One morning we decided to take the local bus to visit an active volcano, Volcan Masaya. The buses here are quite colourful and full....
It took us awhile to get there and when we arrived we had to pay 100 cordobas for the entrance to the park and 100 for a ride to the top.
It was a wild ride!
Nicaragua has a lot of volcanos, but this one is still active with smoke and sulphur rising from the crater...
The landscape is very dry as the country is well into their dry season. We are here in their summer and April is the warmest month of the year with temperatures every day in the mid 30s.
We enjoyed the visit and after took another fast and windy ride down the mountain and decided to take another local bus into the city of Masaya.
We waited on the side of the road until a bus stopped that was overflowing so we looked and each other and said no way, but one guy pulled me in, another guy jumped out and pushed Don into this bus. We have never had such an intimate bus ride. I wish I had a picture so you could see how tight we were jammed together. We are much taller and bigger than the Nicas so they were having a great laugh at our expense as we were striking our heads on the ceiling and to get by us was a challenge!
I told Don to hold on to me as I was pressed up to the woman ahead of me but there was nothing to hold on. Don said yes I have you and I said, NO you don't but you are giving the woman ahead of me a great squeeze!
This picture was the best I could get and that was after I managed to get a seat and half the people were off the bus!
Masaya is a woking class city so definitely not as pretty or touristy as Granada, however it is known for its handicrafts so there is a large Mercardo Artensia there. We had to walk a bit but found it and had a look around.
The Market was located inside what seemed to be an old fortress...
Some of the colourful crafts at the Mercado....
Didn't buy much only my obligatory earrings that I do have room to carry!
Another day we took a taxi to Laguna de Apoyo which is a lake in a volcanic crater. We paid 5 dollars each to use the facilities of the San Simeon hotel which is an eco lodge at the far end of the laguna. We relaxed and swam in the very warm water.
We have really enjoyed our time here in Granada as it has the amenities we need and more. We found a place that we went every day for cold drinks where they made sure I had lots of ice for my cervaza...
There was lots of great food...
There were tostones, smashed plantain pancakes with queso, salted fried cheese...
Local fish, guapote, from the lake served with onions and tomatoes...
As well as lots of international restaurants...we ate Italian, Greek, Moroccan food while we there and it was all good!
It is an old but colourful city as you can see from the following random shots taken over the last few days...
Beautiful churches...
Colourful houses and stores...
Some of the houses are painted pink in honor of the President's wife.
Some people pictures....
Mother and child...
Woman selling flowers....
Man selling hay for the horses...
Altar servers playing outside the church...
Old man rocking on the porch....
So we say goodbye to Granada, pero vamos a volver!
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