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Published: January 5th 2013
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The 15th provided us with a full day to explore the town. We basically went from one end to the other. On one end, is our hotel area and on the other, Lake Nicaragua. The lake is large and beautiful. They are working on improving the road leading up to it by repairing the road, landscaping and making pretty parks. It will be beautiful, but for now, it is run down. On the way to the lake, a boy nicely approached us for some money. Clay asked him, “For what?” The kid said, “comida” (food). Clay said, “What kind?” The poor kid was clearly never asked that question before. After a few awkward moments, kid says “Queso.” Cute and a nice recovery.
We decided against a lengthy boat trip around the little Isletas. There is also a ferry to the more famous Ometope Island where they have, *sigh*, eco-lodges and a volcano. No more howler monkeys for us for a while. We walked back towards the center of town and down the row of shops and eateries, all with one thing in mind… tourists. It is REALLY hot on the sunny side of the street, so we stuck to the
shaded side. We were hungry so we found a restaurant we read about somewhere, The Third Eye (El Treciero Ojo). About $15 later, we had consumed the best “baby back ribs” ever (nothing like what we knew in either the taste or consistency), the freshest, and the most delicious gazpacho ever. No room for dessert, we headed off into the heat again.
A man approached Clay for some money in the nicest way possible. At least people are really nice about it here. Of course, we gave him some. We found a taxi at the square and rode to the market for another snack/dinner selection. Believe it or not, the same bag boy was there and opened up a checkout line just for us, bagged our groceries and found us a cab again. He was really sweet and talkative, taking his job (and anticipated tip) very seriously. Although he did not get another C$100 tip, he did well.
The town has very few Tuk-Tuks. Taxis charge 50 cents for daytime travel anywhere in the city and $1 in the evening. Gas is $5 per gallon here. You do the math. There are a significant amount of horses with carriages. They
are used by both tourists and locals for transportation. Horses and carts are also used quite a bit to transport things around town. Sounds cool, right? Well, yes but there is one great big problem… Horse poop is everywhere!!! Along with the fact that there are no street lights per se, this is a great reason not to walk around in your sandals at night.
Our snack dinner was accompanied by watching Back to the Future (The original from 1986). Lola, Chris’ dog, kept us good company while we had some food. We also made a friend with the “upstairs” cat, “chicken” who wanted to sleep in our room. We were so fortunate to basically have the run of Ms. Margrit’s while we were there and were able to treat it like our own home. And what a home it would be!
Overall, Granada is quaint and deserves a look for a few days. It is a bit dirty and there is an air that people feel the need for heavy duty security. Chris said that people in Nicaragua are a bit scared, hence the need for the farmacia on every corner (hypochondriacs). All we can say is,
with regard to Central America in general, a person could make a killing selling barbed wire and burglar bars.
The 16th gave us the wonderful opportunity of having a leisurely breakfast with Chris, Pip, Lola, Mommy kitty and her kitten. As usual, Veronica made us the most sumptuous breakfast. She blends up fresh passion fruit into the best juice in the world. Thank you Mrs. Veronica!!! She makes the most perfect eggs we have had in CA, runny enough to dip your toast in… just perfect. We had very interesting conversations with our hosts on all kinds of topics. It was sad to leave new friends and we hope to see them again, in some part of the world or another.
At noon, our taxi to Managua arrived (about a 1 hour drive). We stayed at a hotel right next to the airport since we needed to be there at 6:30 a.m. the next morning. The hotel was really nice! It has a casino attached - - we stepped in and it was a smoky, stinky, typical casino, so we left quickly. We were able to drink tap water! We had a freezing A/C! We had hot bread,
butter, and ice water served to us without asking! There was a huge pool and nicely dressed people came to take your drink order on the deck. In all seriousness, we were thrust into a bit of a culture shock after a very different way of living for the past 7(?) weeks. But, with all the old comforts now in front of us, what was CLEARLY missing was the warmth and personal touch of the boutique hotel hosts we have had along the way. But, we decided to enjoy the comforts by taking a dip in the pool, having a leisurely lunch while being waited on by crisply dressed staff, and eating the best garlic/jalapeno shrimp ever. Off to Costa Rica tomorrow. Two more countries to go!
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Janet Fernandez
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this is also common in the philippines...cock fight derby even held in 4-star hotels.