Colonial Granada (10th July)

We decided that a few hours would be enough to check out Granada in daylight, so after breakfast the 2nd morning in the hostel (again well cooked by Lotte with the remaining 7 eggs - one broke...), we trotted out in the sun.

I dont remember if I mentioned it, but Granada is a typical colonial city with corresponding collossal houses and impressive churces. Ive seen similar in Mexico (e.g. Mérida) and elsewhere, and I must say that the Nicaraguan touch of non-maintanance adds an interesting touch. Regardless, its colorful.

Lotte, Granada, and the Mombacho volcano

Our first and pretty much only planned destination was an old church, restorred into a museum. The 50 cordoba entrance fee included a private guided tour in English-ish, which was very informative. At least the parts we understood. There was a bit about the building itself, about indigenous traditions, some pieces of pottery, and a large collection of old carved stones. From the latter room there was also an amazing view of the volcano. Further, there was a large room, which apparently hosted the first Nicaraguan university, a beautiful courtyard, a room with a minature model of the city and many pictures from the railway station that used to cross the area, and finally a little room with modern/traditional art in pretty colors.
It hit us that all these pieces were not exactly well protected from the humid air or theft, but... In a country like Nicaragua, I would on the other hand be surprised to see such things considered.

Street in Granada - just better in black/white. :)

After the church/museum we strolled around a bit in the profound heat, to find (what... postcards? A cafe? Post office? Im not sure...) but we didnt. We did however cross the colorful central square, and then went to an ice cream shop, to have an absolutely life-saving couple of icecreams.

Done with Granada, we grabbed our backpacks and checked out - and found our way back to the first bus station. Here we had to wait for more than half an hour in the heat and trash and alcohol breath from a "helpful" and very annoying local, who decided that we would never be able to find the right bus without him. In reality, there were room for two busses, one space was occupied by a bus with another destination, the other was empty. Not that hard, old man, but well, thanks, kinda... Anyway, in the meantime we observed also the trash-everywhere-mentality which apparently roams in Nicaragua. People just throw stuff out the windows of busses or right onto the street, completely disregarding any environmental considerations. There just are no trashcans. And noone to remove the trash from the streets either, apparently - its really not that nice. So I tried to look up on the pretty palm trees and blue skye instead.

The bus came to take us to Rivas, back south, so we could take a ferry to the Ometepe Island. I'll tell you the entire Ometepe adventure in the next blogpost. :)