We spent a total of 5 days based out of Granada. Granada is a colonial town in which main attraction is the architecture. It sits on the shores of Lake Nicaragua (one of the largest lakes in the world) and is surrounded by volcanos. It´s a lovely place to relax. But as I have mentioned, Craig and I are not the best as relaxing, we like activity. We had big plans but really accomplished very little. A lot of our time was spent at the hostel (Hospedaje La Libertad) being bored, and of course eating!
We did one tour to Las Isletas, which are a chain of over 350 little islands in Lake NIicaragua. It is thought that they were created by the lava flow from the eruption of nearby Volcan Mombacho. Nowadays rich people have houses on the islands. There are also some subsistence fishermen that live on the islands. I didn´t have high hopes for the tour, but it was a very nice ride on the boat. It was interesting seeing all the fancy houses, and we saw lots of pretty trees as well. We stopped on one of the islands to enjoy a coconut freshly cut from the palm tree. We got to visit an old Spanish fort and we saw the sun set over Granada. The tour was only $15, not a bad price. We also saw lots of mango trees full of fruits and I got to have a few fresh mangos! The trees we see along the highways have already had the fruit removed, so we never see ripe ones.
To keep me from being so bored, I cooked us quite a few meals in our hostel. We were able to buy most of our ingredients in the market, which is like a daily farmers market. It´s quite neat, just about every town has one. We got eggs, beans, cheese, avocado, and plantains. One of the days we were walking back with some fresh cheese, 6 eggs and a pepper all in the same bag, and the handle broke. Of course every egg in there broke as it hit the ground. We manged to keep them all contained and I spent a long while separating out the shells when we got back. It was good for a laugh and gave me something to do. :)
One of the days we were in Granada we took a bus to visit Leon, which is another colonial town about 2 hours away. We had planned to stay two days there and visit the San Jacinto volcanic mud pools. Since it is the dry season, they were dried out. :( I was rather disappointed, I had wanted to roll around in the mud! Leon is nowhere near as impressive as Granada, and we arrived on a Monday, which I apparantly a day when most things are closed! So we only stayed one day.
There are definitely neat things to see around Granda, but nothing is cheap. Most of it is on guided tours. I would have liked to visit the Volcan Mombacho biological reserve and also to have gone to Volcan Masaya at night and watched it erupt. I will just have to come back one day. :)
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| Eskimo has the monopoly on ice cream in Nicaragua and it is sooo awful that even I won´t eat it! We tried it twice and never had it again | . |
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| View up Calle La Calzada, Granada |
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| Lago de Nicaragua |
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| Granada from La Merced church |
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| Me in La Merced bell tower. Wearing my $1 1980s jordache shorts from the american clothing store. |
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| Central Park, Granada |
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| Guanaste Tree, Las Isletas |
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| Fancy house and boat, Las Isletas |
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| Monkey that were left on one of the islands! They can´t swim away! |
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| Granada |
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| Leon, Central Park |
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| Leon |
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| Nicaragua has the prettiest money! |
Leon is really kind of a mess, isn't it? I remember three things: Going up in one of the church bell towers to get a big view of the countryside, the Sandinista party headquarters, and the central market. The mercado was huge, fascinating and smelly. So many strange dead things in there.
ReplyDeleteGranada, on the other hand, seems like it belongs in another country. A classic colonial town. So many big historical events there. The whole place is still talking about the American revolutionary William Walker (who is virtually unknown in the US). He believed the canal should come through Nicaragua. Back in his day, American paddlewheel steamships were dragged up a river from the Caribbean, and provided passenger service for California-bound gold miners on the lake - all the way to the Leon area. Hard to imagine those ships on that lake...!
Glad you got to see San Juan del Sur, but it is too bad you hit it on a bad day. Cruise ships dock there, but I don't understand what the attraction is. Kind of a dull place, really. The locals, however, think if they build wildly overpriced condos for gringos, they will come.