Destination reached....finally!! Hola Granada

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Once we had boarded our crazy little bus, bound for Granada, it was clear that it wasn’t going to be the most comfortable of rides in that our options for our bags was to either go on top of the bus in the pouring rain, or on our laps…. Let the dead legs commence! So, after one of the longest hour bus trips for a while, and several Yoga moves later (due to the positions of our bags), we arrived. Again, rain greeted us, but not to be deterred, we set off in search of accommodation. Along with eating, this was the big task sorted for the day!

The next day, we booked ourselves on a tour to climb the Masaya Volcano. There are a few craters to check out in the area as well as the Masaya Crater, so all of these would be visible on our trek. Upon arrival to the volcano, the first thing that strikes you even before the amazing scenery, was the fumes. It wasn’t like a sulphur smell or anything, but it just got right down the back of your throat, and horrible to breathe in. Aside from the fumes, the view was amazing down into the crater, with steam and smoke rising out of it in constant plumes. After looking down into the first crater, we trekked for a while to check out the view around the area which was spectacular, and then onto the other craters for a view of those too.

After checking out the craters of the volcano, we then moved into a cave formed from lava spill made many centuries ago. It was pitch black in here, and our ill working torches were no real comfort to us when the bats started to fly by our faces!

That evening we headed out for a beer and some dinner, however we wasn’t really bothered too much about the food, as we were a little pre-occupied with the condiments. Basically, we decided that the salt shakers of Granada looked a little like R2D2 from Star Wars, and so, proceeded to take several pictures of the salt whilst the waiters looked on in confusion, and probably began to think that we had taken something other than alcohol that evening! Unfortunately, we did nothing to curb their suspicions, when we cracked out the camera for another snap, this time for one of the menu…. To be fair to us, we felt it was worth capturing, as it was the one of the strangest things to write on a menu that we have seen thus far (see picture opposite)!

So, after our couple of days here in Granada, it was time to leave this town, and in fact Nicaragua, as we were now bound for Costa Rica. All that we needed to do was book our Tica Bus ticket out of there and rest until the morrow. This would have been a hell of a lot easier if the Tica bus station was in the position it was supposed to be in on the map from our rough guide, however it seems that our guide is now out of date….again! We really are considering burning it now.

So, with our tickets now booked the morning arrived to leave, and we started to walk to the bus station. It was a fair walk away, however we decided that as we had started we might as well finish, and therefore set off. From the moment we headed off I had a new companion in the form of a stray dog. It wasn’t what I needed, but I wasn’t going to shoo it off, so decided to leave it be. But this was no ordinary stray dog, and actually followed us the entire way to the bus station, which I’m assuming was way outside its usual domain, and even waited for us outside the bus station until we boarded the bus. If it had started to wave us off as we left, I would have had the bus driver stop so we could adopt this loyal canine!

To Costa Rica!

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