We had a couple goals in mind, we didn't want to spend our spring break week running around all over the country. We wanted rest and relaxation with a little bit of adventure. So we decided on two places, a colonial city called Granada for a few days and a volcanic island in the middle of central america's largest lake for a little middle of nowhere adventuring!
Fresh faced and naive, we boarded a train to NYC...
One thing that really sucks about Philadelphia air travel is that it's supposed to be a hub, but really it's not, it's like a large regional airport. Tickets to international destinations cost an arm, a leg and a mortgage on the house you would buy after you pay off your student debt. Traveling by bus 2 hrs north to NYC provides much cheaper access to the world!
The flight was uneventful except for the almost getting lost in Honduras because the itinerary forgot to mention that we would be randomly stopping in Honduras. Like dippy tourists, we got off and almost didn't make it back on the plane after we figured it out.
Upon arriving in Managua, we got conned into taking a $50 cab ride an hour south from Managua to Granada. Ok so we were going to take the Chicken Bus, see example below:
we were told that chicken buses are dangerous for gringos like us and that we should take the nice taxi. It was worth it I guess, we didn't start our day in Nicaragua by getting lost in Granada or Managua. It was a good warm up to Nicaragua
GRANADA, Home Away from Home!
It was warm, the city was beautiful, the guest house we stayed at was magnificent. The combination of almost 17 hrs of traveling and warmth and sun and finally being THERE made for a very happy first day in Granada. We had trouble deciding on a place to eat, thinking back now, we really should've just picked any place, you really have only one option for local food: rice, fried beans, fried meat, fresh veggies that's probably almost as dirty as a used petri dish. The food was good, not great, but it was good!
I think that first meal we gorged ourselves on the delicious local beer called Toña. They were cold and they were cheap! less than a dollar a bottle! We explored the market area a little before coming home to nap.
There was a lot of poverty there, we saw it first in the markets and also in the peripheral areas of the city. The nicer areas of Granada are in the city center around Parque Central. That is where the tourists congregate. As you go further away, you see the real granada, gone are the remodeled colonial homes around the city center, replaced with broken down colonial homes and dirty streets. There is a huge class divide according to our hosts, and there is a range of classes among the city, each class thinking they are better than the classes below them.
In the evening we wanted more comidas tipicas, which are your local Nicaraguan food. A friend and I shared the following, which costs $13 total
Note that that is a very large plate and that everything is fried. We were then treated to a show by flame twirlers
We closed out the evening with a light stroll around the city center and called it a night:
stay tuned for kayaking the mysterious isletas of granada, uncovered from its watery berth once every 12 moons
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment