After a few tearful goodbyes (on my part, not Harry's!) we left Christchurch bound for Nicaragua:

Christchurch - Auckland - Los Angeles - Miami - Nicaragua...

27 hours, not a lot of sleep, 8 movies and lots of orange juice and plane snacks later...

We arrived in Managua at 8.30pm and it was roughly 28 degrees. The long trip wasn't too strenuous and we had quite a nice surprise on the way from Miami to Nicaragua... Sitting in the seat in front of us was the couple I met and went out to dinner with last time I was in Nicaragua, I had met them on the same flight nearly 2 years ago and we had no idea that they would be on the plane!

We made our way to the hostel in Managua where we spent our first night. Harry was out like a light whilst I felt like my whole body was sunburnt and made regular trips to the cold shower to cool down and felt rather ill, once again I ended up leaning over the basin involuntarily giving up the little food I had eaten over the last 24 hours!

The next day was a significant improvement on the previous as I find the goodbyes and the long journey rather harrowing! It makes me realize even more what fantastic friends, family and bf I have back at home :)

So on our first day (yesterday) we met Helio, the man that was on our flight. He sent his driver to pick us up and bring us to his house where we drank ice tea and played on his ipad and sat beside the court yard on comfy sofas while it was raining lightly outside. He then took us to the private university that he established 18 years ago and gave us a tour around all the different departments, introduced us to many people and invited us to attend some classes there in the summer! We had subway for lunch at the university food court then instead of catching the bus to León as we intended, Helio insisted his driver would take us on the 1.5hour journey. We were dropped right to our hostel door, how fantastic!

Five minutes after putting our bags down, we were off to the baseball game with a few others from our hostel. 25 Cordobas to get in, a little more than UD$1. Crazy dodgy looking fireworks, sweet random music, Ricky Martin with new lyrics and that song that says something like pa pa americano, fried snacks and generally a great time!

Now we think we will stay the next couple of weeks here in León as there is a festival on next week and then we will head to Somotillo for some Spanish practice!

We haven't made many other plans except in January we are going back to see Helio and Maria and they are taking us to stay the weekend on their farm just outside of Managua.

We have sweet free wireless at this hostel now, so will keep you updated... Watch this space :)

Miss you all!