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the main square of GranadaWe got up this am at 7.01am, cos 7am was just a bit early! We had private transport this am so we could start a lil later which was good! We went down to Bigfoot Hostel again for breakie and had oatmeal to keep us going. It was a pretty short travel day today – only about 3 hours to Granada. We sat up the front and Ben wrote a blog while I just chille dout to music. We had one stop along the way in the capital city – Managua for some snacks etc. We arrived around midday and everyone automatically fell in love with Granada! There was a few volcanoes around and really colourful houses and cleaner streets thn Leon. It had a really cool feel to it. Not dis-similar to Antigua! It was stinking hot!
We all dropped our bags off and freshened up quickly then went on a tiny city tour. One of Jacobs specialities which literally includes good restaurants, ATM, bank and laundry place. So informative! NOT! He did point out loads of nice looking food places and unfortunately we are only here for a day and a bit!! He then took us into the
Tour company's office to book any tours that we wanted to do for the following day. We fancied doing a bit of kayaking so booked in with another couple at 8am tomo morning to do a 4.5 hour tour of the Isletas! I was pushing for the 2,5 hour one but unfortunately didnt get my way! I think I may struggle to kayak for 4.5 hours!! But I wasnt too disappointed as when you do the longer one you get to kayak to Monkey Island and see monkeys so was looking forward to that.
After we booked our options for the next day, a group of us decided on a pizza place that was a recommendation, for lunch. Jacob reckoned it was the best pizza in central america so we thought we had better give it a go. And to his credit it was pretty good but we havent had pizza anywhere else in CA so couldnt really compare. We got all full up after sharing a medium pizza and then Ben decided he wanted to try a coffee from the coffee place recommended. It was apparently very hot but yummy! We went and booked in for the Chocolate
making class after lunch but couldnt book in till 4pm so had about an hour and a half to wander round and kill time. We wandered through the market which was busy and dirty but not quite as bad as the one in Leon. Ben even bought some socks. 3 pairs for like a dollar. Cos he bought with him 3 pairs of socks and 4 pairs of shoes! Good ratio! 😊 After we had had enough of the heat we went and waited at the Choco Museo for our class to start. We spent about 10 mins watching this strange animal in the rabbit cage running back and forth like a loony tune! That kept us entertained!
After about 15mins of waiting we were joined by 2 girls from Japan for our chocolate making class to start. We had the most enthusiastic teacher ever who just consumes nothing by chocolate every day by the sounds of it! He does 4 classes a day and is so incredibly hyper its hilarious! High fives all round and a lot of cheering, singling and yahooing! Made for a hilariously fun class. We started by checking out the beans and learning a
few facts about the perfect humidity and fermentation of the beans and how to check that the humidity is right and you arent getting ripped off at a market You shake them in your hand and if it makes the sound of a maraka it is good to go! We then went our the back and roasted them in a a big wok looking this that wasnt called a wok but me remembering spanish words is not fab so we will go with wok! We had a stir each for a while and then when it started smelling like chocolate we had to break all the shells of one by one by hand! They were so hot and he was like 'go go go!' so we raced to get them all done which was fun! One they were all broken off we got rid of the shells and went back to the kitchen. The next step was to grind them. We each had our own grinders and had to go it really fast to attempt to make a paste out of it. Ben wasnt actually too bad and his didnt need any reinforcement. All the girls needed a wee extra
hand to get it going. We then made 3 diff kinds of hot chocolates. The first one was the Mayan hot choc which consisted of water, cocoa, cinammon and honey. The next one was aztec hot choc and they had water, honey, cinammon, chilly powder, pepper and cocoa. That was Bens fav but not mine as it was a wee bit spicy and not sweet enough for me! The last kind was the European hot choc which we all know was sugar, hot milk, cocoa and cinammon. Yum! For the European drink we had to swizzle it together to mix it and we had to repeat this Spanish song after him while doing so. Whoever sang it the best got a block of chocolate and I won! 😊 I had a bit of an advantage as I was last so could listen to everyone else! With the other two drinks we had to mix them by pouring the liquid from one jug to another with really long pours and we all spilt it everywhere! Not as skilled as he was! Though id have to admit Ben was actually pretty good! He's missed his calling I think! Hes wasted as an
accountant!
Once we made drinks he showed us how to make the chocolate which takes 15 hours so obviously we didnt have time for that. So, he gave us some mixture already pre-made and we added what flavours and toppings we wanted. I made mine with m&ms and ben made his rum & raisin. We mothered them into a mould and get to pick them up tomorrow. We had so much fun doing the class which was about an hour and a half and really recommend everyone to do it either here or in Antigua if they get the chance! It is the same outfit that runs it. Good times 😊
We chilled out for a bit back at the hotel and then everyone met up for dinner at 6.30 to head to a place called The 3
rd Eye. It was amazing!! There was so many choices from sushi to thai to nicaraguan food! We mainly all had thai and I had the greatest fresh pineapple juice ever! Ben had a vietnamese thai curry with shrimps which was delicious and I had thai chicken with sweet and sour sauce. OMG so so good! And not even very expensive!
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the Nicaraguan Pencil We had a fun night and a good day making chocolate! I am stuffed up with a head cold so another early night for us after a long day and an early start tomorrow!!
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