.WE.ARE.GNOMADS.

After Managua, we went to the very cute town of Granada on Lake Nicaragua.  We hit around 5 churches and one fort while we were there!  Some cobblestone streets, a great well populated parque centro and kind of a pedestrian walk with restaurants and bars along it all makes for a nice place to hang for a bit.  The house style in Granada is colonial with inner courtyards. I loved looking in people’s always open front doors to see what their courtyard garden looked like.

Churches of Granada, Nic – May 09

While having a drink or dinner on the sidewalk cafes in the evening, kids selling cashews and doing dances for money entertain you! Some were doing this traditional dance with a really tall women and a really short man doing the “Bailar del Viejo y la Vieja (The Dance of the Old man and Old Lady).   Other boys were break dancing.

Our favorite was a little cashew salesman, who after repeated tries, we could finally no longer resist.  And the cashews were delish!  The process from tree to roasted form is not an easy one.  Did you know that they make a drink from the fruit, maranon, that the cashew is attached to?  I bet you did not even know that a cashew is attached to a fruit!

Too see a cashew / maranon fruit click here:  Maranon

Granada Town and Sights – Nic – May 09

One of the days we did a trip to Masaya for their awesome markets, one for just artisan crafts and the other just a very large city market with some of the same artisan crafts for the same price. We bought up a bundle and enjoyed the town.

Masaya Market Day – Nic. Trip – May 09

After Granada we took a 4 hour boat ride down the center of Lago de Nicaragua to an island formed by two volcanos, Isla de Ometepe.  They used to be separate until one of them exploded and the lava formed a connection between the two…cool, eh?   It was very rural and relaxing…well…until we decided to do a simple little mountain bike ride!  Ha!  Simple? No.  Okay, maybe it was not that hard but we now officially know we are out of shape!  It was all on a rocky dirt road with lots of hills.  After taking a side trip to the volcano ash mineral water pools, we realized we did not want to go the whole way.  When were done bathing in the pools we rode to the beach and had a nice lunch looking over the water.  We met a cool couple from Australia at the pools, Mick and Pamela, and had lunch with them at the beach.  Hope to hear from them or see them again on our travels.

Isla Ometepe – Nic Trip – May 09

After Ometepe we had a long travel day and for Jim it was a very bad day as he was having some travelers stomach problemos!  Probrecito!  This was our day; bus, boat, taxi, long border process, bus and then bus again….12 hours! We made it to Puntarenas which was supposed to a be a seedy port town, but the writers of Lonely Planet have obviously not been to Puerto Cortez in Honduras…a real seedy port town.    Minutes after arriving to a hotel Jim ran to the potty!

The next day were were on the “Montezuma Run.”  Literally, we were on our way to a beach town in Costa Rica called Montezuma.   Jim was still sick, but with some drugs under his belt he made the boat and bus rides in one piece and with no embarrassing mishaps.

Next post…Jim’s dislike for hippies…who knew?
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~ by My Gnome Little World on June 23, 2009.

Posted in April - June 2009, Year Away in Central America: Oct. 7, 2008 - Mid December, 2009
Tags: Central America, Costa Rica, Granada, Isla Ometepe, Montezuma, Montezuma's revenge, Nicaragua, Puntarenas, Travel, Travelers Stomach