Arriving in Nicaragua

Famous Cathedral of Granada that you'll see on every postcard

Forget everything you've heard about Nicaragua! Unless you've heard that the people are kind, helpful and genuine and there is an overwhelming sense of community and camaraderie usually only found in small towns in the Midwest!

We absolutely loved the time we spent in Nicaragua even though we had a bit of a bumpy start: the driver who was supposed to pick us up from the airport in Managua at 12:30 am never showed and we didn't know how to get to our Airbnb lodging in Granada, about an hour away! Our phones did not work, there was no WiFi and there are no public phones in the Managua airport.

Instead of panicking, we accepted the $35 cab ride from one of the many taxi drivers waiting outside of the airport and except for a brief moment (where we exchanged psychic thoughts that we were being driven to a remote killing site...the drive from Managua to Granada can seem that way at 2 am) we had a lovely ride and our cab driver was super friendly and chipper. When we arrived in Granada, we drove to the street where our Airbnb lodging was located, according to the confirmation email I had saved on my phone. Unfortunately, this did not include a street address and none of the (many) people on the street knew where it was! Luckily, our friend the cabbie did not tire of asking people for help and the people of Granada did not tire of helping us. We ended up in a beautiful, clean space with a kitchen and dining area for $20 and the front desk guy sleepily accepted that we only had $15 left in cash and would pay him the remaining $5 in the morning. Side Note: Almost everywhere we went accepted USDs but you can sometimes get a better price in cordobas.

Beautiful courtyard at OK Corral on Calle St. Lucia in Granada

Note the open air concept...Ryan thought ninja robbers would sneak in and attack us while we slept

Kitchen at OK Corral

The next morning, we walked up and down the street and could NOT find where our Airbnb spot was! We took a break to grab some breakfast at Pan de Vida, whose outside sign proclaimed Sunday to be Cinnamon Bun Sunday...easy decision. Unfortunately, their internet was down, so after scarfing down delicious buns and coffee, we headed to The Garden Cafe for some internet and a chat with a US man who had been living in Granada for the past month. The WiFi worked just long enough to pull up a photo of our Airbnb house and this was enough to find it! Hooray!! Our host was so apologetic and absolutely mortified that the mix up had occurred and refunded our money for the night we missed and the second night as well. I loved Casa Jardines and the host has a dog and a cat who allowed me to pet them, so I was in heaven. Crazy cat/dog lady.

Pixel the Cat hunting ghosts

Our host arranged for a driver to bring us to Laguna de Apoyo, a lake situated in a crater on Apoyo Volcano. We spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing at The Monkey Hut which was nice for an hour, but we had arranged with our driver to pick us up 4 hours later! I'm too antsy for that, I should have known better :) Note to self: When you only have a week in Nicaragua, do less relaxing by lakes and more exploring volcanoes and artisan markets. If you ask the locals for things to do, they will point you here because it is absolutely beautiful and it's what all the other tourists do.

Trying to sit still

Laguna de Apoyo...and a bunch of tourists

We're IN the volcano?!

Corn tortillas with cheese in the batter...yum

That evening we took a stroll in the Parque Central...for exactly 10 minutes and then it started pouring! We knew it was the rainy season but somehow were always shocked when it started raining. We enjoyed 4 corn tortilla things with cheese mixed in the batter and cooked street side for about $.50 before heading to the nearest restuarant for a Nicaraguan staple: gallo pinto. Basically beans and rice.

Walking to Lake Nicaragua

Our new friends are on the left

The next morning, we walked down to Lake Nicaragua and made friends with a local man playing fetch with his dog in the water. At one point, the man took off running after the dog was pretty far out in the water. Thinking I know everything, I immediately thought, "How sad, he must be abandoning the dog". I watched as the dog grew frantic and swam as fast as she could to the shore before running into the street to find her human friend. A local policeman tried to explain to me that they were playing but my Spanish is terrible (Ryan was further away looking at rocks or reading or something) and so I didn't really understand until the man came out of a bush and reunited with the dog in a collision of happiness. The man, who I suspected might be homeless, came up to us and struck up a conversation. My guard went up and I waited for the inevitable ask for money that usually accompanies unsolicited new friendships. Don't get me wrong, I love a new friend but my cynicism has grown over the years as I have learned that strangers don't usually come up to you unless they want something. This man only wanted to introduce himself, ask our names and where we were from and tell us that he had family members living all over the US. He told us about his dog and that she had recently had puppies. He then wished us a good day and went back to throwing sticks for his dog. Lesson learned?: Yes, you have to be careful of strangers but stop being such a judgmental jerk.

After Nicaragua had renewed our faith in humanity for the millionth time since we arrived, we went back to Casa Jardines to pack our little backpacks and head to the market to catch our chicken bus to Rivas.

Gorgeous Casa Jardines

If only I could make this happen at Casa Brandy and Ryan