Today we continued our Nicaraguan adventure by traveling south to Masaya and Granada. Leaving Leon and the beautiful El Convento, we drove about two hours back towards and past Managua to the Masaya Volcano and National Park. Under the expert guiding of Roberto, we learned that Masaya is another active volcano in the same chain as the others that we've visited. At Masaya you can drive right to the crater rim and look into the smoldering caldera. It really stinks like sulphur. In fact, we climbed to the lookout point and were unable to catch our breath due to the terrible sulphur fumes. It is an amazing sight and worth the trip.
From Masaya National Park we went to the town of Masaya to visit the famed Masaya market. This is the market where the local artisans sell their wares including hammocks, pottery, and weavings. After spending so much time in Mexico, we were not super impressed. We picked up a few things, but nothing too exciting.
Our next stop was the famous El Zaguan Restaurant in Granada. Granada will be our base for the next two nights and this restaurant is THE place to eat. Lunch al fresco in the beautiful garden was worth the trip. El Zaguan is known for churrasco, grilled beef that's seasoned just right. Needless to say, we enjoyed our lunch.
And the day was just getting started! Once we checked into our hotel, Plaza Colon, we met our new guide for the next two days. Eric from Mombotours will be guiding us while in Granada and he got us started in very cool fashion. We drove to the shores of Lake Nicaragua and boarded individual kayaks for a tour of Las Isletas, the collection of 365 islands that surround the shores around Granada. We explored the islands, many of which are inhabited. On some, families live in shacks. On others there are schools, churches, and hotels. At one island we were able to overhear a Christmas Eve mass being conducted. On another, we rocked out to latin music and imagined the party that was going on inside the shack.
On the way back to the dock, it began pouring a warm rain, to the point that it didn't matter whether we were on top of the kayak or in the water. Still, we enjoyed the whole thing.
Our dinner was traditional Nicaragua. We walked a few blocks to Calle de la Cazada, which is kind of like Las Ramblas in Barcelona. It's a pedestrian street that's filled with bars and restaurants with tables pouring onto the sidewalk. We dined at Comida Tipico, a traditional Nicaraguan restaurant. Steve had baho, a concotion of beef, plantain, cabbage, and rice wrapped in a banana leaf. Marnie enjoyed a nacatamale, the Nicaraguan version of a tamale, again, wrapped in banana leaves. Choco flan for dessert topped off our Christmas Eve dinner.
In Nicaragua, Christmas is rung in with fireworks- lots of them. In fact, they've been going off all day, beginning at 6:00 a.m. They to culminate at midnight with a REALLY BIG display, and we were able to enjoy the festivities on our balcony overlooking Granada's central park. Think 4th of July multiplied by ten. Once the baby Jesus arrived, things settled down and we were able to sleep.
Speaking of the baby Jesus, Nicaragua is primarily a Catholic country. In every Nativity scene we've seen so far, the manger was empty. Now that Christmas is here, the baby will be included in the scene. We're not sure who delivers him to all of the nativity scenes throughout the country but we're sure it's divine.
We have been working with Adventure Life for 5 years now and it is very easy to plan out our trips. Our holidays include customization of activities and side trips along with the standard packages available on the Adventure Life website. Kevin, Jess, Mary Rose and their teams have many recommendations that have enhanced our travel.
Joe
5 days ago
We went to the Patagonia on the Chile side and Perito Moreno in El Calafate, Argentina. Eric of San Diego handled our trip with expertise. The preparation went smoothly, despite some changes on our part with scheduling conflicts. He offered great advice which made us feel at ease with all decisions on the trip. It was truly a great experience.
Evelyn and Edwin
6 days ago
We had a great experience- they were very helpful in trip planning and making sure we got to do all the activities and see the places we wanted. There were some things we couldn't do/see due to the time of year being the rainy/low season and they steered us away from those. We had never been to Costa Rica before and it gave us a good overview of this lovely country.
Jody Dice
1 week ago
My travel consultant went out of her way to make sure everything went smoothly, everything from the flight reservations to the final booking.