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Published: January 14th 2009
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Lonely Planet says that Granada is the sort of place where you can while away a lot of time, and I have been bewitched by it for 10 days (initially was supposed to be 5).
Sina and I tried to escape yesterday once we had mailed our packages home, but nothing was working in our favour, so it wasn´t meant to be! The power to the whole city went off for most of the day. No power means no internet to retrieve a mailing address for my package, no phone to call home for the address, and the post office couldn´t weigh our boxes anyway. And so it is!! The worst part of no power is no water...ahhh!!!....Sina and I ended up buying a gallon of water, which Mike poked holes in, we hung it on the showerhead and voila...a shower! There is a solution to every little problem! Sina and I had no problem resigning ourselves to spend another night here to spend with Mike as he had arrived the night before. Plans are meant to be changed!
Granada sits right on Lake Nicaragua at the base of Volcan Mombacho. It is a beautiful old colonial town and
the main street (Calle Calzada) is home to many restaurants, hotels and private residences that open right onto the street. Hotel Ruiz where I spend my first 2 nights is right on the Calzada. There is a different world behind every door, and I love peeking into the open doorways as I stroll Calzada. I got to Granada after a long day (5 45 am to 10 30 pm) on a King Quality bus from San Pedro Sula (Honduras), where Sina and I split ways as she was going north to Roatan. I met Darren, a very sweet Irishman who now lives in London, on the bus to Managua and we roomed together in Managua, and then found our way to Granada the following day. King Quality is VERY different than the chicken buses I have been riding. Double decker, reclining seats, snacks, a bus attendant, foot AND leg rests. I must say it beats United Airlines!!!
Granada has many cathedrals and I could have easily filled my memory card on the churches alone! The most beautiful of them all watches over Parque Central that is always bustling with vendors, shoe shiners, horse drawn carriages, locals and tourists hanging
out, and tour buses. The market is 3 blocks south and quite an experience where you can purchase anything from raw chicken to clothing. It is a must see, but I almost lost my breakfast passing some of the stalls.
John, whom I had previously met in Mexico on day 2 of my travels found his way back to Granada and we had a great time catching up on one another´s travels. Sina got here 2 days after I did, and the 3 of us ended up sharing a great colonial room that I happened across. Roberto, Ruban and Hymie have definitely made us feel at home!
Before Sina joined us, John and I took the boat tour to Las Isletas which is a group of 365 small islands on Lake Nicaragua which were formed by erupting Volcan Mombacho 10,000 years ago. Many of them are inhabited by the wealthy and each one different and so beautiful. We also stopped at El Castillo, a fort built in 1784. At one point we came across another tour boat which was so close to an islet that a monkey had jumped onto the boat and stolen a bag of Fresca
from a tourist. Hilarious to watch as he drank it, while his buddies who weren´t so lucky howled and screamed from the islet. It was almost as if they were yelling at him to share his stolen drink with them.
Our guide Alexander was very knowledgeable about the islets and spoke English (bonus!!). He also totally freaked me at one point (see pics).
Once John left us to continue his travels back to Mexico, Sina and I decided to go to Laguna de Apoyo to cool off in this volcanic crater lake. (Sina and I are both beach girls) We were somewhat disappointed that there wasn´t a real beach as the lake was quite high. We sat at a restaurant right on the water with clucking hens and roosters very near, and at one point a dog stopped by and relieved himself feet away from our table. Lovely!...hahaha. Granada is very hot and humid, so it wasn´t long and we decided to take a dip into the lake as we didn´t have much time to spend there. The chicken bus that we took was a 2 hour ride, accompanied by 2 sessions of Spanish preaching. How bizarre! We
had to be on the road at 4 pm to catch the last bus back to Granada, so we put it out there to hitch a ride, and within minutes we were clammering into the back of a pick up truck. That sort of thing is very common here and we were soon joined in the back of the truck by 4 locals and 1 bike! The ride back to Granada only took us 20 minutes and we loved the wind as it whipped thru our hair!
I also decided to take spanish classes and signed up for 5 days. My instructor Chelo spoke very little english so I found it very frustrating at times (partly hormonal I think...lol) and quit after day three, but did manage to retain some of what I learned. With Sina´s help I am getting a little better every day.
Mike who had been travelling with John previously in Central America ended up coming back to Granada and spending 2 days with us and sharing our colonial room. Both of them are characters and it was great to see them both again.
Granada is truly a great place to visit and I
would highly recommend it to anyone travelling Central America. If you do plan on visiting be sure to go to O´Shea´s Irish Pub, Garden Cafe and get a massage at Blind Hands Massage located at the back of Euro Cafe.
A little sadly I am leaving Granada today after 2 haircuts, 2 hair dye jobs, 3 massages, being stood up once, 1 pedicure, many laughs, gallons of watermellon juice, 2 power and water outages, meeting many interesting people, miles of walking and many fond memories.
San Juan Del Sur here we come!
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Sister Goddess
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EAT SLEEP HUG!
Open arms, Open heart, Open Universe! The tree and me send our gratitude. Luv, S