H: What a trip! Just as crazy and knackering as we expected, but just as brilliant.

We have spent hours on local buses, driven nearly 2,000km and met some lovely people. We have refreshed our basic Spanish and the boys have started to learn the basics themselves. Even now, a few days after we have left Central America, Jamie and Leo are still saying gracias instead of thank you.

We have seen two very different, but also very similar countries and enjoyed a lot of local food.

We have remembered how it feels to be sticky hot, I have failed again at getting control of my humid-styled frizzy hair and we have gotten back in the habit of putting all toilet paper in the bin, rather than down the toilet,.

We have walked, swam, kayaked, surfed and zip lined. We have been the only visitors around, and been five of hundreds of tourists.

We have seen bugs, butterflies, monkeys, caiman and crocodiles.

We have experienced the Nicaraguan medical system, but thankfully not the Costa Rican one. We have read just about a book each over the month, instead spending our evenings reasearching where tomorrow might take us.

Most of all, we have created amazing memories together as a family and the experiences hopefully will continue to shape all five of our futures. We are so lucky to have been able to do this.

Now to see our parents and sisters - more special times to come.

H: Within a few days of being in Central America with its near 12 hours of daylight and paper thin curtains, we gave up trying to get the kids to sleep past 5am and attempted to get them to bed early instead.

The morning of our final day Jamie woke at 4:15 and very quickly woke the other two, so an early start again. We surfed and zip lined and went out for an early birthday pizza for Leo. We then drove to San Jose to a hotel near the airport (we actually had booked this the night before!).

The kids fell asleep in the car so they were fine for sleep. We got to the hotel at 8:45pm but missed the turning by a metre and the only way round was a 15 minute drive right round the suburb. We made it by 9, with the pack up for the flight still to do. We were in bed for midnight with an alarm set for 4:45 but pretty confident there was no chance we'd need the alarm.

But today of course is the day all three boys were still hard and fast asleep when the alarm went off, and weren't too keen to wake up at 5 when we really had to get them up.

We made it out of the hotel by 5:15 and had our car dropped off and were at the airport by 6, armed with a box of cornflakes and some milk for a cheapy breakfast.

We were on the plane at 7:30 and by 8 they were telling us there was a problem with the navigation system. By 8:30, having turned the plane off and then on again (not joking) we were being unboarded and taken back to the gate.

We waited for a little while and heard that the plane needed a new part. It might come from Panama, or it might come from Houston. The rumours were we would either be going again by 10am or 1pm - all our information was based on rumours as the airline told us nothing.

The delay was going to mean that we would miss our connecting flight to France so we went up to queue to talk to someone. However so did everyone else from our flight. After an hour of waiting to speak to someone, while I was tearing my hair out with three very tired and hyper kids, G gave up.

We heard the part arrived but it was the wrong one, so we were waiting again.

I joined the queue again at 11 and it took an hour to talk to someone. They said we would be sorted with a hotel for the night but amidst lots of confusion it seems that they wouldn't help to rebook the next leg of our flight as it was on a different ticket. $440 and a lot of frustration later and we are rebooked.

The screens said the flight was confirmed for 1pm and at 12pm they handed out sammies to everyone. Kids had eaten all the food we'd got with us by now so it was good timing.

1 o'clock came and went, so did the 2pm that also became 'confirmed'. At 3 we were asking for some fresh fruit for the kids who were starving again but apparently they only have to feed us every 4 hours. We got some food to share from the airport but it was super expensive.

The kids were doing really well considering. A couple of people even commented on how well behaved they were. I managed to stifle my giggles and say thank you.

At 4, G went up to ask for food again but they said the new part had finally arrived and they were hopeful we might be boarding soon. Therefore they weren't going to give out food vouchers because there wasn't time for everyone to go get food before we boarded.

The flight we were trying to get on was just a 3 1/2 hour flight and there wasn't going to be a meal service on it. So G ran upstairs to get some food before we boarded. He spent a ridiculous amount on some food and the kids tucked in. Then they announced that they were giving meal vouchers after all - great.

We eventually boarded and the flight took off, 10 hours late.

By now it was 6pm which was bedtime on our Costa Rica time so the kids fell asleep almost instantly. Not quite what we'd hoped as now they won't sleep that quickly when we get to a hotel but never mind.

As it turns out it was a really good job they had slept. We landed in Houston in a thunderstorm. Which meant the ground crews weren't allowed to work. Which meant we sat on the tarmac for TWO WHOLE HOURS! Far out what a terrible terrible journey! Although as a friend pointed out, at least they knew the plane was broken and could fix it before we got on it...

We have met some kind people today. Someone gave the kids some fruit, another person their child's fidget spinner, and one seat neighbour's daughter shared their tablet with Ben and Leo which passed some of the time so they could watch something together.

The mum said her and another lady were commenting that G and I deserved a medal for seeming so calm throughout it all with the boys. Proof that we have mastered the art of inner calm, at least for today, as at times today we have felt anything but calm!

We eventually got off the plane, waited for our bags and joined the queue to find out which hotel we were going to. But we weren't going to one - because the next part of our flight was on a different ticket, they didn't know to book us one. Which is ok, so we went to the customer service desk and joined another queue.

We ended up at the back or the queue, and despite it now being 1am local time and being the only family with young kids still awake, we were left at the back of the queue. I don't expect priority in many places because of the kids, I am grateful for it when we land in New Zealand and we go through a quick channel - but I would have appreciated it tonight.

Another hour in this queue and G gets to the front to be told that the airline have no responsibility to look after us. How he kept calm I have no idea. Another 30 minutes of intense negotiations later and they begrudgingly give us a hotel and some meal vouchers.

We crawl into bed at 3:30 having given up on a cooked meal by then and share three granola bars for a whopping $10 instead.

Day two and we are absolutely shattered but all goes smoothly and we get to France. The kids have been amazing. I do grumble about them sometimes but they are amazing travellers. They held it together the entire time, until the plane touched down in Tolouse and we find we have lost our car hire because of our delayed flight.

Then they turned into wild monsters, with two zombie eyed parents...

H: This trip has gone so fast. It has been so special being away and experiencing new things together.

I am ready to maybe go somewhere that doesn't have jungle (maybe the desert somewhere?) but neither of us are ready to stop travelling. But we are lucky to have been able to do what we've done and now we have one last day to enjoy.

My sisters are running a water race today in memory of Ness and I am really disappointed to have missed it. So today in her honour we went zip lining through the jungle. And so did all three boys! It's one of the few places that would take young children although I think Jamie is particularly young for it, they said the youngest that they had had on their lines before was three..

The boys were keen to do it but were pretty nervous. They also weren't big enough to go on most of the lines themselves and neither of them were too happy to go with one of the guides instead of G and me.

By the second of the seven wires it was clear they loved it and by the third wire neither Ben or Leo wanted to be with either of us, only the guides. Or by themselves - there was one wire they could do by themselves. G went on it upside down and the guide asked Ben as a joke if he was going to do the same. And looked as stunned as I did when he said yes, tipped himself upside down and off he went.

Ness I hope you were watching! xx

H: You will probably all know that G likes his cups of tea. Unfortunately for him, there's not much tea here as the Costa Ricans and North American tourists drink coffee instead. When we have been somewhere where they offer tea as part of breakfast he is not finding many places that have builders tea.

It's been days without a tea now and he wasn't far off getting the shakes. But the hotel we are at now has normal tea so he is pretty chuffed. Or he was, until they brought out a cup of hot milk and a tea bag. Not to be put off, the following morning he asked for a cup of hot water with a little bit of cold milk. He was given a cup of hot milk, a wee jug of hot water and a tea bag. The third morning someone else was on the breakfast shift and it was perfect! So today we have a happy G...

But not a happy H as we went to a waterfall and right by the waterfall there was a place where you can catch your own fish and they will cook it for your lunch. I very much did not enjoy seeing the poor fish being caught and worse, having to hide my sadness from the kids...

H: Today we walked through some more trees and saw very little wildlife apart from about 867,396 tree-cutter ants.

We hired body boards again which the kids are loving, especially Ben. And G and I, who run off with them to catch a wave ourselves every now and then. Ben and Leo have started jumping on our backs to get the end of the wave with us as we come into the shallows. Special times.

We have been eating a lot of rice and beans this last month - they come with fresh fruit and eggs for breakfast. The locals eat it for both lunch and tea too but we have been limiting ourselves to just twice a day to stop getting bean-ed out.

We have been finding sodas to eat in for our main meal which are cheap-ish local restaurants. The typical Tico meal is a casado which has rice, beans, plantain (a non sweet banana), salad, veg and meat. They have been good feeds!

Given we are in the start of the rainy season we've really not had much rain, but tonight it really did rain - the heaven's opened with lightening all around and thunder rolls cracking right over our heads. Ben and Leo have changed so much in four weeks, they didn't mind the thunder at all, even though I was flinching as I have never heard thunder rolls like that before!

H: Being so close to the end of our trip now, we thought we had decided on our last two stops before our flight. We have moved about a lot recently and so with some hard bargaining at the hotel at Manuel Antonio, G got us a deal for three nights.

However the national park had been so busy and wasn't cheap to get in to ($32 US) so we didn't want to spend another day there. We begged the hotel for a refund on the third night that we didn't want but they weren't forthcoming. However we hadn't paid that much more for it, based on the rate for two nights and we didn't want to waste a day somewhere we couldn't do much this late in our trip so we did something we've never done before and we packed up and left anyway.

I do not like trees. I mean I don't mind a few trees here and there but I don't like lots of them, and I REALLY don't like lots of them when they ruin a view, or just are the view. So it would be fair to say that Costa Rica perhaps wasn't the best choice of country for me. I just googled it and it said the country has 50% forest cover but I think that is wrong or somehow we have only seen the half of Costa Rica that is covered in jungle.

Anyway, after weeks of short hikes and driving where we have seen very little other than trees, the road further south from Manuel Antonio opened up to a beautiful drive on a wide road with grasses either side. I can't tell you how free it made me feel!

Ben and Leo are still fighting over the arm rest on their seats and Jamie has started joining in the fray too but hey ho...

Plus we found a hotel at the top of a hill, with grass outside it overlooking the sea. Bliss. It cost a wee bit more than we had been paying but not by much and we were paying for the view - the room still had plenty of bugs inside it, including a frog!

We have been finding rooms with two double beds and for now the three boys easily fit in one bed. Rooms (and costs) will become much harder as they grow... We've even had air con in most of the places we've stayed - luxury!

H: I blame mum and dad for my love (need?) of being away from everybody. Pretty much from birth my parents, sisters, dog and I spent every summer in a caravan up on a huge field full of sheep. There wasn't a house in sight, let alone a person. This field is on a pretty remote peninsula in south-west Wales where most people would never dream of going - which very much worked in our favour.

Now camping in New Zealand with our own family, we pick the most basic campsite we can and if we are unlucky and find someone else is there too, we find a spot as far away from them as we can. We wait until after school holidays to go away, and if we are wanting a weekend away, we would switch G's work around so that we worked the weekend and went away during the week instead. Oh how things are going to change when Ben goes to school - I can honestly say I am truely dreading it!

Anyway, here we are at Manuel Antonio National Park, the most popular of all the national parks in Costa Rica. We nearly chose to avoid it but it is popular for a reason so it was silly to miss it for the sake of a few people.

The Lonely Planet warns that this is going to be busy and it wasn't wrong. It was so packed we had to queue for about 20 minutes to get our park tickets. We then set off down the trail, surrounded by tens and tens of people.

The beach is without a doubt, stunning. Well, it looked like it could have been stunning but it was a bit hard to see it with the crowds of people there.

We dragged the kids on a walk round the headland where we lost most of the crowds, and instead found monkeys (some a bit too brave - one jumped up at Jamie who was eating his sammie), raccoons and a sloth.

We then found a spot on the second, less popular of the two beaches and as lunchtime passed and the sky clouded over, the beach started to clear. Perfect!

H: In the last few months, I guess as Ben having to go to school is dooming (sorry, looming), I have realised how much I take our freedom for granted. G is blessed to have a pretty flexible job and apart from roughly working out when we might want to go away, within reason we wait and see what the weather does. We live similarly when we travel, we rarely know where we're heading to next and certainly don't have accommodation booked. And when we do find somewhere, we would almost always book in for two nights and only decide on a third night on day two.

We did the same here so having seen the (busy) beaches, walked in the jungle and swam in the sea, rain was due the next day and the sloth sanctuary we'd hoped to go to was shut on Mondays - we packed up and left.

Leaving the Carribean Sea behind us, we set off on the 325 km drive to the Pacific Ocean.

The driving here in Costa Rica really hasn't been fun, it's either streams of trucks, or ridiculously pot-holey roads.

Today's drive was definitely not fun at all. With only a couple of stops, it still took us almost nine hours. Our average speed was about 50kph (excluding the stops) and our view out the windscreen was usually the back of a truck! We crawled up the hills behind them and did our best to keep up with them down the hills.

San Jose was super busy and our route took us not far off the centre of the city,  through narrow roads with parked cars and motorbikes whizzing round us from all angles. I ended up behind the wheel for that bit while G was trying to give me directions and fielding the kids' 1,000th question of the day.

We might, just maybe, have found out that there are two Dairy Queen's in Costa Rica so we made sure we drove past one of them for an ice cream break.

Pleased to be the other side of the city and out of the hills, we continued on our journey. Which of course meant the heavens opened and for the next nearly three hours we drove through torrential rain, whilst searching for a button in the car that would make the windscreen wipers go faster.

H: After a very potholed start to the journey, the road turned into a horrible, busy, truck lined highway to the port town of Limon - seriously crappy driving.

But after hitting the Carribean coast we turned South, the traffic cleared and we sailed down a road that hugged palm fringed beaches, in search of our tropical paradise.

However we are really not that successful at working out where tropical paradises are and Cahuita, 30 kms north of the border with Panama turned out not to be one of them.  Although I guess it depends what you are looking for. We have this ridiculous dream of finding a little cabina on the edge of the jungle on a deserted beach. With shallow calm waters and big golden sandy beaches. Instead we got narrow and busy beaches and pretty rough seas.

But no matter, we had an awesome walk through the jungle to a beach and a fun swim in beautifully warm waters. The blissful remote beach dream will have to wait...

H: Finally some wildlife! An awesome two hour boat trip this morning on the Rio Sarapiqui, two sloths and kids no longer fighting...

H: We set off by 8:15 and by 8:28 Ben and Leo were royally fighting. Pretty much about anything they could but especially about the shared armrest between them. When they stopped fighting, Ben picked up the whining. It was a fun journey.

With even less clue where we wanted to stay than normal, we picked a place with trails and some wildlife. However we are fast realising that there really is very little wildlife in Costa Rica.

Apart from a solo caiman. We stood by the fenced lake where the map said there were caiman and saw nothing. We stood a while longer and still saw nothing.  Eventually we saw something at the far end of the lake but so hard to see we vaguely pointed it out to the kids and walked on. To the next door fish pond where a bit deflated we sat and looked at the fish we could see in the murkey water.

Suddenly Ben is screaming and we look up to see a caiman slithering over from their pool into the fish pool, having escaped through the fence. It really wasn't close and G walked slightly more round the edge towards it while poor Ben was screaming (in real fear) 'Dad you're going to get eaten!' Maybe not our best parenting moment...

We told the lady at reception who said that was ok, but then seemed to clarify with us what had happened and said maybe she would get someone to go look in the morning. So we spent the night not sure if a caiman was on the loose, with distant rolls of thunder all night, Jamie with a fever and a bathroom sink that poured straight out of the back.

H: Today we took a deep breath, parked up next to the two coaches that had already beaten us to the car park of La Catarata Rio Fortuna (even though we were there by 9am), paid our entrance fee, got a wristband (eek!) and walked through the turnstiles into what walking into a spa must feel like, not a natural waterfall. 

But an awesome view from the top, and an incredible view from the bottom (a full 500 steps down) and actually the busyness didn't matter. A stunning thing to see!

A lovely walk near our hotel, I finished the book I've been reading for about three months and the kids didn't wake up until after 5am so a great day all round!

H: Arenal National Park, our next stop, is only 30 km away as the crow flies but the only road between the two takes you 110 km around Laguna del Arenal. No complaints from us, it was a beautiful (if bumpy) ride. A lot of the roads in the Montevede area remain unpaved, with some of the locals keen to keep it this way, to keep visitor numbers from exploding.

The last 20 kms into La Fortuna and rural Costa Rica ends, and tourist Costa Rica really begins. The road becomes lined with grand hotels, spas, thermal resorts, souvenir shops and restaurants and we are worried we aren't going to find anywhere cheap enough to stay.

An hours drive around La Fortuna, I don't know how many hotels and three very patient kids later and we find somewhere we can afford with a stunning view of Volcan Arenal. If you were going to ask a kid to draw a volcano, this would be it. It last exploded in 1968, with reasonably continuous lava flow down its flanks until 2010. Since then it has been quiet and scientists now believe it is dormant.

We braved the crowds and walked on a very well signed, well maintained path to a lava field and back - no impassable 4WD tracks in sight but a very cool vine the kids used as a swing. Unfortunately however, still no animals or birds to be seen. Am starting to wonder if it has anything to do with the noise the kids make...

In the three weeks we have been away, Ben has done a very good job at overcoming his fear of rain and howler monkey noises. He is also coping with thunder much better which is great as there have been two terrific thunderstorms with full sheet lightening since we got to Arenal. However his nerves were tested walking around the base of the volcano - however much we explained that the scientists were constantly monitoring it...

Jamie's Spanish has progressed to 'Hola Amigo' and Leo is still without fail the muckiest (most carefree) of the lot.

H: When we got to Santa Elena we spent about half an hour driving around trying to find the best deal we could for a room. This is G's job as he has far less pride than me when it comes to bargaining down prices. Feeling proud he had finally gotten us a good deal we unloaded the car. Leo opened the fridge to put our milk in, pulled out a shelf and it was heavier than he thought - so he dropped it and it smashed. As we checked out we had an extra $30 on our bill! Room was not such a good deal after all...

Disapointingly we saw very little wildlife in the cloud forest, unless you count some bugs or some birds either 200m up in the sky, or 200m deep in the jungle. So I graciously offered to stay back with Jamie while he napped so that G could take the other two to a bug farm. G then topped the day off with a guided night walk in the jungle. I very kindly offered to stay back with the kids again. I am so kind.

H: We are noticing that having our own car is making a big difference to our travel. Journeys that would take most of the day by bus are only taking a few hours by car.

We set off for Santa Elena - a four-ish hour journey by car. We left before 10am and expected Jamie and Leo to fall asleep quite quickly, but Ben to hang on awake and bending our ears for a couple of hours. However, somehow, they were all asleep before 10:30. This is seriously unusual and seriously good as now we had maybe two hours to make some distance and be able to talk in peace. We even stopped to pick up some chocolate to celebrate - which is in very short supply here as they don't sell much of it because it would just melt.

At 11:00 we saw a police check up ahead. The lady police officer waved us through. But the male officer asked us to stop. A loud voice and a heap of flashing lights woke all three boys up instantly. We waited while they checked our passports, told us they were looking for illegal plants (we think drugs?) and waved us on our way. With three very awake boys who now were demanding food. Great. Only three hours to go!

Santa Elena is a cute wee town up in the hills - and so very cold (ie we need to dig our long sleeves back out). It's extremely touristy - but that at least comes with a place to do some laundry at an OK price, and plenty of places to go and easily see the cloud forest.

H: We had been told that we may need to hire a car here to make it easier to get into some of the national parks. We weren't going to hire one straight away but once we realised that travelling on the public buses was going to be relatively boring, we decided to hire a car for the remainder of the trip and do it the easy way.

The hire company's guidance was that there weren't really any transport police and if the speed limit says 80 kmph, please don't do more than 100 kmph. But if you're by a school in school times and it says 25 kmph, do 25 kmph.

We headed to Playa Carillo, the beach that seemed to read the quietest, where we spent a couple of days doing not very much. I appreciate we are on holiday, but we have actually been pretty flat out the last two weeks - not helped by the fact that each evening is spent stain removing the boy's filthy clothes and reading and deciding what we were going to do the next day.

I live life like that too much at home and I am determined to change it. I have taken to getting my book out and reading at odd times during the day but G seems to think that maybe isn't that helpful...

Either way - this calm couple of days have been lovely!

H: Border crossing and last bus done and we are in Liberia by tea time. No hotel booked and it's getting dark but boys are starving so we'll worry about that later. The kids most definitely have their bad moments (plenty of them!), but I can't fault their patience whilst we are on the move. Our journey today has taken nine hours - nine slow, squished sweaty hot hours, with not enough food and at times not enough water and they've been great.

It always amazes me how stepping one metre over a boder can mean stepping into a different world. The same was true as we crossed from Southern Bolivia into Northern Chile a few years ago.

Nicaragua is so undeveloped in comparison to Costa Rica. There is so much life on the streets - food, animals, three people balancing on a pedal bike. It is also (gladly for us) off the main tourist trail which means we've seen very few foreigners. The taxis are clapped out vehicles, and the buses are old American school buses with hawkers walking down the aisles. It is part of travelling itself to use this type of transport.

Cross into Costa Rica and the hawkers are gone. The buses are big, 'normal' type coaches, back up at normal prices. There's not as much life on the street, the taxis are smarter and there are hordes of SUVs - we could easily be in a European country, just a tropical one.

We feel pretty mixed about this. The local life in countries like Nicaragua, and on their transport are a great part of the travelling experience. However it is hard going. The distances are big, and the transport is hot, cramped and slow. The tourism infrastructure is less developed making it harder to find ways into the big sights, like volcanoes and the rainforest. And once you are there, there are few 'easy wins' - which are more important to us now we are travelling with children. Before, we would happily trek a couple of days up a mountain to reach the view at the top. Now we can manage 6kms tops.

The tourist infrastructure in Costa Rica is huge, which should make it easy for us to see some amazing things pretty easily. However unfortunately this also comes with a loss of the interesting street life, steeper prices and too many other tourists! It should still be a great experience - different, but great.

H: We spent a great couple of days exploring the island. We kayaked (and of course the rain came a minute after we set off but Ben was happy as. Go figure). We visited a local school where the walls are made of concrete surrounding empty water bottles filled with trash. Swam in the hotel pool along with 1,000 bugs, and watched some ants endlessly carrying leaves along the steps by our room. We were in a jungle type cabin so plenty of bugs around (both in and outside of our room) for Leo...

We had hoped to get to the south eastern corner of Nicaragua by ferry but the lake levels from the island were too low. Plus, having seen the ferry on the way over here, I would rather do the shortest trip possible on a boat.  We looked at flights but they were too expensive and to bus round would be to spend about 12 hours on a bus with I don't know how many changes. Again, displaying excellent (and unusal) self control, we decided we would have to leave it for another time.

Disappointed to be leaving Nicaragua already but having not much option apart from heading on long buses in the wrong direction, we skipped the beaches at San Juan Del Sur (we had been told it was a bit of a backpacker party town) and headed to the border. We were heading to a town not far across the Costa Rican border but we knew we had a decent journey ahead of us.

Determined to experience real local life we caught the chicken bus from outside the hotel back to the port. Travellers all over the world refer to chicken buses but I've never heard locals call them that before. Here, these are old yellow school buses from the US. We got on it near the start of its journey so got seats. For a while it looked like everything we had told the kids about them might have been for nothing. But then more and more people got on and the seats were all taken. More and more people got on and the kids were on our knees. Still more people and the aisle was full. It brought back fond memories of a journey in Peru when I only had space for one foot on the floor.

The 1 hour bus journey that we thought we'd have today slowly turned into a long, hot, sticky and crowded two and a half hours. I'm not sure who lucked out - G had both Leo and Jamie on his knee, both of whom fell asleep. I was in the row behind with a very wriggly Ben, who kept up his wriggles for the entire journey. In fact I started to count and he was never still for more than 5 seconds straight.

To the port and on to a boat, significantly quieter than on the way over (which it turns out had been busy because it was a Sunday) and it had life jackets. Such a relief and a much less stressful journey!

But by this time it was heading up for 2pm and we still have a taxi, bus, border crossing and bus to go.

On our previous travels we've found money to be in shorter supply than time. We once sat through a few hours presentation on time share in Florida just to get the free breakfast and a heavily discounted ticket to a theme park. Deciding that this didn't really hold true for our life now, we spent our savings from the chicken bus this morning and took a taxi straight to the border.

Adios Nicaragua - everyone thought we were crazy coming here, especially with kids - but it's been a great adventure for all of us!

H: Ometepe is an island on Lake Nicaragua, made by two stunning volcanoes (one of which is sporadically active).

It's a beautiful peaceful island, hardly any cars and a lot of local life, animals on the streets and village children riding bikes far too big for them. And the jungle noises are immense!

We attempted to get to the San Roman waterfall but at a 7km roundtrip hike halfway up a volcano we thought it might be a bit much for the kids. So we asked our hotel owner if she could get us most of the way up the path in her 4WD. This would get us to within 1km from the top and so with the walk down too it would be 4.5km in total - we thought we could manage it.

However the rains have made parts of the track impassible by anything less than a serious 4WD and less than 1.5 kms in the 4WD got stuck and we had to get out and start walking. Which we were ok with, getting to the fall was a long shot - it was going to be a nice walk however far we got.

A wee bit later three Aussie's came by on two quad bikes and asked if we wanted a lift. Cautiously Ben, Leo and I got on leaving G to get a wriggle on on foot with Jamie. However the path got steeper and steeper, rockier and rockier and with just over 1km to go to the falls they had to park them up. By now we were pretty opptimistic we could make it, we just had to get the kids up the last 1 and a bit km and then the 3.5 kms back down. Easy!

Except it wasn't. The path turned into a track, a steep, tree-rooted one at that and we were getting slower and slower. And apart from passing a marker saying 1km to go a while back, we didn't know how we were doing. We finally decided to be sensible, gave up and stopped by a river. Someone on their way back from the falls told us we were only about 10 minutes adult walking away but it was steep and rocky and would be difficult with the kids. Still tempted but exercising impressive control we decided not to take the kids up, so G went on and I gave the kids lunch. At least I would get to see pictures of the falls.

Boys were happy as in the river until the clouds came in. The sunlight turned itself off and the temperature almost got cool. I told the boys there was rain coming. Ben freaked a wee bit - for those that don't know him he's not always a great fan of rain. Then we got drips of rain and we started packing up. By now Ben had run to hide under a tree and was yelling at me to hurry up, we needed to get down fast before the rain came.

Before I had chance to tell him that wasnt going to happen, it was torrential and we were drenched in under a minute. Ben was scared (am still unclear exactly why) and Leo and Jamie were pretty unhappy about it. G had made it back to us by now so we set off down the track. Which was now a stream, going over the steep mud and rocks.

Then the thunder started and Ben was now really scared. And the poor kid had worse to come - the howler monkeys started up and man they make some noise!

Luckily after after about 20 mins or so the rain stopped, the stream found a way off our path, our path turned into a track, the sun came out and we followed the path lined with trees full of monkeys back down to the road. Beautiful.

Although not quite so beautiful is Leo's love of mud and bugs - he couldn't have cared less about the monkeys. Centipedes and bugs however - well he couldn't walk two minutes without getting down on the floor to roll in the mud looking for another one...

H: The hotel we stayed at in Matagalpa was empty apart from us. The two young women running it took a shine to the boys. That was brilliant for G and I as they were chasing them around the hotel with the boys screaming away until they were big sweaty messes. Free entertainment and they were returned to us all worn out. Ben was just about crying when we had to leave - think that shine was mutual.

A taxi, bus, taxi got us to Managua where we had a night to regroup and restock.

Now it was Jamie's turn to cause drama - he majorly threw up in the back of a taxi... extremely embarrassing.

Our hotel had electric fences around it - not sure what that said either about the city or the area the hotel was in. But it at least had a shower that worked, only cold water, but it worked.

A long day of taxi, bus, taxi, boat and truck, and we finally make it to Ometepe... But feeling a bit wobbly - the boat was about to leave as we got to the dock so we got straight on it. We climbed down the stairs to go under the deck where all the seating was to find it absolutely rammed - I mean seriously overcrowded. With no life jackets in sight, we hightailed it back onto the deck where there were a few seats (all taken), sat on the floor and steadfastly refused all attempts to get us back downstairs.

We got talking to a guy who had been sat downstairs on that same boat and he said they had been throwing water on the engine to keep it cool while we were crossing.

We might not have gone back to sit up top if we didn't have the kids with us, but the kids are a whole different responsibility and definitely take some of the carefree-ness out of travelling, as it should.

H: Two buses and five hours later when we got into Matagalpa, a guy working on the bus came to us to ask where we wanted dropping off. Unfortunately the only word we understood was Matagalpa so we said 'si , si' and off we got. Turns out we were right on the very outskirts of the town. We stood by the side of the road, with no clue where we were or where we might stay. However - times really have changed as this is the first trip we have done with a smart phone and a local sim! The boys waited patiently while G and I did the research that we should have done on the bus, but were saved by a Dutch guy who said he had already driven past us going the other way and wondered if we might need help.

We hitched a ride with him and found somewhere to stay. Nothing flash but at least a bed(s). The rooms smell of the stuff they put in men's urinals and the shower - well one less drop of water an hour and it would have been called a leaking pipe. But other than that it was clean enough. I did manage to get into the shower without flip flops which tends to be the deciding factor of whether a room is clean or not. Although I did have all toes curled up so maybe it's just borderline...

Having downloaded the full version of the Lonely Planet, desperate to get our teeth into something and get out of the towns, but not wanting to do a tour, we caught a taxi to a cafe that we had read had lots of walking information. There must be two with the same name as this one hardly had a bottle of water or pack of banana chippies for sale, let alone walking info.

Not put off we find another taxi willing to drive us half way up a hill and dump us at the side of the road. There is nothing signed but we see the track we think might be the one we need and set off.  It is very steep, muddy (there is a small stream running down our path) and my knee hurts (it's really not healed that well). Not a great start, and this is topped off by Ben and I standing in a trail of super-sized ants and getting our feet bitten pretty good. At this point I am tired and beginning to think maybe we should just fly to the States, hire a car and travel the easy way.

I think this just as the path flattens, the stream clears, the sun comes out and our walk takes us through a little rural community. With barely a word spoken between us, a local boy showed us the way through his village. It was pretty special to see Ben running along with him. Leo is asking why we don't have a pig at our house and Jamie is saying 'hola dias' (he just needs to learn the 'bueno' part) whenever he sees someone.

A beautiful walk back to the road through another village, past friendly locals, sleeping pigs and a not so friendly turkey, back to our hotel on a local bus, and travel is good again.

H: Well we would move on, except we don't have a clue where we are going. Even when we travelled before kids, we would normally know roughly the area where we were moving on to next. But not this time.

Firstly, we only have the condensed version of the Lonely Planet, which really isn't that helpful. We could do some reasearch online but we are not finding the time. Our plan had been to move on to Lake Apoyo but Leo isn't allowed in lakes or pools for a few days. Plus, we aren't sure yet how quickly he is going to be able to sit down or walk properly so our options are pretty limited!

At midnight, we decide it is time to call Granada quits and move on to Matagalpa, in the hills, in the morning.

Morning comes, the pack up is easy and we get a taxi to the bus station. One bonus of being away with kids is that we no longer feel we have to drag ourselves and our bags to bus stations on foot unless they are less than 500m away, plus taxis here are super cheap.

We arrive at the bus station - a typically chaotic place of people, hawkers and buses. We have been to scores of bus stations before, in places where we can't read any letters of the language, let alone talk it, so we are not at all phased. Infact, it feels good to be getting on the road again, but this time with the boys.

That feeling vanishes in an instant. We need to unload the boys from the taxi and get them to stand somewhere safe - but their kiwi habit of taking their flip flops off at every opportunity is wearing pretty thin. We need to unload our bags. The taxi driver wants paying, and the bus guy has come over to talk to us in super fast and seemingly super urgent spanish. In a bit of a fluster we think we have sorted all of that and are ready to get on the bus.

Only to have a momentary, but scary panic when we realise we have Ben and Leo, but no longer have Jamie. Pretty quickly, G catches sight of him already sitting on a seat on the bus. Not sure who put him there for us but a big learning curve.

We all get onto the bus and G and I take a big breath and attempt to sit still enough for a minute to cool down slightly - not that easy when you have only paid for three seats between the five of you - maybe we should have splashed out the $1 for an extra one. This is when Ben and Leo decide that actually they did need a wee after all, so off they pile with G. I  am all smug that I don't have to do a bus station toilet trip, am sitting still and cooling down and just have one child to look after. I glance out of the bus window at the waiting area and realise that one of our bags is still sitting on a chair out there.

Holy Moly, we used to be good at this!