What a beautiful city............
Trip Start
Jul 31, 2005
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181
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Trip End
Sep 05, 2007
Granada,
Nicaragua
Saturday, June 23, 2007
The first hostel we tried was full, so a short walk took us to the second choice of hostel, which although a little more expensive is just wonderful. It is a typical colonial home with a huge courtyard lined with hammocks, we have free internet too which is brilliant!
Yesterday we chilled out in our hostel, the heat here is unreal! Today we set out stopping first at Kathys Waffles for a delicious breakfast and then heading across to the Convent of San Francisco. The convent is now a museum which we found very interesting
A typical colonial home with middle courtyard
. It showed lots of art and told the story of Granada, there were these amazing statues which have been found on the islands in the lake off of Granada, most of them depict part human part animal.We expected to be able to wander into the church and then into the Cathedral, but suprisingly for Sunday the doors on both were closed! So, we headed back via the beautiful Plaza of Independance and then sat around in the palm covered Parque Centrale for a while. We enjoyed a cold drink and bought one of the streetkids a drink too - that really made his day bless him!
We started to wander back to the hostel as all of the churches seemed closed, but when we got to the Iglesia La Merced I noticed two Gringo´s atop the bell tower. Lo and behold this church was open and so we ventured in and marvelled at the beautiful green interior and ceilings. A man showed us a poster which said to get to the bell tower it costs $1! We figured that most tourists ask to go up and we were told that the views were gorgeous up there, they were not wrong.
We took on the 72 (Matt counted!) steep steps, some straight some curving and when we arrived at the top the views over the city and the lake were magnificent. We stayed up there for some time, just looking out over the red tiled rooftops and down the colourful house lined streets before walking back down and back to the hostel. We spent this afternoon chilling out, it was so hot I spent most of the afternoon in the pool!!
Granada is so beautiful, at last we have found somehwhere we love! Actually it is a lot like what we expected Antigua in Guatemala to be like, we were disapointed there mainly because there were so many tourists, here there are still tourists (we are here of course!) but not nearly as many
Afternoon in the pool!!!
. It will not stay like this, it will soon be overun with tourists just like Antigua was! So if you want to visit you should soon before it is spoiled.We are going to stay here tomorrow night too, and then head south. At the moment we are deciding whether to visit Isla Omtepe here in Nicaragua or to maybe head straight down in Costa Rica - a country we will literally be in and out of - it is sooo expensive.
Will keep you all posted!
Hugs
AlinMatt
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Comments
Fantastic Blog!
Your blog is really great. Entertaining and very helpful as we start to plan our next leg. It is also inspiring -- I am amazed at all the corners of the world you have visited in the last 2 years!
Do you have pre-purchased RTW plane tickets? Or do you figure it out on the way?
Have a great time in Nica and Costa Rica. CR was not as expensive as we expected -- lodging between $10 to $20 per night for private double rooms. Check our blog for recommended hotels and hostels.
Have a great journey and keep on writing!
Cheers!
Kay aka SlipperyCoconut