Lovely Granada
We spend a glorious week in Granada. Immediately upon driving into the city, we are enamored with the colonial architecture, colorfully painted buildings and lively plazas. We find a lovely hotel, Hotel Posada del Sol, on a quiet street, with a spacious room and large pool. The garden is filled with fruit trees and plants: bananas, mangos, watermelon and maracuya, which has a hard rind filled gooey sweetness – so yummy!
We spend our week sightseeing. Some highlights:
– Carriage city tour: We take a horse-led carriage tour and stop at an old fort and climb to a look-out point for a beautiful view of Grenada.
– Boat trip to the isletas: 365 tiny islands are near Granada in Lake Nicaragua. We go to the ”Beverly Hills” of Nicaragua – small private islands with nice houses. Several high ranking officials, wealthy businessmen, and foreigners have private islands there.
– Fort at Masaya: One time a fort, then converted to a prison in the early 1900s. The Sandanistas and later Somosa’s military used the prison as a torture chamber. Some of the walls are still splattered with blood. High ranking military prisoners were taken by helicopter to Volcano Masaya and dropped into the crater in order to eliminate their traces. A very eerie and spooky place, but an important monument to ensure that history does not repeat itself.
– Volcano Masaya: Our amazing guide, Ramon, leads us on a hike to view five craters in the volcano. The last part of the hike is treacherous, but Quinn manages to scale up the volcanic rock to an incredible view.
– Pottery studio: Ramon also takes us to a pottery studio that teaches locals about the ancient art of making pottery. They still use their feet to stomp the clay and spin the wheel. The process is much more intricate than studios in the States (they carve, paint and repeatedly polish their pieces) and takes over a week from start to finish. An extremely interesting demonstration.
– Ziplines on Volcano Mambacho: Ramon accompanies us to the ziplines and encourages us to do all kinds of tricks: upside-down, superman and bungee bouncing. All of us laugh AND scream! – Bell towers: On different occasions, Connor, Quinn and I climb bell towers of churches. The staircases are winding, skinny and steep, but well worth the climb for the incredible view. At one of the towers, the bells start ringing while we are on top. Quinn and I practically jump out of our skin!
– Local market: After getting our laundry done, we are missing several pairs of Quinn’s shorts. We venture to the local market, and Quinn makes out with 4 new pairs of shorts and a Boston Red Sox baseball cap (all for less than $25). Unfortunately, the SF Giants are not popular here, so Connor does not get a cap.
– Restaurants and sports bars: Granada offers a plethora of great places to eat and socialize. We eat ½ pound hamburgers and watch American sports at Zoom’s, eat fish and chips at the Irish pub, eat blueberry waffles and pancakes at Kathy’s Waffle House, and go cheap at the pupuseria. We love local food, but enjoy the splurge on good ole’ American food.
At our hotel, we meet a nice group from the U.S. One of the guys, Scott, coincidentally is from Steamboat Springs and is 6’5” tall, just like my brother, Scott. When we return from dinner one night, Scott is wearing Paul’s naked lady board shorts. We question why and he explains that the shorts were in front of his room and blew down from our second floor balcony. Paul remarks that the shorts look better on Scott and offers a trade. Now Paul sports a fancy pair of orange, brown and white plaid board shorts.
The next destination in Nicaragua is Isla Ometepe and San Juan – more in the next blog…
Tags: Nicaragua
hwy1alltheway
I would not have given up the naked lady board shorts without a fight.
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