Arrival in Granada

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Today is Andrea's 14th birthday, a fact we tried to keep in mind through the day. I told all the flight attendants. They gave her free snacks. I remember when ... oh, nevermind.

It was an uneventful flight to Managua, landing after dark. After we cleared customs and walked out of the secure area, a crowd of people standing outside pressed their faces against the glass wall, looking for passengers. (The're not allowed inside, apparently.) One of them held a sign for "Hotel TerraSol" - our driver.

Upon arriving in a new country on the first day of a trip, an early dramatic moment always comes when you see whether the airport ATM will stake us to some local currency. It did. With 8,000 Cordobas in our pockets we piled in his minivan for the ~1 hour ride to Granada.

On the way we came to an 18-wheeler jackknifed across the middle of the road, with men standing around inspecting it. Melody immediately thought about banditos. She had read about this trick, feigning an accident to stop and rob travelers at night. But it was a real accident, and our driver found a way around it on the right shoulder.

The TerraSol is a small hotel with small rooms that have even smaller windows. But it's clean, friendly, and home for our first couple of days.

At some point we figured out that Andrea had left the Explorers guidebook in the airplane seat back pocket. Oops.

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Photos

Breakfast at Hotel TerraSol
This photo was actually taken from the sidewalk outside.