We got up at 4 am, checked out and took a taxi (5 minutes) to the airport. After a short stop in San Salvador, we arrived in Roatan (Honduras) around 10 am, and were picked up by our prebooked driver. Based on recommendations from travel friends we had decided to stay in West End, a small, laid-back beach town which is the island’s center for diving. Originally we planned to stay for 4 days, but we kind of fell in love with the place and the people and ended up spending 10 wonderful days here. It was also nice to be able to speak English again. Because of the island’s past as a British colony, this is the first language here.
Roatán is the largest of The Bay Islands, and is located on the edge of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the 2nd largest in the world. This makes it a great place for diving, with numerous great dive sites to choose from, just a few minutes from the dock. We were diving with a company called Reef Gliders, where we quickly became regulars, doing two dives most days. We also ended up doing our Advanced Open Water certification here, including peak performance buoyancy, navigation, deep dive, wreck dive and drift dive. So much fun (except the theory we had to read in the evenings)!
Especially the peak performance buoyancy where we learned to swim through hoops and really be in control under water made a huge difference on the rest of our dives. Navigation was also fun, and made us pay more attention to where we were going. We went diving with several different instructors, dive masters and DMT’s, and probably had the most fun with Kim, Hagn and Brian. Everyone at the shop were great though, giving us tips and tricks, suggesting dive sites and even changed the schedule for us a couple of times. Our favourite dives where probably the Aquila wreck (32 meter) combined with Pillar coral and Hole in the wall (34 meter), a cool swimtrough where we drifted to another site to see a very rare frogfish at the end of the dive. We had several other good dives with nice corals, king crabs, parrotfish, lionfish, trumpetfish, lobsters, large groupers, different moray eels, sting rays, flounders, a few sea turtles and so much more!
Another important reason for us hanging around this long was the wonderful place we were staying, and the great friends we made there. Roatan Bed & Breakfast is located in a charming house on top of a small hill 5-10 minutes walk from the main street. The owner, Barbara, is one of the sweetest people we have ever met, and she really spoiled us with large breakfasts, lots of margaritas and great company. Together with Blaine (a divemaster from the US) we found our home away from home, had loads of fun and pretty much turned into one big happy family (including Pepperoni the cat). We started each day drinking coffee in the balcony, had breakfast together in the kitchen and met again in the balcony in the afternoon to share photos and videos from our dives. A few other guests also joined us from time to time, and especially Kelley fit right in from the moment we met. Too bad she couldn’t stay longer.
We went out a few nights, having drinks at Blue Marlin, listening to talented local musicians at Monkey Island, singing karaoke (mainly Blaine and Hagn) and dancing at Lands end, drinking beer with dive friends at Sundowners, eating street food and jamming with the locals by the fire at the beach. But most nights we went home after diving to see the sunset from the roof terrace, sharing some beers, margaritas and Cuba Libre, laying on our backs watching the stars, sharing travel stories while waiting for the moon to rise, playing music and just having a great time.
On new year’s eve Blaine (who had some local friends from previous visits) told us that the party would be at Sundowners and that we should join him, which of course we did. We arrived fairly early, after a few strong margaritas with Barbara. A few beers later one of us found out that we had not eaten anything, so we went out for some street food (tacos). 
When we came back the party had really started with live bands and loads of people and we had a lot of fun. At midnight we were standing at the beach watching the fireworks, having a sigar and a lot of hugs going around. At 2 am the party and we started to be a little slower so we desided to go skinny dipping. We found a small beach by Reef Gliders, but the water was so shallow that we could barely swim. Still refreshing and fun though! We ended the party back home on the first floor balcony.
The last full day Barbara and Fredrik left the Bed & Breakfast for a haircut at 0930 (payment for wide angle photos of the guest rooms). This became a full day of driving taxi back and forth between the supermarket, bank and funiture shop trying to get a new mattress for one of the rooms. They came home with all the ingrediences for a great omelet breakfast our last day, locally produced organic chocolates, delicious ice cream and everything needed to make Bloody Mary’s. We really made the most of the rest of our time there, and even managed to convince Barbara to join us to the Blue Marlin in the evening. Lots of our dive friends were there, so we got to say goodbye to pretty much everyone. 
Our flight was leaving at 1215 pm, and we delayed the departure to the airport as long as possible so that we had time for one last “family breakfast” with these amazing people. It was really sad to say goodbye, but we have already made plans to meet everyone again. Can’t wait!
Amarilla in Tamarindo, Costa Rica (as we did two years ago). We had booked a shared shuttle all the way from Granada to Tamarindo, but we were the only passengers. Nice! We arrived at the border earlier than expected, but after crossing on foot we had to wait more than an hour before our Costa Rican shuttle turned up, so it took us 6 hours in total.
and got ready for a hotel tradition; watching the sunset together by the gate to the beach. Beautiful as always! The hotel itself looked even better than we remembered it; colorful, charming and fun with quite a few upgrades, better furniture, more hammocks, bananas and coconuts growing in the garden and new and beautiful paintings on the walls.
talking to other guests, going for a swim or two, watching the surfers, having a massage, playing with the dogs and of course watching the sunset every night. After a week in warm cities this was truly paradise! A micro brewery (Volcano Brewing) had opened since our last visit, and of course we went there a couple of times. We also found a few other craft beers in stores and restaurants.
in the big waves. Great fun to watch as well. The Christmas dinner was a bit different from what we’re used to. We ordered pizza for everyone, and gathered around the ping pong table. We brought some Norwegian Aquavit from home, that we shared with everyone, thought them “God jul” and “Skål” and had a great evening. We smoked a couple of cigars bought at the factory in Nicaragua and Cinde had bought some sky lanterns where we all wrote some wishes and later went to the beach to release them in to the sky. Quite beautiful. We ended the evening in a local bar/night club at the beach.
The next morning we packed our bags so that we where ready for our next adventure. The trip to Tamarindo was a small detour, but we were both glad that we went back to Villa Amarilla. It’s still one of the few places where we can truly relax, and the location and the people are still superb. We were picked up at 11 am. It was sad to say goodbye, but we know that we are always welcome back, and of course it helps to have one more month of travelling to look forward to.
Our shuttle from León to Granada took about 3 hours, and we arrived just after noon. We went for some “luxury” this time, a cheap hotel (Case de Alto) in the outer part of the city centre, with hot water, air condition and a balcony. The air condition was a good choice, because Granada seems to be even warmer than León. Granada was founded by the Spanish colonialists in 1524 and was the first European city in mainland America. It’s the national tourism hub, and it’s popularity has led to a large-scale restoration of the old colonial buildings.
There’s not a lot of attractions in the city, but it’s nice to walk around in the colorful streets, with loads of tourist-friendly restaurants and bars. Parque Central in front of the cathedral looks very touristic at first, with horse carriages, market stalls and expensive cafès, but there are also street food stalls with plastic chairs popular among the locals. The main tourist street is Calle La Calzada, a pedestrian area with bars, restaurants, travel agencies and a few shops. It stretches all the way to the docks at the shore of Lago de Nicaragua. This part of the street is mostly empty, and the area by the lake is not much developed either. But with the growing rate of the tourist industry, I’m sure it won’t take long.
We didn’t have too many excursions while in Granada. We enjoyed the amazing breakfast at Kathy’s Waffle House (twice), tasted the craft beer (lemongrass ginger wit) at Espressonista, relaxed in the many beautiful courtyards, watched several Christmas parades and something we think was a celebration of the Nicaragua canal, had a great time talking to a Canadian couple at a way to warm pub terrace, had some Nico Libre at our hotel balcony and a Nico Mule (local rum and home-brewed ginger beer) at Casa San Francisco, visited some churches (got a sneak peak of a wedding and a graduation) and watched some live music at Imagine.
One afternoon we climbed the tower of Iglesia La Merced to enjoy the view of the city, the surrounding volcanoes and a beautiful sunset. We stopped by the tiny Doña Elba cigar factory, where we were shown the entire process and got the final result as a gift. We also bought some cigars for Christmas and New year’s eve. And on our last day in Granada we went on a canopy tour to Miravelle at the base of Mombacho volcano. It had 17 platforms, 3 hanging bridges and 11 zip lines, the longest 300 meters. Zip lines are always fun, but on this tour we also got to go upside down and superman style. On the last one the guides bounced the line while we were going down. Really fun!!
After a short stop in Panama we arrived in Managua, Nicaragua where a driver was waiting for us. It took about two hours to get to Colibri hostal in the center of León, a tranquil place with a hummingbird garden and several hammocks to relax in. León is one of the oldest cities in Nicaragua, and is known for it’s colonial architecture. It was founded in 1524, but was moved in 1610 after being ruined by a volcano eruption. It is an important university city, and the tourist industry is still young here, so the city felt very authentic. They had some noisy traditions including church bells and drums, but the strangest was probably the air-siren going off at 7 am and noon every day. Our hostel was a few blocks away, so it didn’t wake us up (but we heard it), but we were close to the main square at noon one day, and it was so loud that it hurt. Strange tradition.
The temperature got really high in the middle of the day, so we often had a siesta in the hammocks during this time. We went on a couple of afternoon tours and enjoyed the city in the mornings and evenings. The central square is in front of the cathedral. There were market stalls and street food (very good!) in the side streets, lots of people selling everything from blinking toys to hammocks and ice cream (and most of them had a bell or similar to get attention). Two gigantic traditional dolls (La Gigantona) and several Christmas cribs were set up on the square, and there were kids and families everywhere. The first evening there was also fireworks and a group of kids were allowed to ring the cathedral bells before performing La Gigantona over and over again for hours. This was really fascinating the first night, but after that we stayed away in the evenings. Too much noise!
“La Gigantona” is a street play that combines 
One afternoon we went on the Telica twilight hike with Tierra Tours. The drive to the Telica volcano took about 1,5 hours, most of it on a crazy dirt road, where it felt like the car would tip over several times. The road is only a few years old and is maintained by the local farmers. It certainly gave us an experience, and saved us for a long hike. It took us about 45 minutes to walk from 600 meters above sea level to the lower side of the crater at 1000 meters (the highest is 1061). Two locals were sitting close to the crater selling beer and soda from a cooler, and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and a beer before climbing the last 
few meters. There was a lot of smoke coming from the crater, the sulfur smell was quite strong, and between the smoke we could see lava glowing 120 meters below. The release of gasses in the crater made a loud sound, almost like a jet plane taking off. We walked back down in the dark using flashlights, and stopped along the way to watch the stars. No light pollution and really clear skies made it a magical experience.
We also spent an afternoon volcano boarding down Cerro Negro volcano. The drive there was shorter and easier, but the climb to the top was a bit harder. The black lava, strong sun, loose rocks and heavy volcano boards didn’t help, but we reached the top in less than an hour. The volcano consist of two craters, we hiked up the smalest crater where some smoke were coming out. At the top we walked over to look at the big crater, here the ground was so hot that we could actualy burn our fingers when we removed the top soil (or is it ash?). The entire group were sledding down (sitting), except the two of us (nicknamed “the mental Norwegians” 
by the rest of the group) who went for the home made snowboards. When standing on top we saw a couple of very small cars at the bottom, but the slope itself was so steep we didn’t really see it. Definitely (and literally) a black slope! We have sandboarded before, but this was much more difficult. We kind of got a hang of it in the lower part, but by then our feet were cramping up, so we needed some breaks. We were chewing lava all the way home and probably still have some lava in our ears… A great experience, but the next time we will probably do the sledding as well. More speed and less work.
It was finally time for the “real” Galapagos, the uninhabited islands and the areas that can only be reached by boat. We met the rest of our group (12 in total) at the airport, and travelled by bus to the harbour, where our home for the next week were anchored. Angelito I has 8 passenger cabins, a crew of 8, a social/dinner/bar area on the second deck and a large sun deck on top. Our cabin was quite large with several cabinets and a surprisingly big bathroom. We were very lucky with our group, and quickly became friends. Dave and Jan, Alex and Catherine were from England, Rosemary and Tony from Australia, Max from Germany, Ann from France (but living in Australia) and Ashley (US) and Yuri (Spain) both lived in Ecuador.
One afternoon we booked Pancho for a trip to the highlands, where we visited Los Gemelos, which looked like volcano craters, but are actually sinkholes. Our next stop was the lava tubes, tunnels formed by the solidifying of the outside of the lava flow. We walked from one end to the other, more than a kilometer. In some parts they were huge and in other parts we had to crawl. Very cool experience! At El Chato Tortoise Reserve, wild giant tortoises were wandering around, most of them in the area available to tourists, but we also saw several of them in other areas, and even had to stop for one crossing the road. Beautiful animals that it was really nice to see up close like this. Before going back we had a beer at the ranch, and Fredrik bought some Galapagos coffee to bring back to Norway.