Off to Granada


Up bright and early this morning. Sure we set an alarm for 6:30, but a chicken bus repeatedly honking its horn out front at 5:40 didnt promote further sleep this morning. Damn they start early here. That probably means we will have our heads buried in our pillows at an earlier hour tonight.

After another relaxing breakfast, and powerful cup of coffee, we counted up our bug bites and packed our bags. Melanie was sitting at about 16. For some reason i seem to be sporting 57, and we had a mosquito net around the bed. I don’t mind the bites, other than the ones on my knuckles which are super itchy. With this many bites all focused on one arm and back it looks like i have broken out with chicken pox at this point.

We were picked up about 20 minutes late, which in this time zone seems to be about right on time…possibly even early. We made it into Leon and switched over to a bus. A Dutch gal rode with us and mentioned she too was only a couple weeks into her 6 month journey all the way down to Peru. She had come over from the Corn Islands a week before and said that other than a bit of extra rain, the islands and diving were just fine. News stories we found mentioned devastation…but what we are finding from people that live or travel through these hard hit areas is that business is as usual a week or two after such drastic weather events. That is good news as we would still like to hit some of the beachy areas in the southern end of Nicaragua, especially before the high season kicks in.

The drive in to Granada was relatively simple. Yes, we could have chicken bussed our way here, but for an extra $10…a ride that picks us up at our door and drops us at our door here, all with AC and the opportunity to chat with fellow travellers was well worth it. The Dutch girl was nice. An seasoned North American lady that wasn’t much for conversation other than commenting on my piercing because she had one too. A creepy older French guy in the back of the van… interesting to say the least. We arrived and dropped the two women and then departed ourselves with help from the French guy directing the driver right to our door.

Check in was painless. Yes, we are situated right next to the pool and now are currently entertained with the sultry sounds of some mood setting Spanish tunes echoing around an empty, but club lit pool. We had a dip after a hot, sweaty walk to the Central Park and then down to the brownish Lago Nicaragua. The buildings are beautifully painted here. The style of the buildings is colonial and quaint. The aggressiveness of the vendors and restauranteurs is a bit off putting and understood now by all of those that warned us in advance of our arrival.

So now we will explore the city. Maybe we take in a tour. We have already enjoyed a couple very tasty noodle dishes at an Asian restaurant. We have fended off guys trying to sell us tours, pottery and hammocks. We might succumb to happy hour promotions tomorrow, but any promotion will have to be damn good to compete with us hanging poolside to escape the afternoon heat. We found that French guy across the street from our place here, along with the driver of our shuttle. Apparently the guy has a little smoothie and panini shop here in Granada. He makes the trek to Leon once a week because he is opening a Granada location of the French bakery we enjoyed so much in Leon. Interesting. Expats being entrepreneurial all throughout Central America.

I guess if you have the finances, don’t mind the heat, bugs or governmental corruption…this might be the place too start a few venture. We are probably a few years away from that kind of plan.

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