very long day of travel. My bus left Monteverde at 6am and weaved its way 2.5 hours down and up terrible mountain roads before arriving at the main highway. At the highway I got off the bus and waited nearlly an hour in the steaming heat for a bus heading to the Costa Rican boarder town of Penas Blancas. The bus to Penas Blancas was an old bus with tiny seats and the journey was a very long and bumpy 3 hours to the boarder. On arrival at the boarder we were met by 100s of locals and tourists going through boarder formalities; which turned out to be an absolute nightmare. After lining up for ages we were all told we needed exit stamps ($8) from another building, after obtaining stamps it was another hour in line to get Cost Riva exit stamp. I then walked across the 1km boarder bridge to Nicaragua and was met by the sly and slippery Nicaraguan hustlers. Nicaraguas customs had just one guy working and we were charged $13 for entry tax which seemed ridiculous and excessive. I am usually excited when entering a new country but a combination of being sick, held up at the boarder for two hours and meeting a bunch of dodgey characters put me in a very bad mood. Walking into Nicaragua I was hounded once again and given false info in the hope I would take an expensive bus to my next town: Ribas. I ended up talking to a nice local lady that guided me to a local bus and for $1 I was off. I met an American girl and a Dutch guy on the bus and the Dutch guy was also headed to Onetepe and asked if he could join me. The Ditch guys name was Peter and he was an absolute nutter and I spent the next 2 hours trying to ditch him with no luck. We arrived in Ribas and every interaction I had with locals this guy would jump in and just make a mess of the situation and as he spoke no Spanish he then expected me to sort the now messed up situation out. We eventually managed to get a taxi to the port town of Saint Jorge and luckily just arrived as the boat was taking off (tax + boat $3). The ferry ride over to the island of Ometepe was very slow but quite scenic and I met 4 really nice Northern English girls and spent the whole trip chatting with them. When we arrived at Moyogalpa (main town on the island) the girls made a mad dash in one direction and me in the other (in order to get away from the nutter Peter). Walking around I felt very relaxed and people seemed warm and friendly, I made my way to a hostel I had been recommended: Hostel Ibesa which had dorm rooms for $5 a night or $4 if I stayed 4 nights. The hostel was really a family home with a couple of private rooms and a dorm room, there was a small kitchen for use (no gas) and a refrigerator, Internet and a nice communal area. After dumping my things I headed out and met up with the English girls at their hostel; Hospedaje Central. There hostel was also very nice but fully booked so I was happy I had found Hostel Ibesa which was nearly empty. Walking around the town I met heaps of very friendly locals (all of which spoke English) and organized my next few days on the island. I brought this huge watermelon off a guy that was sitting on the corner of the road selling 100s of them - for about 80cents I got a 3 kg watermelon = winning. I also got told a very cheap local BBQ place where I could get dinner very cheap. In the afternoon the English girls and I watched the sun go down over the lake and then walked around the town a bit before returning to their hostel. I headed for dinner at the small BBQ place and for about $1.20 I got some banana chips, salad and a piece of BBQ chicken - not bad when every other resteraunt in town was charging $4-$7. I then spent the rest of the evening with the English girls which were not only all gorgeous but incredibly down to earth and funny and made me thankful for our earlier introduction on the ferry over. At around midnight we called it a night and I made my way Back to my hostel which for some reason had been locked with a huge padlock on the door. I wondered round the building and found a whole in the outside balcony and managed to climb up onto the roof and make my way into the hostel luckily. With a bad start to the day things were now looking up with meeting some really nice people (travellers and locals) and being able to hold down a solid meal - Travelling sucks when your sick but is bliss when you are healthy and energized; Hello Nicaragua I am now ready for an adventure.

OBSERVATIONS:
- Sick again
- Penas Blancas boarder town 2+ hours stuck with formalities $20+ of entry and exit stamps!??
- Nicaragua - new country
- Nutter Dutch guy: Peter
- Met lovely 4 English girls (Northern England) Amy, Megan, Bianca
- Arrived Moyogalpa
- Hostel Ibesa ($4-$5 a night)
- Hung-out with English girls at Hospedaje Central