From Managua we drove to Granada which is like Leon but bigger. While we were driving around the centre we came across a red, white and black coral snake writhing around in the road so we squashed it some more with the landy. We found a good camp spot by the windy and littered shore of Lake Nicaragua. The need to ascend a volcano was still with us so we drove up Masaya volcano which is active. Only sulphuric gases were coming out when we visited but it was still an impressive sight.

While driving through the town of Masaya we found a white Landrover 90, owned by Nick who turned out to be a top bloke. He showed us Lake Apoyo and was telling us about his days in the war as a sniper when he hit on the idea to go and shoot some AK47s. We arrived at the shooting range where they only had one AK which Nick shot a couple of times before declaring that the mechanism wasn't working properly. The sound of it firing was incredibly loud and it was a shame that we couldn't have a go on a decent one.

Nick has a unimog that is being readied for tourist trips by his mechanic. Seeing the work the guy had done making some custom lightguards for Nicks landy, we jumped at the chance to have a few mods done to our landy. First we got the damaged lightguard straightened and a missing piece welded in, then the crash damage on the wing was pushed out a bit to help realign the headlight. Nicks rear window was made of perspex so we gave him ours in return for getting a steel sheet welded in its place for better security. In addition we had the load guard strengthened and a crossmember fitted so that it is impossible to remove from the cab. Now the rear is as secure as it could possibly be.

An invitation to stay with one of Nicks friends and his family was eagerly accepted and we spent two days being fed vast amounts of food and finishing off things with the landy. The front windows now have a wicked security device, which, combined with a stick, stops them being slid open from outside.

We had to leave to get to Costa Rica in time to meet Ts doris who is coming over for a couple of weeks and B had to leave behind a rather tasty doris he'd met while working on the landy. This turned out to not be as heart wrenching as first thought as the dorises in Costa Rica are by far the best looking encountered on the trip so far.