A 6.30 am departure for the short transfer to the airport by Coxham Harbour to catch the 8 am plane for the hour long flight to Honduras capital of Tegucigalpa. With Lisa joining us for this part of the journey, we apparently got a bigger plane!

However on arrival at the airport and having checked our bags in, found out that the airport at Tegucigalpa was closed apparently due to rain. (Somehow this didn't feel right as at Tegucigalpa the city and airport looked as if they had no rain.) This may mean a very long travel day and even perhaps worst case scenario we may not even get to Leon in Nicaragua today.

We were only allowed 20 kg for this domestic flight. Wayne kindly took some of my excess. Not having any scales did not help. My checked in bag was 48 lbs or just under 22 kgs. My bag got through. Still had several weeks of Raro sachets to use up that will reduce my weight by the end of this trip.

The CM Airlines twin prop Saab 340A eventually left at 9.30 am. Seated 3 across with 33 passengers, it was like boarding a bus with no allocated seating …. In fact the plane was just like a slightly bigger version of the 'pencil' planes back home. Love the snack service but who’s complaining. Choice of water, Coke or Diet Coke.

Into Tegucigalpa an hour later, bags on top and us into our wi fi enabled but the driver did not know the password private van, leaving at 11.30 am for the onwards journey to Leon listening to a wonderful 80's music selection. The driver loved his 80's music. Quickly out of town, passing wind turbines, road side stalls with pottery for sale and seeing billboards in the most unusual of places i.e. being right out in the country side.

First a border crossing out of Honduras and this was the first for me where we had the Nicaragua Immigration Officer come on board the van to check our faces against the passport photo. Interesting. Talk about personal service!

Passed fields of sugar cane growing, San Cristobel volcano and after the sun had set arrived at Leon at 5.30 pm, only about 2 hours behind schedule. Yes, it was a long day but it could have been far worst.

Orientation tour at 7.30 pm and for me it was C 6,000 out of the BAC ATM.

Heard that the food and alcohol was cheap here and stock up for our next town of Granada. With that in mind at dinner at Barbaro, I chose the most expensive sea food item (as we were close to the sea) a Campones enrollado de Tocino = bacon wrapped shrimp C $260 / NZ $ 12.70 / US $ 10.40. A 330 ml bottle of the local Tona C $27 / NZ $ 1.30 / US $ 1.10 was needed as it was hot and humid. Actually it took 2 bottles to quench ones thirst. Yes, I will take the rather expensive hotel US $15 PER NIGHT a/c (air conditioning) option!