Granada was a good option - a nice little town next to lake Nicaragua with plenty of gringo backpackers enjoying the laid back life style. The word is that Granada is like Antigua (Guatemala) was 20 odd years ago before all the gringos arrived but I'd have to say it is rapidly catching up with lots of effort going into tidying up the streets and repairing and painting the old colonial buildings.

 

I started to get a bit fidgety after a couple of days of relaxing in between power and water cuts due to the government trying to save money and decided to head to an island oasis lying just off the coast in the carribean. So it was back to Managua, a short plane flight then an open water boat ride and I was standing on Little Corn Island - a relatively untouched little sandy island surrounded by clear warm water - brilliant! A week off the tourist track to do a bit of diving in 29 degree water is always enjoyable with plenty of sea life including nurse sharks, stingrays, eagle rays, schools of barracuda and last but not least dolphins! I didn't come across any of the illusive square fish though, the local code for the packages of drugs that occasionally wash up on shore after being dumped out of planes or boats trying to evade capture.

 

Refreshed and rejuvenated it was time to move on again, having been out of South America for a month or so I was getting withdrawals so decided that going to see Shakira in concert in her home town of Barranquilla was as good an excuse as any to go back so it was that I made my way to Panama city and jumped on a plane and headed to the carribean coast of Columbia.

 

Whilst in Columbia I spread my time between the towns of Santa Marta and Cartagena and their respective beaches. Unfortuately the diving was not as good as Little Corn Island which was not helped by the cooler water temperature! Cartagena is a worthy recipient of its world heritage site title, a beautiful old fortress town full of great colonial buildings mixed with a laid back atmosphere.

 

The main purpose of my visit was to see Shakira in concert in her home town of Barranquilla. Needless to say the stadium for the show was filled to capacity with a crowd that danced and sung the night away - crazy stuff. Very nice midrift too.

 

Before I knew it I was back in Panama so did the obvious and headed for the canal to watch a ship pass through the Miraflores locks. I guess the locks are some thing you need to see to really appreciate the impressive engineering feat that is the Panama canal, more so when you consider it was completed nearly 100 years ago.

 

The last leg of my central american odessy was to San Jose, Costa Rica, where I stayed for a couple of days before catching a flight out to the states. With 8 month's of travel under my belt fatigue was definitely starting to set in!