Like most travellers other than Utila I was pretty much sweeping through Honduras. If I had more time I would have liked to stay in a few places before crossing over to Nicaragua.

“According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Honduras has the highest rate of intentional homicide in the world, with 6,239 intentional homicides, or 82.1 per 100,000 of population in 2010. This is significantly higher than the rate in El Salvador, which at 66.0 per 100,000 in 2010, has the second highest rate of intentional homicide in the world.”

Whilst the cities are notoriously dangerous with mostly gang drug related problems the rest of the country is fairly safe, with very friendly people, and with so few tourists some really exciting opportunities. As it was I was crossing from San Pedro through to Leon in Nicaragua in one day. Boarding a bus at 5am and arriving about twelve hours later. My cold had notched up a gear and I was a disgusting ball of snot sat at the back of the bus, luckily no one had to sit by me. Passport control at both border crossings was taken care of by the bus steward, we just handed our passports over. The only thing we had to do was take our bags off the bus at the Nicaraguan side to go through a half hearted security check, they just passed me straight through, and then reload the bus. The border crossing was incredibly hot, but I found on my arrival as was Leon!

Leon is one of two colonial towns in Nicaragua, the other being Granada. I’d decided only to visit one as I have seen so many towns now, and I had also planned on going volcano boarding. However my garden variety cold struck me pretty viciously, and the two nights and one full day I spent there pretty much in bed lying under a pathetic fan trying to not to sweat. A kind Dutch girl I met on the first night even went and bought me a sandwich and juice for my breakfast so I didn’t have to get out of bed. I had a very half hearted wander about town, but didn’t even take any photos. I did meet up with another girl I’d met in Ecuador for dinner briefly, but other than that was a hermit for me two days.

With the heat I’d decided to get out of the town and up into the countryside. This meant getting another super early minibus at 5am which arrived at the city of Estelli by 7. I then had a few hours to kill before my midday bus out to Miraflor natural reserve which is area of traditional coffee growing communities. Again I tried to do a bit of sight seeing but still felt like crap so actually checked into a hostel for three hours sleep. Headed back up to the bus station for my 12pm bus only to discover that the 12pm bus ran everyday of the week but Wednesday! This meant I could have got up much later to catch the actual bus I did get out to Miraflor at 3pm! Sitting round the bus station feeling rubbish was testing my sense of humour. The reserve was only 40km away so I assumed about an hour in the bus….wrong again! It was steep twisty track and the crammed chicken bus barely seemed to move at times…two and half hours later (and one driver change as the first was too drunk) I finally arrived at the Finca (farm). Also getting off the bus with me were three Finns.

The place was beautiful and within half an hour after a shower and sat down to an early dinner the unenjoyable day gradually dispersed. It was heavenly going to bed that night, as the temperature all though hot in the day there really dropped at night. Snuggled up under a heavy duvet with the sounds of crickets and frogs, and my windows and doors to the cabin wided open….I think I was asleep by 8! I was awoken by a very confident chicken who jumped up on my bedroom window….I shooed him out and shut that window, two minutes later he was in the bathroom, shooed and chased him off, two minutes later he was in the door and jumping all over my bed….I gave in and got up. The mist was rising up from the fields, and the workers were out cutting down sugar cane. Kids were going to the local school on the back of motorbikes and horses…it was such a relaxing place to be.

I had a very lazy morning between breakfast and lunch and then mid afternoon with the three Fins set off for walk to a waterfall with a swimming hole. We probably set off a bit too late, and the guy at the Finca made it sound much nearer than it was. After an hour walking and asking a few locals we were getting a bit frustrated so played the “what am I” game to pass the time…..the Finish guy went first, we’d established he was a American, a singer over fifty, famous for ballads, homosexual and black….after we couldn’t guess who he was he revealed it was Tom Jones……???!!!!WTF. At least it passed twenty minutes and we found the waterfall swimming pool, it was a nice cold dip. But we didn’t have long as we had to get back before dark. Literally ten minutes after we got back to the Finca it was pitch black!

The following morning we headed off on horses for a trek, it was definitely a stroll. My horse was pretty small and I felt a bit chunky for him. The landscape was beautiful, and after an hour we started to descend into a valley at which point my horse decided I was definitely too fat and stopped walking. The guide tried to drag him, but he was a stubborn youngster. So I dismounted and walked the steepest bit. We arrived at some jungle and carried on foot without the horses. It was a short steep hike up to another waterfall, but as it was dry season it wasn’t overly impressive and we couldn’t swim there. My horse was better behaved on the upward journey thankfully, the sun had really come out and after the five hour round trip we were all ready for some shade, water an lunch! I had to leave that afternoon, and needed to walk a mile to the bus stop which I was dreading with my backpack. I managed to hitch a ride on the back of a pickup to the bus stop…but better than that they were actually going all the way to Esteli. Stood up in the back of a pickup truck with a bunch of farm workers, the journey only took an hour instead of two and half on the chicken bus and it was free…What a result for Jacko!

Back in Esteli which is quite a bit lower than Miraflor it was pretty warm again and getting to sleep that night was hard work again. I was really glad I’d gone up to the farm area, it was really good to get out of towns and cities for a few days. It’s a beautiful part of the country with very friendly people, lots of animals and good food!