Blogs from Lago Cocibolca, Granada, Southern Pacific Coast, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean

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===English version below=== Aan de grens betalen we uitreis taks aan Costa Rica + inkom taks voor Nicaragua. Een echte business! We onderhandelen een taxi rit naar Granada. Voor een prikje zitten we midden in deze koloniale stad. Een namiddagje luieren op het centrale plein, waarom ook niet? Heel warm hier. Tom heeft de smaak te pakken van het Nicaraguaanse bier Toña. We gaan fietsen huren en verkennen de stad. Veel kerken te bewonderen met felle kleuren. Net buiten de stad in het Nicaragua meer liggen honderden kleine eilandjes (las Isletas), allemaal privébezit. Eentje staat te koop voor $500.000, doen we een bod? De lagune Apoyo bezoeken we met een motortaxi, de max! Echt een fijne omgeving in en rond Granada, het bevalt ons hier. At the border we pay exit-tax for Costa Rica + entrance ... read more
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Granada central park


We we very glad to finally arrive in Nicaragua after 2 long days of travel. As we crossed the border I immediately noticed the condition of the roads improved markedly from those in Honduras. Interestingly, Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America, with 50% of the population living below the poverty line. The country has a history of dictatorships and civil war and has only been promoting tourism since the 1990's. We arrived in Granada after lunch, and went on a quick walking tour of the city to orient ourselves. It has an old colonial town, with gorgeous multi- coloured buildings - similar to Antigua in Guatemala. It also has lots of horse drawn carriages that you can take a ride on around the town. There is a main street lined with restaurants and thankfully ... read more
Granada - colourful buildings
Granada - horse and cart
Granada at dusk


I think I'm becoming a serious coffee addict. All these early mornings & free coffee. It does not bode well for limiting my coffee consumption. When we get back to the US & I have to pay big money for coffee, we are in trouble. After Geoff finally woke up (about 2 hours after me...) we made George Bowls. Yum! I swear, sitting at this kitchen table is so entertaining. The people watching is unreal, just in our hostel. I love it. We headed out into town with a picture of the map from our book, where I highlighted the things I wanted to see today. I can't help it, I've been up for hours & had ALOT of coffee... We visited the Convent & Iglesia of San Francisco that has been restored & turned into ... read more
Catedral & Nica Flag.
Convento y Iglesia San Francisco.
A beautiful palm tree garden inside the Convento y Iglesia de San Francisco.


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 ... read more
Laguna de Apoyo
Hamocks by the lagoon
the view


Vamos a Granada, tomamos un minibus expreso a Managua y cambio a un bus a Granada. Cuando llegamos en el terminal en Managua, habia mucho actividado! Charlotte y yo necesitamos el baño muy rapido pero todos los jinoteros dicieron que no hay baño y necesitamos tomar el bus AHORA! Tenemos suerte y una mujer linda dizó que hay un baño en un bar 20metros de el bus. Muchas conductors del taxis estaban gritando y oferten un taxi a Granada pero fueron muy caro! El bus estaba un poco mas grande de un minibus pero habia muchas personas. Cuesta 20Cordobas por persona (y cuesta 40C de León a Managua). El viaje fue 3 horas en total. Llegamos a las 2 en la tarde y dicimos adios a Charlotte y Nico, necesitaron ir y encontraron el hermano de ... read more
Edificios en Granada
nosotros a la finca de cafe
la vista de mombacho


To get to Granada we had to first take a minibus express to managua and change buses there. When we arrived in the managua terminal, it was very busy and Charlotte and I were busting to go to the loo. We were hastled a lot by taxi drivers offering express to anywhere but eventually they stopped coz we asked if they would do it for 40 Cordobas... they werent impressed. Plus the bus guys were all hastling us as well and they all said no no there is no toilet here, presumably becuase their buses were leaving asap and they wanted us on them, but a nice lady in a nearby shop told us there was one right next door to the bus, literally 10m away in a bar. It cost us 5C each but that ... read more
colonial architecture
our pretty street
our friends on the corner


The D&D microbrewery was pretty easy to find. There was a bigsign on the side of the road and the bus attendant who collected the ticket money told us it was our stop. We walked about 5mins up the road and found the place. It is nestled into the trees, with a pool next to a nice patio area with tables that serves as the restaurant, food is served all day and we were thankful because we were starving! Breakfast had consisted of really gross sweet bread and a bit of juice and that was at 7am, it was now 3pm. We had BLT´s that were ok,with chips that had way too much oil on them and pretty average coleslaw but delicious fruit smoothies! The brewery obiously makes its own beer, unfortunately we didnt get ... read more
shores of laoo yojoa
the lake
the canal that leads to the lake


Hi everyone Last week, the UK was gripped by storm and this week it's snow in London! Things are certainly interesting back home. Before I finish on Honduras, I must tell you about a couple of people I met on my last night there. I thought my journey was kinda adventurous until I met these people. First, there was a Danish copper and his missus who were travelling around central America in a similar way to me. Only difference was that they had their two children with them - aged 6 and 7! With no car, they were also travelling around by bus. Then I met another London solicitor who had jacked it all in for a while. I knew there might be something out of the ordinary when I saw him arrive with a bicycle ... read more


This Lake has to be the worst I have ever seen I grabed some sand for Misha, but with dead fish floating ashore I dared not bathe. as D the Biologist put it, in nature animal just don't die they are killed and eaten.... read more




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