Blogs from Granada, Southern Pacific Coast, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 4

Granada is said to be the oldest city in Nicaragu, it is certainly picturesque Colourful small houses line quiet roads and there are many lovely old churches. But Granada is also a real, working city. The market is large and chaotic. Smartly dressed school children walk to the Ash Wednesday mass in the cathedral.. On our first evening we come across the International Poetry Festival. Speakers are drawing a crowd but our Spanish is not up to appreciating their works. Then, on the second evening, we come across a mardi gras procession, now part of the Festival. The parade is led by a smart horse-drawn hearse! This is followed by dancers in all manner of costume - beautiful Spanish ladies; aggressive pirates; more pirates, these with horse masks; the grim reaper and friends; a hobby horse ... read more

Wednesday morning and I'm up and ready to go fairly early. Well early for vacation mode. I rat breakfast at the hostel with a few other guests and happen upon an older woman and young man talking about living in multicultural neighborhoods in the US. It's a bizarre conversation that I choice not to take part in. By 8:30 AM I'm off for a little adventure. Today I'm on a tour of a volcano and a few towns surrounding Granada. As I hop into the van, I'm greeted by two British blokes and both are older than me. This never happens and I'm excited to chat with them, Eric and David. They are on a five week journey which started in Mexico City and is about to end in Costa Rica. They are with a larger ... read more

Up early on Tuesday. Earlier than I would have liked. The funny thing about traveling now are all the gadgets. All hostels have WiFi. Everyone is using their phone. IPads are everywhere. Videos are being show. I'm taking my leisure time to finally watch House of Cards. How far we've come from the hostel common room with the one TV and VCR/DVD (depending on when you last traveled) and hoping that you wouldn't walk in during the middle of a good movie. I kind of miss it. Regardless, breakfast is stellar again and once packed I'm off. This time in a small car sitting in the front seat with a man, women and two children in the back. It was quite cute. The ride to Granada is the same from two days prior. This time I ... read more

We left Monteverde on the 6am bus heading for Puntarenas. This bus dropped us off at the intersection with the Pan American highway. We waited here with several other people until a bus stopped. We wanted to go all the way to the border but this bus was only going part way to Liberia, we decided it was better than nothing. When the bus finally arrived at Liberia we were able to easily change onto another bus heading to the border. All three buses were slow as we were constantly stopping to either pick up or drop off passengers - this is pretty normal on local buses in Latin America. The border was pretty easy but was the first border we had to pay to leave one country and enter another. Our first interaction with local ... read more

===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