Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Wednesday we went to Granada with Gaby and Ana Laura, two of the intercambios. We got to la UCA at 9am and met up with the girls who were kind enough to volunteer to take all of us to Granada for the day. We left the front of campus and were imediately in a busy highway/bus pick up area. When the bus drivers caught sight of the five gringo's walking out of UCA they stormed Gaby. They assumed we would be going to Granada or Leon, and started pulling her in all directions trying to get her to choose their bus. We ended up in a van a little bigger than Peter's packed with people by the time we actually hit the road. We ended up paying one dollar for the whole hour long bus ride. Once in Granada, we got on a boat tour of the over 400 volcanic rock islands formed by Mombacho, the volcano pictured above. The islands were private and the rich and famous from around the world had built their beautiful houses all over them. Usually there was one house per island. The tour guide explained that the islands were a mini city in themselves. There are schools, universities, churches and anything else that you would need all accessible by boat. It reminded me a little of a tropical Venice.
On one of the islands there were a ton of monkeys! The guide asked if we wanted to have one come on the boat. Before we could really decide, Lola, a 30lbs monkey had lept aboard and was making her way up to all of us. She climbed all over us and ate some of our bread. We chilled with her on the boat for about twenty minutes before she got bored and left. Still I had a monkey in my lap and I can't believe it! ha!
Once the boat docked again we got off and started walking towards the center of town. We had no idea how far it would be, but Gaby and Ana were adamant about getting a ride. So the first pick up truck that passed we flagged down. We all climbed into the bed and rode in style into Granada!
We were all starving and thirsty by that point so we went looking for food. Gaby took the lead and brought us to a street vendor in the park. She wanted us to try a very famous Nicaraguan dish. She had already told me about it and said I had to try it! It came to the table in a banana leaf and I was imediately skeptical. The dish was made of Yucca, which was much like a baked potato. The yucca was in pickled juice, and it had a chopped salad of tomatoes and cabage on top. Basically everything that anyone would tell you to avoid when eating on the streets in a developing country. To top it all off was some fried pig skin. This actually didn't taste too bad, but I don't want to know how dirty those pigs were before they were fried. Needless to say we all felt the reprecussions later on. I tried everything on the dish before telling Gaby that I was out, uncle. Kristina had barely touched hers either. Two street children came up to us, and they were quickly invited to eat what we did not. Carlitos an 8 year old and his friend who was 11 had lunch with us. They were so cute and funny. Carlos tried to guess where I was from, and remarkably did not go first to the US!! Which made me like him even more! He first thought I was from Puerto Rico, then Spain, then France, Chile, and Brazil. I took it as a huge compliment.
After lunch we climbed to the bell tower of the second oldest church in Granada. From there we could see the whole city and Mombacho. It was breathtaking. None of the buildings have been changed other than paint and repairs, since the city was built. Therefore, when you watch the horse drawn carts drive down the street you feel like you have gone back in time. Granada definately lived up to its expectations. We caught another bus ride back for a dollar. All in all I spent $9.50 for the whole day.
We were wiped out by the time we got home, and starting to feel sick from all the food. Kristina and I forced down a couple bites of our sandwiches for dinner before deciding to give up. We filled our water bottles and went up to the terrace to watch the stars instead. The breeze and water made us feel much better.
Wednesday was a wonderful day that none of us had expected. As always here, you have to go with the flow and be pleasantly surprised when everything is ten times more magnificent than you could have imagined.
- comments