09/11/2012 - 10/11/2012 - No Prada in Granada...

[as you can tell, originality for blog titles is seriously drying up!]

Granada and the islets on Lake Nicaragua

Local market in the front,
volcano in the back

Some close up lake action

Arriving in Managua, Nicaragua at 1:30am was never going to be a perfect start to this leg of the tour, so we went all out and got straight in a car to Granada – with our heads hitting the pillow at around 3am it was never going to take long to get to sleep! Great news then, when we’re woken at 7am by one of the loudest American accents ever right outside our room (which had gaps in the wall instead of windows!) discussing the financial implications of running a hostel!

Main square

The main cathedral

Colours galore

Wasn't kidding about the
colour- yet another example!

Tony and the old Inglesia, from where awesome
city views were to be had...

 When we finally came to the conclusion we wouldn’t be getting any more z’s, we wandered in and around the city, taking in the square, the edge of lake Nicaragua, the local market, generally enjoying losing ourselves amongst the colourful streets.

Hope you agree on the awesome views!

Coffee time!

Howl if you've got any ginger hair! Reminded
Annaliza of Tony's beard....

The next morning we headed off to Mombacho, one of the numerous active volcanoes in the region. First up was a whistle stop tour of a coffee plantation, followed by a tasting – Tony’s coffee consumption had definitely increased this trip, but still probably no need for a triple espresso! Suitably wired, we set off on a hike round the primary caldera in search of animal life – when none was forthcoming we got comprehensive details around the jungle plant life, which was in one ear then out the other! Great views over Granada though, along with the impressive islets resulting from previous lava flows. As we neared the end, we came across a lazy sloth who quickly shied away from the camera lens, and then saw two howler monkeys on the drive back down the volcano – unfortunately they weren’t howling…

Come in hear mate - looks like you
desperately need it!

The bell tolled...

Key Learnings:

1. It’s a little embarrassing when you decide not to tip a driver, only to find you’re using him again less than 2 days later…

2. There seem to be lots of hairdressers in Granada – maybe not more than anywhere else we’d visited but the current lengths of Tony’s hair and beard meant that numerous shops were getting excited about the windfall that would have resulted from cutting them…