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Published: February 25th 2010
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...after the visit to the canal we hopped on a bus to San Jose, Costa Rica. We were planning on staying in Costa Rica for a few days to visit a National Park, but after arriving and seeing how expensive it is (nearly the same as Germany) we decided to move on a try some place different.
Next stop:
Granada, Nicaragua.
This lovely old colonial town is situated ng on the shore of Lake Cocibolca or lake Nicaragua. Its a beautiful old town with wonderful architecture and, its clean. Granada must also be the Latin-America capital for social work. The hostel we stayed in, Hostel Dorado, was run by a foundation which employs street kids beides having a workshop were they learn to weave hammocks. Furthermore, there were a few restaurants where the kids learned how to cook, hotels imployed children and many other organizations provided help in some way or another.
Being as social as we are, we picked up a hammock. Its a bugger to carry around, its heavy (5kg being a lot in a full rucksack) and bulky and worst of all it has no use what so ever for us, as every place here has their
own. About a month later I have finally managed to send it back home! At last.
As the town had yet another fiesta weekend, we spent the evenings drinking and eating around the main plaza, listening to a few bands playing great music (one of which played latin salsa with a mix of good old heavy rock riffs), staring at fireworks, and also admiring a group of youth children breakdancing on the streets. This also seemed to be a social project, with the age ranging from 5! to 20 something. They were very good, especially the nipper who seemed to be more monkey than man. Doing kartwheels, being thrown up into the air while performing backflips above the heads of the breathholding crowd and other streches and bends which up until then I would have thought was only common in the circles of under weight yoga freaks, or hard core kamasutra fans.
(It now seems a pity not to have had the camera with us. Must try and get a smaller one which fits in our pockets)
We spent the days relaxing, mooching around the city, eating and drinking. Actually, quiet like the locals who all seem to
have a rocking chair. They all give the impression that they spend the entire day, definetly the evening hours, sitting in their chairs on the pavement, chatting or just watching the world go by. By the time we left, we had fallen in love with this marvelous colonial town.
One day we payed a visit to a cigar shop, where the cigars are still hand-made. A worker being able to make up to 500 gigars a day. One worker was willing to show us how to roll cigars, and also let us roll our own. Easy. Select a few leafs of different tobaccos, place them on a larger leaf, and roll with both palms. Then press the rolled tobacco into a wooden form, apply pressure for 20 mintues; Done. Well not really, the hardest part being the outside leaf. This is added at the end. Its a very fine tabacco leaf which looks very fragile. This is rolled around the raw tobacco closing the ends and forming the nice mouth piece. We were then allowed to buy our own cigars for $2 a piece. The money going to the worker only. (The cigars were sent to Germany, so we
Granada
Zigarrendrehen do not know the taste yet)
A vistit to the countries largest lake was also on our agenda, this was not as great as expected, but we did find out where all the tourist must go at night, and where all the locals go during the day: the tourist center. An area situated just outside of the beatiful town on the lake shore, packed with large open halls containing extremly loud speakers which blast out the worst music available. The tourist center also provides packed beaches, littered with humans and rubish, expensive stalls, and if your lucky, which we were: child boxing. whoop! This seemed to be part of the fiesta weekend, but having a profesional boxing ring and letting little girls fight doesnt seem to be the regular fiesta program. But we are in Latin america, and here nothing seems normal; or everything which seems out of place, different or bizzar is then actually classed as normal. The locals seemed to be enjoying it, god bless em.
We also made the mistake of contacting the Indian consulte in Guatemala to find out the opening hours and a few details regarding the needed visa. This was the end
Granada
Zigarrendrehen of pleasant travelling as we had known it. Our future plans were ruined. No diving lessons in Honduras, no dives in Beliz with dolfines and whale sharks, no Copán (Maya ruin in Honduras). Our flight was leaving in just under a month. The visa would take up to a month. We therefor had to make our way towards Guatemala City as quick as possible.
Next Bus: Tigucigalpa (wonder how many of you know where that is?)
The two days here were pure stress. Off the bus at midnight, into a hotel, the next day was spent trying to withdraw enough money for the next bus and the hotel.
Since I recived my new credit card, we have encountered many ATMs which do not accept it. It has something to do with the the modern chip, and a few travellers we have met seem to have the same problem. Often though, as we have found out enough, towns only have one ATM, if it doesnt work then youre flummoxed! The next moring we left at 5 am towards Guatemala City...
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