Rest of Granada

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That night after we came down the volcano I got a bit sick, I´d picked up the cold that Dario was getting rid of plus had a dodgy belly. Next morning for those reasons we slept in and rested then had a late breakfast with the internet before deciding we wre both ok to do an afternoon trip to Masaya, a smaller city about 45 mins away with one of the biggest markets in the country. The bus dropped us in the terminal that backs onto the market, so it wasnt hard to find. we wandered around for over an hour through the meat section, hairdresser section, materials and thread section, there was soooo much to see, we never found the other edges of the market. There was also an artesania section with all the touristy purchases available at what seemed to be a hundred stalls! We bought me a bag and small book and in the hat and belt section thats exactly what Dario bought (his belt was old and snapped almost and he lost 2 hats already on this trip so needed another!).

We headed back in the mid afternoon and had an early dinner and icecreams before an early night. Next morning we got up early and did the breakfast thing before heading to the bus station to go to Laguna de Apoyo. A huge crater lake in a dead volcano. We had to take one bus heading to managua and hop off at the right turn off halfway, another couple did the same thing so we shared a taxi as its a long walk down to the lake, maybe 3 hours. There is a bus but we didnt know when it was due. The view on the drive down was great! the edges of the crater and surrounding areas are all covered in forest so it made for a nice vista. At the bottom there are loads of little locally run restaurants that serve food and drinks to you very close to the water and in hammocks if you like! so we hungout with a lot of locals (it was a sunday and popular getaway spot i think) in a hammock with cold drinks and watched everything happen. We did go swimming and the water is very warm near the edges, but the lake is actually 200m deep at its deepest point, so there is a lot of cold water out in the middle. You can scuba dive the lake and we saw some of them surfacing nearby later.

We decided to take the 3.30pm bus back, as the 4.30 bus was the last one for the day and we didnt wanna have to cram too much. This was the bus we could have caught down the hill. It took a good 45 mins to go the distance that took us 10 on the way down. It was a full bus, all seats and most standing space, an old american school bus (chicken bus) as always and the road was steep. We jumped off at the highway and caught a minibus back to granada. Once we were back, we had showers and headed out for an early dinner at a pizza place. The pizza was delicious! They also had a written page at the front of their menu telling tourists not to give money or food to the begging children. Apparently according to this, these children have families, enough food and only beg because they refuse to eat at home or at the charity stands if their family cant feed them enough because they want pizza or hamburgers and naive tourists give them those. It is only bad because it keeps the kids out of school and on the street til late into the night. There were a few kids running around asking for food or money, but they all actually do look well fed once we started looking. Granada is supposedly one of the better cities for having a low homeless rate.
Anyway, at dinner, a passing troup of musicians played a song for us (we paid $2 for the privelage) and it was wonderful! 2 guitars, a violin, a singer and a man playing kind of giant guitar with a very fat and wide base with extra strings! sounded great!

Next morning we got up early, had brekky then took the bus towards Rivas, about 2 hours away. The terminal was different to the one we had been using so had to find it behind part of the local market, but it didnt leave for another 45 mins so we just hung about, Dario chatted to a homeless man and I read about Cuba. Finally we were off and it was a packed bus! we both ended up standing coz the seat we were on they wanted to fit 3 people on it, but it was so close to the seat in front of it we couldnt fit our legs in with another person so stood instead. About halfway I got a seat as some people left but ended up squished between a big fat guy and a young man who doesnt like deoderant! We got off the bus just before Rivas and shared a taxi to the port of San Jorge, 10 mins away. We paid a 10C tourist tax for using the port and jumped on a rickety old Lancha (boat) that was about to leave, full of people and stores that were going to the Isla de Ometepe. The crossing took about an hour and the boat creaked a lot, but it survived and so did we, but Dario´s bag got unloaded and they broke one of the back supports in his rucksack! luckily we were able to fix it with a rusty nail 😊

We found a place to stay 2 blocks from the docl, Hospedaje Doña Chilo for 220C a night including private bathroom which is cheap! and a comfy bed! yay! We then went to a restaurant for a late lunch and to use the wifi there, we realised we didnt have much money left and the only atm on the island only takes VISA and we´ve been using a mastercard the whole time, so we had to change money online to the visa etc etc and then hit up the atm. We had randomly bumped into a man named Robinson who was leading a trek up to the top of one of the 2 volcanoes on this island called Concepción. Dario was very interested in doing it anyway and this guy offered the cheapest rate we could find because he had a lrge group going anyway in the morning. Robinson also ran a motorcycle rental shop so we later went and met up with him to organise it all. His family also run the shop and it was fun to chat (in spanish! yay!) with them while Dario ran off to find knee braces at the local pharmacy for the trek. I didnt want to do the trek so decided to reserve a bicycle for the next day.

We organised ourselves at the hospedaje, Dario bought food for the trek and later we went out for a beer, meeting a local who worked at the docks who had drunk his way through a lot of beer before we got there, so we had repeated conversations for half an hour about his lack of sons but he still loves his daughters. We also went and had some food at a local place near our hospedaje, tacos and a hamburger. The resident dog was very big and graceful, she even climbed onto one of the chairs near us and curled up to watch everyone go by.

We headed to bed early as Dario had to meet his group at 6.30 the next morning.

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Photos

Dinner on the street
yummy pizza! you can see the street behind us, was a really nice place to be in the evenings