Granada

---

---

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 was worth it!
The bus was somewhere between a minibus and a fullsize bus, they still managed to cram a fair few people on. It cost us 20C ($1) per person to Granada from Managua and 40C ($2) from León to Managua and took about 3 hours total from León to Granada. We arrived just after lunchtime and went our separate ways, Charlotte and Nico had to go and meet her brother at a hostel and we had to find a cheapie. The bus dropped us off at the Central Park of Granada. It is lovely with lots of things going on and a cathedral overlooking it. All the buildings are much more looked after than in León and all colonial and colourful. We walked about 4 blocks away down a main touristy road, lovely cobblestone street with horse and carraiges going along. Lots of restaurants with their tables out on the stones. There is only one lane of traffic down there, mostly its a pedestrian zone. Lots of expensive looking hotels aswell, but we walked past all that and came to our hospedaje that was 200C a night, pretty sweet in this district! Shared bathroom of course. Unfortunately it was a very hot room, but the fan helped, and it was probably the worst mattress we´ve had on the trip, but we lived with it.
That afternoon we bumped into the others again with their brother Phillipe and had lunch, just a typical type of food, rice, frijoles, salad, fried egg and chicken with a fruit smoothie to top it off right in the central park. After lunch we wanted to go and see a few old churches and museums, unfortunately all were shut after 4 and all we got to see was the cathedral which was nice, even had a choir singing at the time which sounded great with the very high ceiling and curved shape. There are more beggars and children working on the streets in the middle of Granada compared to León, but this may only be more prominent in the centre as Granada has many more tourists through it every year. It is sad to see, we even saw kids as young as about 11 smoking cheap cigarettes.
That night we had some icecream from an Eskimo shop and played ping pong at the hotel. Next morning we had breakfast at Kathy´s waffle house, it had wifi and a good menu. Lots of food, I had pancakes with eggs and bacon and couldnt finish it! We had previously booked a tour with TierraTours to Mombacho Volcano so we headed there for the 9.30am rendevouz after dumping the computer back at the hotel. There are lots of tour places but we got the best price here as they had a group of 5 already going and it was all done by private 4x4 instead of having to change buses like all the other tour places so it ended up much better. Mombacho is a dormant volcano that hasn´t erupted in about 20,000 years apparently, but it still releases hot steam from fumerals. We drove up to the entrance,did the payment thingo and then headed up halfway to an organic coffee farm where there was a lookout and free coffee to taste. Dario found out some cool things about the processes there... there is a machine that husks all the coffee, it spits out all the husk. This is then mixed with manure in a greenhouse then put through biodigestion (anaerobic breakdown) to produce natural gases that are then fed into the kitchens of the farm to use for cooking. Pretty cool way to get rid of waste! We then drove to the very top to the Biological Station where there is a map of the volcano and its regions, a snackbar and lunch eatery. Our guide, Ramon took us on a 2 hour walk around the crater of one of the 2 that this volcano has. The whole top of the volcano is cloud forest, so very damp and cloudy but beautiful. It was pretty cold up there and Ramon kindly lent me his poncho that he didnt need.
The trees were mostly covered with lots of epiphytes clinging to the branches. There are some species of bromeliad, salamander and butterfly that are only found here in this cloud forest which is pretty cool. Lots of birds, frogs and snakes live up there too as well as monkeys and sloths. The walk was pretty and informative with views over Granada and the surrounding lakes and towns. The highlight for me was seeing a wild sloth curled up about 5m off the ground and only about 5m off the track, within easy view!! And then it woke up and started moving around! YAY! Apparently its very rare to see them on this walk. We finished the walk and the 4x4 came and picked us all up and took us to the Granada cemetry quickly on the way back to the office as all the Nicargauan presidents of the past are buried there and it was interesting to see. We had the afternoon off as it was hot back in Granada. Dario ran out for an hour to check some details for the next couple of days and then we went out for an early dinner. We ate at O´sheas Irish restuarant and pub... on the main strip, and only because it was actually one of the cheaper options. I had a great Irish stew!! who woulda thought it in Nicaragua and we met the owner, a true Irishman. We went looking for wifi to update this blog with and settled at Dario Hotel. We ordered tres leches (a cake) and coffee etc and then realised their internet doesnt work! Dario spent a while trying to figure out why but we gave up. Then headed back to the hotel to chillout. We saw while out an about a giant puppet of a white woman dressed in old spanish clothes being worn on top of someone and then behind a few drummers and a short person with a giant fake head. Apparently the story goes of a man getting a swollen head because a few hundred years ago all the Spaniards were all the rich people and the short indigenous people were lower down the social scale, but a spanish woman fell in love with an indigenous man and so he got a swollen head from this relationship. Very odd, but there you go.

---

Photos

Lake Nicaragua
you can see the volcano across the lake with a cap of clouds

Us at the crater view point
(im wearing Ramon´s poncho... it was very cold!)