Nov 12, 2012 - Granada

Granada A gorgeous town. A colonial fun shabby but chic place. Is to Nicaragua what Antigua is to Guatemala. Loads of bars lots of expats and the beer is so cheap!! Found the garden cafe for much needed fruit, salad, veg and traipsed across the rooftops of the churches and cathedrals. Granada is set next to a great big lake with 350 little islands dotted around them. We spent the morning kayaking round the water lily strewn waterways spotting amazing wildlife, incl more monkeys. ( one is so keen to escape that he recently severed his own...

Aug 13, 2012 - Separate ways!

After just scraping our way onto the first chicken bus it was time to try find our connection in Rivas to Granada... Sounds easy enough, wasn't!  We were dropped off in the middle of a sprawling market with street sellers trying to flog absolutely everything and anything but not hassling people which was nice though! Our mission was to make our way through the place and pick one of the many chicken buses dotted around the place and hope for the best! In the meantime I was dying for the jacks so I popped into the first "restaurant" (cinder...

Jul 24, 2012 - Granada

A 5am start carrying our bags to the made part of the road - about two hundred yards of road to our hotel was under construction and no cars could get any nearer -I hate my bag!! Caught the ferry back to the mainland and most of us slept and no one was sick! Nicaragua next on the itinerary and a border crossing with the Honduras Soccer team - we'd been watching them play on TV the night before. Hot and humid with light rain. Granada is a delightful city easy to wander and our hotel very pretty on the inside. Would have been even better if...

Feb 19, 2012 - Granada, Massaya

Niedziela 19 luty - Granada Po sniadaniu, caly ranek spedzamy na hotelowym basenie aby zaraz popoludniu wyruszyc na zwiedzanie wulkanu Massaya. Wycieczka do wulkanu (my i jeszcze 2 osoby) jest zorganizowana przez ta sama szkole hiszpanskiego gdzie pobieralismy lekcje. Oplata to U$ 20 od osoby. Nasza mala grupa jedziemy do stosunkowo blisko polozonego wulkanu. Wulkan Massaya jest w dalszym ciagu aktywny. Unosi sie nad nim chmura gazu siarkowego. Mozna po schodkach wejsc na pobliski szczyt skad roztacza sie widok na sam wulkan jak i cala...

Feb 18, 2012 - Granada

Sobota 18 luty - Granada Rano szybko na sniadanie bo juz o 9-tej mamy nasza nastepna lekcje hiszpanskiego. Musze przyznac ze te indywidualne lekcje sa bardzo skuteczne bo mam okazje pytac o rzeczy wylacznie ktorych nie wiem lub mam trudnosci. Potem wracamy do hotelu aby przy naszym malym basenie wykorzystac jeszcze troche czasu bo juz w poludnie musimy sie stad wyprowadzic. Hotel jest bardzo przyjemny i obsluga wrecz fantastyczna ale z powodu festiwalu maja wszystkie pokoje zajete. W poludnie idziemy z bagazami okolo dwie ulice dalej do...

Feb 17, 2012 - Granada

Piatek 17 luty - Granada Rano, po dosc poznym sniadaniu, wybieramy sie na miasto. Granada to jedno z najstarszych miast w Ameryce Centralnej. Zalozone w 1520 roku czyli niecale 30 lat po odkryciu Ameryki przez Kolumba. Glowny plac, Parque Central, z dominujaca katedra i przyjmnym "deptakiem" odchodzcym od placu w strone jeziora. To na tej to wlasnie aleji "usadowilo sie" wiekszosc restauracji i barow. To jest glowna ulica miasta. W dzien dosc pusta ze wzgledu na gorac ale wieczorem ozywa. Spacerujemy nia az do jeziora Nicaragua,...

Jan 6, 2012 - Granada, Nicargua

I'm really surprised, but only Guy & I signed up for the zip-line canopy tour this morning, so we met for an early breakfast at Kathy's Waffle House (great fruit smoothies) before our 8am departure. John & Julia happened by & joined us mid way through. This worked out really well because we were ahead of the crowds at the zipline, and we didn't have to wait like we would have in a larger group, so it went pretty quickly. They're very safety minded with all the rigging & harnesses etc, so I wasn't at all worried about that, though we both...

Jan 5, 2012 - San Juan del Sur & Granada, Nicaragua

So today is surfing. I got a bit worried when I heard from the others who had walked on the beach that the water is pretty cold. The surf school at Casa Oro doesn’t offer wetsuits, but they put you in their rash guards. The split pea soup color of the rash guards, though not my best, made it plenty easy to identify me & Guy among the others. Dawn & Mike have decided against the lessons, but are going along to provide moral support and because Playa Maderas is supposed to be one of the absolutely most beautiful beaches around. Transport to...

Sep 21, 2011 - 25 years young!

How I spent my 25th birthday! My birthday celebrations happened on the 21st Sept this year as we spent a full day traveling to Ometepe Island on the 22nd. I know they normally last a full week or even month but seen as we're traveling, on a budget and I am now officially old I thought I'd just stick to one day like most people. After seeing the sights of Granada, which mostly consisted of churches, cathedrals and quaint little shops (see mum I am doing cultural stuff and not just getting drunk) Lorraine said that "she had things to do"...

Sep 20, 2011 - Getting up close and personal with the Nicaraguan's!

20hours spent on a bus over 2 days, 1 Scottish traveling companion gained (Nico) 1 night spent in Tegus, one of the most dangerous cities in Honduras, all to arrive in Managua the capital of Nicaragua in rush hour.... Absolute chaos, think dodgems on speed, mixed with horn happy drivers with mental road rage! Crazy! We'd spent 7 hours on a lovely air conditioned bus watching movies and then got dropped off in the middle of a busy main road by the taxi driver who charged us double what he said would cost! then some guys tried to bungle our...

Aug 6, 2011 - Colonial town, similar to Leon, but better.

Granada 06/08/11 Colonial town, similar to Leon, but better. Leon to Granada, via Managua, capital of Nicaragua. Probably one of the easiest bus trips so far. An American had warned us about Managua, but to us it didn’t seem that bad, he said that everywhere you looked it seemed as though you would get mugged. Maybe we were in the wrong place. It was one mini bus from Leon to Managua and where we were dropped off, straight on to the next mini bus, then on to Granada. The first hostel that we had arranged to meet Mette and Randi in seemed...

Jul 25, 2011 - Granada

HOLA! Nous voici maintenant dans la belle petite ville de Granada qui se situe sur le bord du Lac Nicaragua (la plus grosse source d;eau douce de l;amerique centrale)! Protege par l;Unesco, marche a travers les petites rues et admirer les maisons colores est agreable! Nous avons eu la chance de faire notre premiere excursion sur un volcan! Le volcan Masaya!!! Nous sommes partie vers 4 hrs de lapres-midi afin de se rendre au sommet du volcan. A cette etape, nous avions une vue magnifique sur le cratere avec le coucher du soleil en arriere...