Day 32: Kayaking and Massages in Granada

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Olly Murs cranked out “Trouble Maker” at 7.01am this morning as we had an early start to our kayaking tour. We were finally staying at a hotel that providing breakfast and it wasn't too bad; really sugary cornflakes, fresh fruit salad and toast. Most of our tour group had booked on the kayaking trip and we loaded onto the waiting mini-bus at 8am.

Its was a short drive down to Lake Nicaragua where we'd be paddling along for the next 4.5 hours. This lake is massive and completely fresh water. We got kitted out in life jackets which were 'one size fits all'. Well, they didn't really fit the girls and the kids ones were too small so they had to settle for uncomfortably massive life jackets.

We strode down the beach (yep, the lake had sand and little waves crashing on the shoreline, you'd think it was the ocean!) and chose our kayaks. There was one that was painted hot pink and suggested Rach take this one but she declined. We jumped in, paddled out and started our kayaking trip. It was pretty funny as up to this point, we had not been given any instructions on how to operate a kayak and some of the people in our tour group had never been in one before. So those of us that could paddled out to deeper water, oblivious to those poor buggers left struggling on the shoreline. Everyone soon got the hang of it and our paddling convoy ventured onwards. We stopped in our little cove where we had a good view of the massive volcano that overlooked the city of Grenada. Taking a look around us, there was a local man waist deep in water by the shoreline throwing out a fish net in the hope that he'd make a catch of the day. Similary, there were other fisherman further out in their little wooden boats trying the same thing. Our guide told us that there were some sharks living within the depths of this fresh water lake. Apparently they somehow make their way down from the ocean using various rivers and end up in this inland sea. They don't last very long however as they cannot live for too long in freshwater. He then proceeded to use the same joke over and over again that the sharks only like to eat international cuisine!

We paddled onwards into this little inlet and soon we were in lagoon type water with little islands all around us. This part of the tour was really cool. We had to paddle single file as the reeds, tree roots and rocks made the passage quite narrow and shallow. We all had to zig-zag our way through the water and I found it quite hilarious when these 2 ditzy American girls in a tandem-kayak ran aground. They literally had no coordination or control over their steering, both paddling at completely wrong times and it was no wonder that they found themselves perpendicular to the direction they were supposed to be going. I found my opportunity to overtake these 2 muppets and catch up to the rest of our tour group. Why you would rent a tandem-kayak when you cannot even paddle is beyond me as it is much harder to paddle and steer than in a single. Anyway, I caught up to the rest and took a look around. The scenario was really cool, it was swamp like with reeds growing out from the shore line, and floating lily-pads rising up out of the water. Our local guide pointed out numerous birdlife calling these waters home (sorry folks I'm no bird watcher so cannot remember any of their native names!!), including stalks, vultures and these little black and yellow birds (I called them tiger birds) that had an interesting little behaviour. The males were responsible for building these nests that would hang down like sacks off this one particular tree. When it came to finding a mate, the female would venture around and find the best, most structurally sound and cleanest nest to choose his mate. Talk about domestic pressures on the poor blokes!

We continued onwards snaking our way around heaps of little islands, some of which were home to wealthy families who had built massive mansions with heli-pads on them. On other islands, other families were not so fortunate and we came across one where we waved to some local kids swimming in the water, whilst their mothers washed the clothes on the shoreline or fed their pigs that were tied up outside their little huts they called home. Such a contrast in wealth amongst the different islands.

We were paddling along and when we looked up, we saw a massive group of black birds circling around us. These birds were vultures and I chuckled to myself thinking that they liked to feed on exhausted kayakers (yet no one was around to hear me!).

We paddled past an island aptly name Monkey Island. There were 4 monkeys living here and each one was a different species of monkey (as they can be very territorial). I can't remember each type but there was a spider monkey and a white-faced monkey (they were quite original when they thought up this name). We were instructed not to paddle too close to the shoreline as the monkeys liked playing a game of jumping onto kayaks. So I got as close as I could without having a monkey join me to tandem and tried to take some photos. They were pretty quick little buggers, swinging from tree to tree and running around getting all excited that they had visitors.

By this point we had been kayaking for about 3 hours and we were getting pretty hot and bothered. The sun was high in the sky (would have been mid-30's) and I could feel myself getting sunburnt even though I had plastered the stuff on this morning. We all had sore butts too as the kayak seats were not padded at all and our arms were sore from battling the current. We pulled up at an island that used to house this little fortress and our guide told us that we could get out and have a swim. It was nice to get up, stretch the legs and get feeling back into my bum. We took a swim in the warm water and relaxed.

Soon enough, we were climbing back in our kayaks for the short journey back across the lake. The final half an hour kayaking was the hardest and poor Rach struggled back to shore, arms feeling like they were about to drop off.

We bused it back into town and went and grabbed a bite to eat at the Garden Cafe. It was a cute little cafe and funnily enough it had a garden out the back. So we sat outside and rested our weary muscles and gulped down our fresh sandwiches and fruit smoothies. Rach had a BLT and I had a really nice bbq pork and coleslaw panini.

After lunch, we took a short wonder in the heat and I grabbed a coffee from the same cafe as yesterday. Again, my latte was really nice but the woman burnt the milk again! We stopped by our chocolate museum to collect our freshly prepared homemade chocolate from yesterday's tour. We'd try these later on and I must say that although we are awesome chocolate makers, I'm going to blame the quality of the ingrediants as they didn't taste that crash hot. I had made mine with a splash of rum and a few raisans – it tasted horrible; I think I put way too much rum in it however at the time I was completely guided by a chocolate teacher!! Rach's was a little better however the '50% milk chocolate' that we used tasted like dark chocolate which we aren't really fans of.

We got back to our hotel exhausted and with full bellies. Rach took a nap and I did these odd jobs on the laptop which I had been neglecting for the past few days. I woke Rach up at 3.30pm as she and Zerima (another girl on our tour) were booked in for a massage at Dream Spa Massages. They had offered our tour group 2-for-1 massages and it was just a 2 min walk from the hotel. When she got back, she filled me in how this friendly bear of a bloke gave her a really nice deep tissue massage on her back and shoulders, followed by a hot stone massage.

Meanwhile, I decided to go for a jog around Granada. I ran through the city and down to the shores of Lake Nicaragua. I decided to run along the shoreline for a bit and it quickly turned into the slums of Granada, and soon I was running down these dusty roads lined with wooden shacks, with locals sitting out the front minding their own business, playing cards and kids kicking a flat soccer ball around. I felt quite out of place running along in my Asic runners, Oakley sunglasses and iPod cranking meanwhile getting tracked by my Garmin watch. Its the first time I thought about the fact that each time I run I'm carrying about $1000 worth of stuff and the average wage for a person in Nicaragua is only $2,000 per year! I got quite a few stares as I ran past, actually, nearly everyone was looking at me (some less accommodating than other) which inspired me to keep my pace up! It was quite nice however when I ran past little kids playing in the street and they waved and call out 'Hola' on my way past. I turned around and ran back the way I'd come (as to not get lost) and made it back to the hotel, 10km later and dripping with sweat. I quickly grabbed a towel and jumped straight into the hotel pool!

Later on, we ventured back to the same restaurant we ate last night (when onto a good thing...why change?!) and Rach had what I had and I had a really nice thai chicken curry. It was nice as it was just 6 of us from the tour, not the entire group and its sad that in only 3 days time we'll all be saying goodbye to one another. 2 weeks have flown by and unfortunately most of our tour group finishes in Costa Rica, with only us and 3 others continuing onto Panama.

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Photos

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monkey island