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Chocolatiers!On Thursday 21 we headed back to the Bigfoot hostel for 9am again, this time to catch our shuttle to Granada. The journey wasn't too bad as it only took 3 and a half hours, meaning we still had the afternoon to explore this colonial city once we got there. Some of the buildings and architecture are simply beautiful and there are plenty of properties with big open courtyards with lucious greens, water features and birds. The central park and cathedral were particularly stunning in their appearance. As well as sporting lovely trees and a decorative fountain, the park has several market stalls selling traditional arts, crafts and jewellery, all of which seem to be handmade and it is also the best place to catch a horse and cart somewhere as they are all stationed around the edges.
Just after lunch, and after exploring a little, we visited the local chocolate museum and booked onto the 2pm tour. We donned a little apron and chef style hat like professionals and we were soon roasting cocoa beans over a fire ready to peel and then grind them into a paste. The grinding was tough, we had to use a
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Shelling cocoa beans after roasting them, reay to grind them to a paste lot of elbow grease but it certinaly made the end products - three different chocolate drinks (a Mayan one, an Aztec one and a European one) even more satisfying. We also got to make our own chocolate bars and Mal chose to do one in 80% cocoa paste (20% sugar) which was quite bitter and I chose 50% cocoa paste and added sea salt, it was delicious. All in all we had a lot of fun in the workshop and we went away smelling of chocolate.
After dinner we retired back to our hotel, Patio de Malinche, which was really nice. It has two open courtyards - the first one with a dining area, with the one behind housing a pool, bar and hammocks. The drinks were fairly cheap here at only around $3 dollars for a short cocktail and similar for a double whisky or rum so we took advantage of this and we enjoyed one or two cheeky drinks by the pool.
On Friday morning we did a boat tour of 45 of the 365 Isletas (islands) in lake Nicaragua. As you depart the shore, you can spot mombacho volcano in the
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Granada central park distance behind you, whilst ahead lies a maze of trees, reeds and islands leading out into more open expanses of lake. The islands on the lake are all privately owned and are generally well kept, there are even one or two restaurants offering a more secluded way for you to enjoy a meal. The highlights of the islands and lake, however, has to be the abundance of wildlife present. There are so many different types of birds and insects, as well as spider monkeys and crocodiles in the deeper parts of the lake. Whilst we didn't spot any crocodiles, there is an island currently home to spider monkeys and howler monkeys. The howler monkeys were hiding but the spider monkeys were in full view and they didn't seem very shy at all!
Shortly before heading back to the shore we stopped at the island housing the old fort, which was previously used to ward off pirates. Nowadays it's just a monument displaying the original fortress and cannons but the views from the fortress are stunning none the less. There are also several plants and trees growing here, including the banana tree, coconuts and mangos. It's right at
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The view from the San Pablo fortress on one of the Isletas the end of the mango season so we ended up picking a mango or two from the ground, peeling them and eating them at their freshest. They were so delicious.
After the fortress visit we headed back to the city for lunch before exploring more of the area. We visited a museum called Convento y Museo San Francisco. It's listed as one of the top sights in Granada but there really wasn't much to see there to be honest (just three rooms of paintings and artefacts etc) so we left feeling quite disappointed. We decided to take another look around the market stalls in the beautiful central park before heading to our hotel to chill out in the pool.
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