Masaya, Masaya, Masaya!

Monday July 9th 2012

Lotte and I agree that breakfast should be the first activity of the morning, but in a hostel where its not included, we had to go and buy stuff. We went out to find butter, but came back with 15 eggs and a bit of salty cheese, bought in a very authentic Nicaraguan shop - in Spanish-ish. With the bread leftover from lunch the day before, it was a great meal.

Afterwards we went to find a bus to the city Masaya, with the Lonely Planet guidebook giving us an idea of where to go. And with the bus people yelling out very clearly the destinations of the busses (hence the blog post title), its really no problem to find. Each bus, all of which are painted old school buses from USA, has 2-3 employees: a driver, and 1-2 who takes care of luggage and fares. The luggage handling is a sight in itself, and the way they climb on the outside of the bus when its driving is scary, but impressive.

Vigoron, but served in a more simple kitchen. 

After being lost in the market for a little while, we took a taxi to the artisan market. It was a bit more expensive than the Mercado Municipal that we came from, but also had nicer stuff. We bought some wooden bowls and spoons, which were very nice, before sitting down for lunch. We had the local stuff - vigoron: cassava root (potato-like, but better!) with a bit of pork and cabbage and two kinds of banana. And the whole thing served on a banana leaf!

Afterwards we took another 40 cordoba taxi (10 DKK, 1,5 euro) to a viewpoint by an old fortress on a hill. It was a GREAT view of the surrounding volcanos. We walked around the area, and also had a tour of the basement, which used to hold prisoners. Lotte has some better pictures, which I'll show you some other time...

It started raining, so we grabbed a cap back to the Mercado Municipal. After again being a little lost (though Id still claim I knew the general direction...), we caught a bus back to Granada. If it was on purpose or by mistake Im not sure, but the busétecket guy cheated us for 100 cordoba (ca. 25 DKK or 3 euros ) a reminder to always be aware of your money.

Back in Granada I was exhausted and took a little nap. At some point Lotte woke me up and dragged me to dinner somewhere in town, where suddenly the power went off. The staff didn't seem to be too concerned, and accordingly, the light came back a few minutes later. In our hostel dorm room Lotte spent a little time practicing her pole dancing on a metal bar in the room - elegant entertainment, and great that we have the large room to ourselves still... ;) (I'll grant Lotte's wish and not publish the pictures... yet...)