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Published: January 12th 2008
Yesterday actually marked my third straight day of travel. In a flurry of spending a lot of time on planes just to get to the same place, I flew from Raleigh to Atlanta to San Diego on Day 1. Day 2 was the train to LA and then a flight
back to Atlanta. Wes and I met with my friend Grace for drinks, and were greeted by a surprise visit from Maaike and Paul, who had driven 3-4 hours out of their way to say hi. It was completely worth the 2 hours of sleep it resulted in. A few hours later, Day 3 arrived and we were finally off to Managua. It was a long flight and we didn't enjoy very much rest. Immigration was slow, taking over 30 minutes and we were the only plane passing through. The long few days of travel meant that we caved immediately and took an offer for a private shuttle to Granada for $30. And it was worth every penny to make the hour trek in A/C rather than taking a series of hot and overcrowded chicken buses. They dropped us at Moon Guidebook recommended
Hostal Oasis. They only had bunk beds for the
night, but we were too tired to look elsewhere. For the first time in my life I surrendered the top bunk in favor of the bottom.
We unloaded our bags and walked around a bit, finding a Pali grocery store where we purchased bananas and water. The food definitely helped us make it through the rest of the afternoon. We created our own self-guided sunset walking tour of Granada, admiring the cathedral and the colorful buildings that the colonial town is famous for. For dinner we settled on wood oven pizza at Don Luca's. Their Hawaiian pizza was very tasty, and we washed it down with our first taste of Victoria beer. By the time we got back to the hostel it took me less than 5 minutes to pass out in a hammock for a few hours while Wes read. Then straight to bed.
In the morning we got up around 6:30 am to take advantage of the empty streets and walked to Lake Nicaragua and back. The deserted streets were gorgeous. From there we grabbed an American style breakfast at Kathy's Waffle House, which Wes had been eyeing since we got in. We shared a table
with a nice Canadian/Colombian couple while waiting for our gallo pinto, smoothie and omelette with pancakes. We moved to a small B&B next door to Oasis in search of a private room. They didn't have any hammocks, but it was quiet, peaceful and quiet, so we weren't complaining. And free breakfast!
We decided to avoid the expensive gringo tour to Mombacho and caught a local bus that dropped us at the base of the
Volcan Mombacho. From the turnoff it was a 1.5 km walk through coffee country to the entrance. We got a ride in a truck to the halfway point, then piled into an old army transport truck for the ride the rest of the way up. At the top, a nice Nica girl and her Canadian boyfriend (we're beginning to wonder if all Canadians have Latin American girlfriends!) offered to share a guide with us, and we joined them and her parents for a 2 hour hike around a few of the craters. It was nice to have someone to translate, as the guide only spoke Spanish. The hike was great - we saw fumaroles, dormant craters, and phenomenal views of Lake Nicaragua and Las Isletas. We
Don Luca
Tasty Pizza!could even see smoke from the active Volcan Masaya in the distance. The last bit of the hike was very steep, but the views made it worthwhile.
We took the bus back to Granada in search of shoes for Wes and another pizza dinner at the highly recommended Telepizza. On the bus we were treated to plenty of 80s music, including a particularly cheesy version of "Everything I Do, I Do It For You" in Spanish. We wrapped up the evening with some relaxation time in our room in anticipation of an 8:30 am shuttle to the Ometepe Ferry in the morning.
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Billy
non-member comment
Amen to Waffles and Volcanos!
So glad you're back to blogging Spallone! I can't wait to read more. Keep it coming! :)