Our Saturday in Granada

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The next day we had a traditional Nicaraguan breakfast in our hotel, we’ve found that breakfast is included in most lodging rates.  Our breakfast was tamales, a very traditional dish made of corn meal, meat and rice that is wrapped in a banana leaf and then steamed.  They were delicious, Todd who doesn’t get that excited about food declared “I would eat that again.” after clearing his plate, high praise indeed.

After breakfast we went to the Tierra Tours (LINK) office on La Calzada, a pedestrian street, just two blocks from our hotel.  We chose a hiking tour of Volcán Mombacho.  To get there we hopped in the back of a Land Rover and headed towards the base of the volcano.  Then we started up the volcano on a one-lane road with two-way traffic.  In order to prevent accidents, guards at the top radio to guards at the bottom and vice versa when trucks have arrived at their destination. It’s a crazy system but necessary with all of the hairpin turns on that extremely bumpy and extremely narrow road.

Once we made it to the top, we began our hike around of the crater of Volcán Mombacho.  To our surprise it was completely green, just covered in trees, so picturesque.  Our guide, Rafael, pointed out all of the unique flowers and trees and also clued us into the fact that the growling/oinking/grunting noise we kept hearing was actually howler monkeys.  We also heard an ocelot and a wild boar really close to the trail.  Unfortunately (fortunately?) we didn’t actually encounter any of those creatures – just a few salamanders.  At the end of the trail we were rewarded with fumaroles, holes in the earth that let steam out of the volcano and, the most stunning view of Granada, the neighboring town, Masaya and Lake Nicaragua.

After the hike we had lunch at Jardin D’Orion, a French inspired restaurant where we had a delicious meal topped off with blueberry crumble, a real treat in an area lacking blueberries.  Our plan after that was to go to Masaya to see the artisan market but it started to rain as we were asking for the check.  Instead, we went to Seeing Hands, an organization that offers massage from blind people for a very good price.  Our massages were $3.00 each for 15 minutes, including a tip.  Seeing Hands trains the blind students who otherwise have very few options for work in Nicaragua.  Todd was pretty skeptical about getting his massage and almost backed out but after we left he deemed his experience outstanding, I totally agree.

We spent the next hour or so just hanging out at Euro Café, which houses Seeing Hands, while waiting for the rain to clear.  After the rain stopped we went to La Merced, a local church that allows guests to climb their bell tower.  From there we had a great view of the city, definitely a view that was worth the dollar we paid for the chance to see it.

Post church we headed to the barbershop where Todd paid a whopping $2.50 for a fresh haircut.  We finished up our trip to Granada with a nice dinner at a pizza place on La Calzada.  As we were leaving, break-dancers showed up on the street and gave a performance that was actually really good.  It was a fun way to end a great weekend getaway.

The Sunday, after a 12 hour trip home that began around 4:00AM, we made it back to Potrero and enjoyed a dip in the pool and a quiet evening at home.  Just lovely.

Our Weekend in Granada

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We spent this past weekend in Granada, Nicaragua at the suggestion of Meradith and Drew.  Granada is a colonial town that has a much different feel than anywhere we’ve been so far.  The architecture has a lot of Spanish influence, the buildings are painted in bright colors, the city is laid out around a central square and it’s huge compared to Potrero.

Our trip to Granada began with a 4:15AM wakeup time since we had to walk half an hour to meet our transportation to the bus station in Liberia.  The bus took us through immigration and customs at the Costa Rica and Nicaraguan border.  Our first stop at immigration was simple enough, we just waited in line to get our passports stamped then got back on the bus.  Customs a few minutes later was equally simple as the customs official waved us off before we could even open our bags.  Mind you, Customs consisted of one very unconcerned man standing at a table outside, no x-ray machines, no official line that every one had to go through, just him.  The funny thing was that we could have easily just kept walking straight on through to Nicaragua without anyone knowing or caring.

Upon arrival in Granada we found our hotel, La Islita and after getting settled into the adorable room we went to get lunch. Pretty much as soon as we got to the middle of town, which was only about five blocks away, it began to rain so we took refuge in a restaurant overlooking the square that was showing the World Cup.  This was also the restaurant that offered the bucket of 10 beers for the price of 6 that Todd mentioned in his earlier post.  From the balcony of the restaurant we had a perfect view of the cathedral – a gorgeous mustard colored structure from the days of Spanish colonization – the way it stood out against blue sky was just gorgeous.

After the rain cleared we went to Las Cabañas Amarillas to catch a boat tour of Las Isletas de Granada, a group of 365 volcanic islands in Lake Nicaragua that were formed when Volcán Mombacho erupted thousands of years ago.  Our boat captain, Cesár, was a great guide and told us about how we could buy one of the islets, showed us which ones were available.  He also pulled the boat over by an icaco tree so we could pick the fruit to feed to the spider monkeys that live on Monkey Island.  He told me that we could eat it so I took a bite.  Instantly my mouth went dry, my lips stuck to my gums, it was instant cottonmouth.  Turns out you’re supposed to peel it before eating it, oops.  The fruit is the size of an apricot with a red peel and snowy white on the inside and it doesn’t taste like much.  Good thing the monkeys liked it better than I did, they came right up to the boat!  It was so cool to see the monkeys in their natural habitat just running around and swinging by their tails, it was so neat!  I’d been looking forward to seeing wild monkeys since we arrived so Monkey Island was a real treat.

After the tour we headed up to La Islita’s rooftop terrace and read while enjoying a mango tree, a view of the cathedral, a Toña (Nicaraguan beer that’s better than most or all Costa Rican offerings) and incredibly fast internet.  Later that night we had a delicious steak dinner at El Zaguán a cute restaurant located right behind the cathedral and called it an early night.

Toddbits

Some strange, but true, facts about our trip so far:

1. I just received a massage from a blind man at ‘Seeing Hands’ in Granada, Nicaragua while listening to recorder-and-acoustic-guitar versions of “The Rose” by Barbara Streisand and “The Sounds of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel. Frankly, the entire experience was wonderful.

2. Yesterday I went to a bar where the daily beer special was “Pay for 6, get 10.” Additionally, each beer (not considering the special) cost $1.00.

3. This morning I saw a 2 or 3 year old girl, at her mother’s insistence, relieve herself in a street gutter in downtown Grenada.

4. Last Friday I met a 3-year old boy named Estiven. He was delightful but seemingly unable to speak a word of Spanish (or English). On Sunday I saw Estiven again. This time, he was manning the wheel of the family auto while his parents pushed their out-of-gas car up a hill. I had no idea a boy that small could produce a grin that large.