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Granada| As is usual, all trips...well all OUR trips, begins with a bus. We took our local bus to town and then caught a taxi from the Hotel Costa Rica to the bus terminal. We bought a tour which was to include a bilingual guide for the entire trip. Our taxi driver (guide?) left us at the terminal with tickets and an itinerary. The tickets looked good enough so we sat and waited for the bus. At 12n the bus started to load. The ticket taker allowed Deb on the bus, but there was some sort of problem with my ticket and he made it clear that I needed to talk to somebody "over there". I went to the ticket window and asked "hay algo problema?". The man at the window checked my passport against a list of numbers and then stamped my ticket. I was on the bus now. However Deb had also not had her ticket stamped, so the driver took it in and returned with the required stamp. We were off.
This bus ride was better than any of the airline flights down here so far. Food was served, and it was really good! On road movies were played, some in English some in Spanish. We stopped at the frontier and had our passports stamped and luggage checked. Many urchins wanted money. Many men wanted to exchange our money for cordobras, the local currency. (I never assume that the people at the frontier have anything resembling the best deal.) At about 9pm we arrive in Grenada (the old capital of Nicaragua). We were picked up and driven to our hotel.
The hotel was a beautiful colonial building right on the edge of the town square. We got our room and a couple of beers (what went for supper that evening) and went to bed. In the morning we discovered that while the hotel had hot water the pressure was sorely lacking. We got breakfast (very nice BTW) and were picked up for a day of touring.
First we went to the Parque Nacional Volcan Masaya. An active volcano in the middle of a large park that is made up of an ancient lava flow. This park used to be used by the military for exercises (in fact still is on a much smaller scale). We went to the top of the volcano and were able to look down into it, but the steam blocked most of the view. Our guide took us around and talked a bit about the wildlife found in the area and we asked a bit about the history of the country.
Our second stop was Laguna de Masya. A large lake (pic above) at one end of the park. There we enjoyed the view and ate lunch.
There are several "pueblos blancos" that we visited, though I never understood why they were called "white". These were small towns that specialized in making pottery. Really nice pottery. Much better than I have seen any other place in this part of the world. We got some nice pieces and a chess board. Deb is always looking for a good chess board. This one features the Spanish on one side and the sanguineous peoples on the other.
We took a tour of Granada and I heard again a name I had heard in the history of Costa Rica, William Walker. He was an American (as in USA) who among his wonderful ideas was (in 1860) to takeover Central America, make is a slave state and then join the Confederation. His plans didn't quite work out. He pissed off a lot of people in Central America and finally got executed in Honduras. Our own Napoleon!
Lake Nicaragua is the second largest lake in Latin America, the largest in Central America. The final leg of our tour was of the islands in the lake. The islands were formed by volcanic explosion. They are all formed of large rocks that were just tossed into the lake, where they piled up...there's an island. There are lots of shore birds to be seen, houses on the islands...anything from castles to shanties...at one point the house is supported BETWEEN islands, trees, monkies. A perfect end to the day.
While we were touring the city Deb and I took mental notes of where things were. It's not a large city, and we both like to walk A LOT. Once we returned to the hotel we had coffee and ice cream and took off for a walk around town. I got several pictures from around town and we met a lot of people. One of the interesting features of Granada is the use of pony carts. They're everywhere. Used to clean the streets, haul things into/out of town, tourist rides...everything. There were also many smaller, human powered push carts.
Something I want to learn more about...in all the churches we visited there were very clear Masonic signs. You don't see that in Costa Rica, but in Nicaragua it was very evident. Even their money has the pyramid with eye (like US money) symbol and around the symbol is written "en dios confiamos"...In God we trust....Interesting.
That evening as we were eating the troupe of boys came by. There is a lot of poverty in Nicaragua, there is a lot of begging. Some of the kids come up with interesting things to do for money. In one case they had a large doll of a woman than one got into while the others "played" for her to dance. "She" would spin from side to side while two other boys pounded on their drums. You could hear them from across the square. One other boy was wandering around with had in hand. Every night we would see/hear them. Every night the doll had more added, a hat, a flower... Every night there would be more kids with drums. We kept wondering where the instruments came from, they were in really good shape. As the ensemble grew so did the confusion. What to play, how to play it, where to do. Reminded us of a flock of parrots, which I guess you have to see to really understand.
Saturday is market day and we walked right into it while looking for an old park we had seen the day before. I really like market. We go to market here in Costa Rica on Saturdays, but this was the most crowded, smelly, busy, cram packed market I've ever seen (or smelled). Lots of great opportunities for pics. All the best ones got away, partially because they were moments that I just was not repaired for and partially because they were all shots of people. And I'm never quite sure when I'm invading. So I error on the side of caution.
On Sunday we went to William Walker's house for coffee. Sounds like a big deal, but his house is now a coffee/gift shop. So...we went to William Walker's house for coffee. Met an interesting man there that told us that for $1 we could go up the tower of the local church and get a really great view of the city. We found the church, found the man to pay, went up (which was an adventure...) and spent some time in the tower, admiring and photographing the city and the church from that perspective.
When we stopped for coffee that afternoon the usual string of peddlers/beggars flowed by. There were two boys selling pottery and whistles. One boy was showing us his turtles and, as we had not sent him away, his friends also came over. It became quite the game of putting down the others pots. Claiming that they were way over priced. Offering each other's wares for next to nothing. "Oh! He says it's worth 10, but it's only worth 1". I took a pic and we bought from both.
There is this crazy bus that runs tourists and kids around down. It's right out of Burning Man. Painted to attract attention, windows cut out, huge speakers in the back blasting out the rhythms of the local music. For 6 cordobras you could ride around on it. On board was quite the collection of kids, parents and drunk tourists. Everybody having fun in their own way.
We ended our stay in Granada with a morning of Kayaking. We had this great guide that had lived on the lake all his life. He knew all the trees and their uses, all the birds and fish, all the people who lived and worked on the lake. We had a great 2 hours of paddling on the lake with this great man teaching us (in Spanish) about the lake. At one point he was very proud to show us a rather rare bird up in a tree. You could see the pride in his face and he motioned to us to quietly come around and look. I don't think anybody enjoys their job as much as this man does.
I don't think this will be our last trip to Granada. |
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