Granada

We took the local bus from Managua to Granada today.  Yes, it truly was a ride to experience. No chickens thankfully but extremely crowded and lots going on.  Nora had the grace to fall asleep in my lap and cause my slight discomfort to expand.  The girls have started a game of counting buses while out in the bustle of the city.  Once on a bus, however, it soon changed to taxis and the count from one city to another was 225.  That's a lot.  

We are staying at the Oasis Hostel in Granada.  It has many hammocks (we bought one) and a pool (already in the pool business).  This is a favourite spot of JD's as you are able to grab a cold beer as you enter the hostel.   My favourite...there is a lot of eye candy (currently, six strapping young Belgians) 

The city, like the rest of Nicaragua is poor, but generally happy.  The concept of contentment is different here.  The concept of disposable income and consumption does not exist here, as I expect it does not exist anywhere else in Nica.  Today Elsie did not finish her lunch and asked to take it with her.  She gave it to the little boy that was sitting on the steps.   

 

Granada is the oldest city in Nicaragua and the oldest city in the Central America for that matter.   We took a carriage ride through the city.  Elsie was excited as she was the lucky one to sit up front with the driver (ok, she was the only one brave enough to).  Here is a picture of the church of Eglisia Guadalupe with us on our carriage.  

Other adventures during our stay included climbing the bell tower of the Eglisia la Merced.  It provided us a nice view of the city rooftops (which by the way are all made out of clay 'u' shaped tiles) and far off in the distance we could see the Lago Colcibolca (the largest lake in central america at 160 kilometers long) 

Having breakfast one morning, we were able to share it with a parrot which made the girls giggle and smile.  Speaking of food, eating is different.  We can eat eggs with rice and beans every morning with plenty of local fruit.  But come lunch time, all things are different.  To JD, who usually goes out for lunch during his working days, all seems normal.  He can saddle up to any place offering beer and be content.  Me, on the other hand, has experienced mild difficulty, I guess in terms of mental adjustment to eating out for every meal, coupled with the confusion of how and what to eat.   So, I found el supermercado.  I solved my problems by being able to walk through the aisles, read all the ingredients, and start to know just what exactly all these words in spanish mean.  Also, I feel entirely at ease now when my kids are hungry and I can feed them immediately. 

We are back at Salvador's house again and are going to hang low for a couple of days and plan our next outing and our longer range plans.  

Cheers

C-A