Photo: Laguna De Apoyo, the lake of volcanoes...

The driver leaned out of his window, he started thumping the roof of our car violently. How he managed this with one hand still steering his taxi at high speed through the myriad of traffic was beyond me, all I'd done was switch lanes. I raised my hand in a display of English benevolence which seemed to enrage him more - then, dread of dreads, the lights ahead changed to red which meant we'd stop side-by-side with the irate taxi. To both my consternation and utter relief, every vehicle ignored the red light like it wasn't there, we joined the throng of horn-honking traffic merging from the right. The taxi, with the driver still waving his fist, was swiftly outmanoeuvred by a decrepit old truck chugging smoke from its exhaust. We escaped - I wouldn't die a strangled death on the fume-ridden freeway. Then I drove like a crazed madman across all three lanes with Marie shouting excited directions from her smartphone which itself was about to die. The phone died, we lost the google map that was our only safe way out - we stopped at the next red lights. Marie wound down her window to buy an adapter from the one-legged vendor plying his trade in the lanes of stationary cars. We both laughed, two bucks for a charger wasn't bad. Straightaway it didn't charge.

Managua, Nicaragua. We'd been warned - don't try to drive through the centre of the capital city Managua. We both agreed it might be even worse than Cairo, but not quite, nothing can be as bad as Cairo. We were lost, we decided to stop to get ourselves some fried chicken, then had to pay a tattooed gang-looking guy to watch over our rental car. It's safe enough I told him - No, it's not, he replied. He wouldn't believe our wreck of a car was a hire car. I asked him if he could show us the road to Granada - sure, he said, for another dollar in his hand. I gave him a buck... he told us we were already on the road to Granada. I laughed my stupid laugh, the laugh I use to show when I'm someone's bestest mate. I gave him my last piece of chicken, he gave us his charger. A few hours later we arrived in the pitch-dark at the Laguna De Apoyo. Marie had played a blinder, booking a wild Airbnb on her smartphone whilst on the move with only one-bar signal - it was superb. We were in the high rainforest overlooking the vivid-blue volcanic lagoon, in the morning the sun rose magnificent over the blameless-blue lake, we showered under the outdoor open shower then decided to stay an extra couple of nights. We spent the day lounging around, we relaxed then swam in the warm sulphurous lake - it was a fantastic location. Maybe, in the next day or so, we would head for Granada, the supposed jewel of Central America. This time we'd take time out in luxurious style by staying in the old colonial Spanish hotel right on the corner of the main square. Granada really is the magnificent gem of Nicaragua. We loved Nicaragua. You really should go to Nicaragua.

Our main worry, that plagued our minds throughout, was would the old crank of a rental car get us back to Puesta Del Sol where we'd left Sänna tied up. We got back fine after a couple of weeks, Puesta Del Sol was deserted of other boats when we left but when we arrived back, Singularity and Top Cider had arrived from the Bahiá Del Sol. A few days later Top Cider left to go south but went the wrong side of the entrance buoy.
________________________________________________________________________________
Please visit our SV Sänna website for more details of our circumnavigation voyage from the UK. Also at www.facebook.com/SV.Sanna. Like our Facebook page if you'd like to receive more news about our sail adventure. You can contact us here.

Read more about the mishaps and mayhem of Nellie, The Ship's Cat