Thursday 18 April 2013

Granada, Nicaragua

We crossed the border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua in just under two hours, two hours of doing waterfall impersonations, the sweat pouring out of me. We used a fixer which speeded the process up a little and in my opinion $10 well spent! The taxes and insurance to enter the country came to $32 each and no photocopies were needed so that wasn't bad.
Out of customs and straight into a traffic jam, this one caused by stupidity really but thats the way it is, 5 minutes and we were on our way. The countryside changed almost immediately, more parched, less green and we are back to seeing more horses being used and for the first time on this trip we saw a couple of Oxen drawn carts. Obviously an indicator that Nicaragua is still struggling to increase wealth after year of civil war and corruption. Granada is a nice old colonial town, founded by the Spanish in the 1500's on the shore of the huge lake Nicaragua, some stunning architecture and very colourful, its also home to some ex pats from Europe and North America (our bikes are next door to our hotel in the home of an expat from London). We've enjoyed it here, quite laid back so we've stayed 3 days but tomorrow we need to head Northwards again, life on the road rather than life by the pool!
 Almost 40 degrees means water on the move is necessary
 Nice House just down from our hotel
 Afternoon, everybody hiding from the sun....except us!
 Nice pad!
 Nice Church
 Street vendors are everywhere
 Lake Nicaragua
 View back into the town from the lake, looks nicer than in reality but work in progress
 Plenty colours around
 Used to take tourists (and cargo) around, feel sorry for these horses in this heat
 Cooling down, it doesn't HAVE to be hard
 As always , guys with big guns
 The town from the top of the church tower
 
 Fiona trying to get a breeze!
 One for the twitchers
 We met Maria from Argentina travelling with her boyfriend in this VW, great to meet you and swap stories Maria

2 comments:

  1. Hola,
    Twitching away and this is what I think you were seeing, Great-tailed Grackle or Mexican Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus). This is the Wickipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great-tailed_Grackle
    Looking really warm and we don't envy you wearing the sauna suits, they'll be aromatic now as well! Like the bright coloured buildings, could do with some more of that over here, like Ballamory. Good health. Bill & Kat.

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