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We arrived to Granada by taxi from the Managua airport for 36USD; probably considerably more expensive than chasing a few local buses, but worth it, as we arrived to our hotel in an hour. As we appeared at the reception looking forward to settling in and going to explore the town, we were informed that there was a "glitch" and our room was double booked. Out of three nights in Granada, we spent the first one in a nearby hotel in a very hot room; there were also two frogs hopping through the courtyard. We spent the other two nights in the place we originally booked, but they only charged us for one due to their error, so we kind of benefited from the whole situation.
The town itself is another example of the beautiful Spanish colonial architecture, quite touristy and without the strong personality that we recognised in Léon. We visited the cigar factory and peeked to see the staff at work, rolling the tobacco in the leaves. The smell of the cigar cabinet was pretty overpowering, so I was glad to leave that room soon.
The lack of our excitement towards this town was more than compensated through meeting Igor and Barbara and spending a wonderful time with them. We escaped the heat of Granada for one day with a trip to the nearby Laguna de Apoyo. It is basically a crater filled with water and constantly cleaned and kept at a pleasant temperature from the volcanic springs bellow. The water was fantastic, there were toys to play with such as kayaks, paddle-boards and a platform to jump from. The air was clean and the lush nature surrounding it made us feel miles away from the 34c in the city.
With Barbara's help, we caught a ride at the back of a track up to the main road and we stopped for a while next to the tree with many monkeys on its branches. That was the first time we saw them that close in their natural habitat and it was absolutely exciting!
We shortened our stay for one day and decided to travel to Ometepe Island all together. Our last dinner there was at the pizzeria Mona Lisa and it was one of the best pizza's I've ever had.
We bid farewell to Granada the following day, boarding one of the local (very crowded) buses. We were on the bus a good 15-20 minutes before the departure and it was filling up quickly. And then, the parade of street sellers made their way through the bus. One after another men and women selling: torches, jewellery, sweets, a whole range refreshments (usually one kind per seller), nibbles and so on...the procession seemed endless. We set off eventually and the hot, nearly two hours later arrived to the very chaotic Rivas station and market, ready to catch a taxi to the port of San Jorge and take a ferry to Ometepe. So we did.
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