Granada, Nicaragua

Granada´s Main Cathedral

We had a relatively easy journey from Leon to Granada. This was our usual routine of getting up early and setting off in the cool of the morning, rather than the heat of the day. We got a mini bus to Managua (the Nicaraguan Capital) and hopped straight into another mini bus bound for Granada. Both journeys took a total of 4 hours, so a breeze compared to some of the other journeys we had taken. 

We arrived in to Granada about lunch time and set about finding a hostel. We dumped our bags and set out to explore the town. Already it was clear that this was a lovely town. Compared to Leon, it was a town with more features, variety of colonial building and overall more interesting to explore. The main central sqaure, Cathedral and side streets all had a lot more charm and intrigue. We would spend the next 4 days in Granada, exploring and taking in the sights and atmosphere. 

Chocolate Making

Our first afternoon we jumped straight in to one of the activities we had researched. The Chocolate Museum. A 2 hour course on how to make your own chocolate. A great afternoon and since we had previouly been in the hills of Honduras and seen the Cocoa trees growing, it was now nice to see the process all the way through and take it from the Cocoa pod to eating a choccy bar !

The course was a small group and involved us taking the Cocoa beans and turning it in a variety of traditional drinks and a chocolate bar of our choice. The process involved roasting the beans on an open fire, de-shelling them, grinding it into a paste and then turning it in to the final product. A great afternoon and a lovely choccy bar. Of course we had to eat it very quickly, otherwise it would have melted....honest ! 

Poetry Festival, Granada

We were in Granada on a weekend and as luck would have it, the same weekend would see the town host one of its main annual festivals; the annual poetry festival in Nicaragua. Now i know that we couldn´t understand a word of the poetry, but the town has an extra buzz and side attractions because of it. This included various bands and acts performing on stages after the poetry. So for the Friday and Saturday nights we enjoyed the bands and being part of the the local event. 

Granada is situated on the northern shores of Lake Nicaragua (the largest lake in Central America and 19th Largest in the world - thanks Wikipedia). We took a mornings tour of the series of 360+ islands found on the northern end. This was a lovely trip and nice to see the layout, houses and wildlife. 

The rest of the days in Granada were spent exploring the side streets, churches and local markets. We found a nice church with access to its clock tower, which gave some great views over the city and surrounding volcanoes. On our walks we also managed to find a newer and nicer hostel, so ended up changing to nicer surrounds. 

17 Person Hammock !

We also found a shop and local project run to help kids with disabilites. Their main output was a whole variety of hammocks. The biggest was a 17 person hammock, well we couldnt resist in trying it out. Although i think it might over stretch the garden boundaries of our pettite garden at Banbury Close!

Chicken bus for our day trip to Masaya

Our last full day in Granada was spent taking a short trip to a near by town called Masaya.  Another local Nicaraguan town, with a small hub of arts and crafts stuff. A good little trip out and nice to travel around without having to lug our rucsacks.

Our next stop.......staying on a volcanic island !