Granada

GRANADA

Today we got up bright and early and headed out to find a bus to Granada so that we could visit the English congregation there and explore the town.


Hardly anyone uses street names here and maps seem non-existent, so if you ask for directions you usually get told something like "oh so many blocks in this direction and then you should see this land mark and then you turn right and walk one and a half blocks and then turn left and  then it's another so many blocks from there".  Not always easy to follow especially if you're a fair walk away and lots of twists and turns are needed to get to your destination, so what I've been doing is asking someone and paying really close attention to the first 5 or so instructions and then we we make it that far, then I find someone else and get the next set of directions - it seems to be working :)

So we found the right spot, out on the main highway, people are very friendly and helpful - luckily I checked with a young guy to make sure that we were at the right spot to catch the Granada bus when we arrived because when the right bus came along he pointed it out to us.  Without his help we may have missed it because it was a little navy and white micro bus and I was looking out for a proper sized multicoloured bus, they just seem like so much more fun!

The mini bus was pretty full but not too crowded.

Granada isn't too far away from Masaya so after about a 15 min walk from the hostel and a 25 min bus trip we got off at the stop that one of our new friends, Wilfredo, had told us was the closest one to the hall.  A 5 min walk had us outside of the hall but we had lots of time up our sleeve so we wandered around for a bit looking for a panaderia for some breakfast (bakery) - it turned out that there was one right next to where we'd jumped off the bus so after a bit of back tracking we got our breakfast.

Then it was back to the hall where we met lots of lovely brothers and sisters.  Many were from America, Chicago area mainly, but there were a few other nationalities and some local Nicaraguan brothers and sisters learning English too.

A visiting brother from England gave a lovely talk on how love can cover the imperfections of others - he said that the imperfections of others are like rising damp in England.  Rising damp just keeps coming through and there's nothing that can be done other than to keep painting over it - so when the imperfections of others keep coming through, rather than letting them bother us too much, or reacting badly, we should paint over them with love so we don't focus on them and instead enjoy their good qualities.  Nice illustration.

We got to catch up with Alex who we met in the Masaya Spanish congregation last week (a young bro keenly learning English) and with  Frank, a lovely young brother who we'd met on Face Book before we arrived.

After the meeting we headed into town to have a look around and find some lunch.

There are lots of lovely buildings in Granada and a lot of them beautifully painted and much better cared for than those in Masaya.

Granada was founded in 1524 by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and over the years it has seen and experienced a number of battles with English, French and Dutch pirates all trying to take over Nicaragua at different times in history.

There is some beautiful architecture here that is said to reflect Moorish and Andalusian appearance more than the Castillian style seen in León.

There are some great statues ....

...   and lots of horses and carriage, both of which seem much better cared for than the ones we had seen in Masaya.

For a change we were hungry so we found a nice looking little cafe and enjoyed a lovely lunch there.  The girl running the cafe spoke a little English and we had a few laughs with her as she took our order.

Granada is located along the coast of Lake Nicaragua and as it was a hot day we thought we'd walk down the malecón and have a swim.  Sadly the beach is so dirty that we couldn't bring ourselves to swim there and instead took a little time out in the shade of the coconut trees on the foreshore.

Most of the way down the malecón (esplanade) is beautifully set out with paved streets, bright buildings, very inviting looking restaurants and bars and along the way we found a nice reminder of our lovely friends the Bohorquez family ....

....   the last quarter or so of the malecón is still under construction and turns to a dirt road.

After our little relax on the beach we found our way back to where the buses leave and took a minibus home.  This time there were at one stage 30 people packed into the bus.  We wondered if the operators ever turn anyone away when the bus is too full, it didn't seem so, still who can complain when a 25 minute trip costs .40c.

Laguna Apoyo, Nicaragua

Today we spent the morning organizing our trip down south, we'll leave Masaya on Monday for San Juan del Sur to check out a bit more of the country.  Once we'd found a hostel with availability and sussed out how to get to San Juan we grabbed our togs and set off to explore the crater lake 'Laguna Apoyo' here in Masaya.

As there are only two buses to the laguna per day and we had missed the morning one we took a taxi which cost the four of us C300 or about $US10, not too bad but no where near as good as the C13 (about $.50 cents) that the bus costs.  

We drove for about half an hour out of town and were amazed to see that the paved roads that are all through the town centre reach right out through all of the villages and to the crater lake.  Our bus driver told us that it was a government incentive with the help of foreign aid.

When we arrived at the lagoon there was a lovely soft breeze blowing and small waves on the surface of the lagoon, we quickly jumped in and enjoyed the very warm temperature of the water, some spots being nearly like a warm bath.

The Laguna Apoyo has a surface of 2,110 hectares and is about 100 meters at its deepest point.  The lagoon was declared a natural reserve in 1991.

It was a lovely swim ... 

...   and we got to practice our handstand skills, always important!

It was lovely to see that the locals made good use of lagoon as much as, if not more than, the tourists.

Some fathers were very protective of their little ones ...

Others not so much jeje :)

This uncle was trying to teach his nephews to swim but we had to have a few giggles as the style being taught was something between freestyle and doggie paddle on the top of the water. 

 But regardless of style they were having the best time :)

Then we headed up to the cabañas and enjoyed an amazing lunch of tilapia, fresh from the lagoon along with a nice cold local Toña beer, the perfect end to a lovely afternoon.

Then, along with the tourists, the locals and the vendors who walked up and down the beach with their wares we headed up the hill to catch the bus home.

You've got to love the buses over here - the music played on them matches the wild colours that they're painted.

This bus wasn't packed at all but Chase still looks a little concerned, maybe it was because when the taxis went around the bus they were so close that it seemed like you could reach out and touch them.

Lucky Porl got the wheel hub seat!

And then it was back to the hostel.  

Tomorrow we're visiting the English congregation in Granada so will have to be up bright and early to find the right bus that'll take us there.

Volcán Masaya

After a cruisey morning we headed out to organize a few things in town.  Kieran and I got sorted at the local 'Movistar' mobile phone shop with a sim card etc while Porl and Chase headed to the atm to top-up Chase's wallet.  Unfortunately this didn't happen as all three atm's that he tried refused to spit out any money for him.  He came back looking rather perturbed but we'll call the bank tomorrow and hopefully get it sorted out for him.

For lunch we headed to a restaurant that we had walked by a few times and that always drew our eye because of its bright and multi-coloured painted furniture.  The food was fabulous and although it was a little more expensive than other restaurants it still worked out that the meals with drinks (fruit smoothies and beers) only cost us around US$4 per person.

Then we headed back to our hostel to get ready to hike up Volcán Masaya and to join the night tour there.  We arranged a taxi to take us and pick us up again after the tour and the hostel owner advised us not to pay him until he came back for us or we might find ourselves walking home.

We arrived at the park at around 4pm.

The Masaya Volcano National Park was the first National Park in Nicaragua (1979) and comprises an area of 54km2 and includes two volcanoes and five craters.

The visitors centre was very interesting, unfortunately there wasn't time enough to read everything but we especially enjoyed looking at the awesome murals that were on the walls.

Entry to the park and the night tour costs $US10 per person plus another C50 (about $1) for transportation which is well worth it.  The tours are very well organized and our tour guide Joel was very informative and really knew his stuff.

We jumped onto the back of a ute to head up to the volcanos, the guides tried to get me to hop into the ute but not this time!  Who wants to sit in a cab when you're out on a volcano adventure??

We stopped first at the Santiado crater which was giving off a lot of gas but the view was still amazing, especially as it was getting close to sunset.

A number of green parakeets roost in one of the walls of this crater which seems a strange place to want to roost given the gases that are continuously emitted but they seem to have somehow adapted to the sulphur smoke.

Above Kieran's head you can see La Cruz de Bobadilla (named after Father Francisco Bobadilla), said to have been erected by the Spanish  in the 16th century in order to exorcise the Devil, given that they had named the active volcano 'La Boca Del Infierno'.

.

Joel told us all about previous explosions one such being on 23 April, 2003 when the crater exploded sending rocks up to 500m from the crater.  One visitor to the park was injured as were a number of vehicles in the park.

From there we walked up to another crater, San Pedro.

As you can see, the scenery was unique and very beautiful.

Then it was time to walk back to the vehicles, ready to head off for the biggest part of the climb.

We arrived at the next stop in the tour, just in time to see the sun set behind the volcano ....

the gases combined with the sunset made the area look like we were at the scene of a bushfire.

Next we headed up a steep slope to look out over Lake Managua.
Our guide Joel advised we not read the sign as we passed it, he said that here in Managua they have rules but no one follows them.

Kieran got in a little rock climbing ....

...   while Chase just hung around.

Then we donned some gorgeous headwear and headed down to the caves.  (pardon the pun ;) )

We didn't enter the first cave as there were too many bats and breathing bat guano is not recommended but our guide let anyone that wanted climb down to the mouth of this cave and take a photo when the light from the torches made the bats start flying out.  I think three of us took the shot and here you can see how there were heaps of bats flying around in there.

Right before I climbed down to take this shot we were standing around listening to the guide's spiel about the bats and while we were listening Kieran put his hand under my hair and flapped it about like a bat, of course I screamed much to everyone's amusement.

Then we headed into some caves where at the end of the civil war a number of resisters had hidden for months rather than go to war.

We also saw some of the little bats up close and personal, aren't they sooo cute!

Finally we learnt about the rock formation in the ceiling of this cave and how the indian people would sacrifice to it because of it's resemblance to a skull.

They would sacrifice a girl of between 16 and 20 years of age to show appreciation for the eruptions of the volcano whose ash enriched the soil allowing them to grow good crops.

And then it was back to the vehicles and after a quick look through the gases at the only just discernable red lava it was back down the mountain and the end of a great tour!  If anyone comes to Nicaragua we would definitely recommend it :)