If You Like Visiting Granada

The title, in case you couldn’t tell, is to the tune of “If You Like Pina Colada”. Which, as catchy as it is, is actually a pretty disappointing song. Don’t believe me? Read the lyrics. This was not, however, the case with Granada, which ended up being not at all a disappointment, and in fact, way better than we expected. 

Anyways, we want to start out this post with a BIG THANK YOU TO GRAMMY, POPPY, AND SHERRI!!! (My grandparents and aunt). They gifted us with some money for Christmas, and we put it toward the events that I am about to two events that I’ll talk about in further detail below: 1) The tour, 2) The chocolate class.

Instead of spending one of our last days running (probably quite literally) from bus to bus on our way up from Bahia Majuagal up to Granada where we planned to spend the tail end of our trip, we decided to hire a driver. Which, let me tell you, is just as cool as it sounds. Fortunate, as well! Because I really don’t know how we would have left that isolated beach without someone knowing when/where to pick us up. Probably (literally) walking 15 minutes down the beach with all of our stuff to a more populated beach, where we would hopefully be able to catch a taxi or shuttle or something to bring us to San Juan del Sur, where we’d have some hope of finding some way of getting where we wanted to go. Luckily (thanks to Grammy, Poppy, and Sherri!!), we didn’t need to go through that ordeal. Instead, Luis picked us up at exactly 7:00am from our beach paradise for a day of moseying up to Granada, and seeing all the sights along the way. The one we were particularly excited for was seeing lava!

It was a lot of fun having our own driver. We had a general pre-discussed route (see lava, see a pretty lake, etc. end in Granada) but along the way, we were able to make other requests. For example, when we got in the car, we immediately requested a place for breakfast and coffee. And he delivered! We ended up at this delicious (cheap!!!) little restaurant that had a great breakfast of gallo pinto (rice + beans), plus eggs and cream, along with lots and lots of coffee.

So from there, we went to another impulsively added stop: a fruit stand! We told him we wanted to try some of the great local fruit, and brought us to a little fruit stand on the side of the road with a bunch of fruit we had never had before. Of course, we tried all of it. Some was weird, some was delicious, and some we had no idea how to eat. All in all – a great experience!

From there, we went to the top of a mountain to look into a lake in the middle of a volcano crater. It was a cool spot that I think is a little lesser known, judging by the fact that we couldn’t find it in our trusty guide book. Super pretty! There was also a little market where I got a few shirts. So that’s fun.

From there we went to a bit market where we moseyed leisurely and drank passion fruit smoothies, and then continued onto the main reason we hired our driver in the first place: LAVA!!!! With so many volcanoes around, it seemed a shame to leave Nicaragua without seeing lava. Kenny is constantly spoiling me, so I was glad to make sure we got do to this for him! Apparently, there’s one volcano that you can drive up to, look into, and see lava. I don’t think either of us knew what to expect – I think we had some combination of the lava in Aladdin and The Lion King in our heads. It turned out, it was nothing like either of those – but it was still super cool. I wish the photos captured it better! The lava was moving fast. You could see it way down in the hole flowing (churning?) like a river. Super crazy. Super cool. Definitely worth the trip.

 And then from there, onto Granada! We arrived in Granada without a place to stay. Luis dropped us off at a potential place, but we ended up not taking a room there for a few reasons, the primary one being that the room available didn’t have a fan and it was hot. So we wandered the streets, occasionally consulting our guide book, and seeing mediocre accommodations after mediocre accommodations. I guess we don’t really need privacy, right? I guess it’s okay if we’re in sketchville, right? Ehhh. . . nothing was seeming quite right. UNTIL, a large Irish man came out of a hostel that had been recommended in our book, saying, “Are you guys looking for a room?”. We had passed up on that hostel because of the “Sorry, we’re full” sign on the door, and I asked if they had just opened up a room. He said he had just put up the sign because he was taking a nap and didn’t want to be disturbed. My kind of people. J The hostel was perfect. The room was perfect. The Irish man who we came to know as Gerry was perfect. The location was perfect. Nothing could have made this place where we would spend the capstone days of our trip any better.

Gerry gave us a map and some recommendations for what to do. Kenny and I had come into the city with two things we wanted to see, so we decided to start there so the next day would be free for whatever came up. We first walked to the cigar factory, where you’re supposedly able to watch them make cigars and even try rolling one yourself. Unfortunately, they were all out of supplies and wouldn’t be restocked until Monday. Still, it smelled great and Kenny came away with a few souvenirs. From there, we went to the chocolate museum, where we were able to go on a short tour learning about how chocolate is harvested and made (including samples), and (THANKS TO GRAMMY, POPPY, AND SHERRI!!) sign up for a chocolate workshop for the next day.

THEN we wandered over to El Camello, a restaurant recommend by Gerry. When we walked up, we saw Gerry there enjoying dinner, and we said hello. We chatted for a while, and he introduced us to Leroy, his friend and owner of the restaurant. We talked with them for a bit, and then proceeded to have a DELICIOUS dinner (that I’m guessing Kenny will talk about in more detail). From there, we went back to our lovely hostel, and called it a night.

Kenny’s Thoughts: Let’s see. . . spending our last few moments of the sitting on the beach reading was really lovely, and I was shocked at just how punctual our driver was, and how different it was from what I expected and what is normally Nico/Tico time. I really enjoyed all the different markets and trying new fruit, but I think my two favorite parts of the day were seeing an active volcano from the top down, and eating some of the best barbeque I’ve ever had in a local restaurant in Granada. I had no idea lava churned so fast inside a volcano – it was really hauling. We also got super lucky with an amazing hotel run by an old, really funny Irish guy. Gerry was a good guy. Oh ya, we also went to the cigar factory and the chocolate tour! The free chocolate tour was a ton of fun, and I was happily surprised with just how generous they were with all the different types of rum as free samples. I think that’s all my thoughts.

Ahhh, how sad I am to be writing about our last day! I wish it was just one of many more to come. I guess I’ll have to be comforted by the fact that this is that last day of just one trip, and that there will be many more to come.

Our last day as nearly perfect. We spend the day eating lots of the hostel’s free bananas and talking with Gerry. He makes the best pancakes – super thin, and then covered in lemon juice and sugar. Trust me, it’s better than it sounds.

What a great start to the morning!

From there, we decided we should do something  before our 11am tour, so we wandered the city and climbed the bell tower in the cathedral, which yielded a beautiful view of the city.

After a smoothie and a bit more wandering, we made it back to the hostel in time to change into swim suits for our BOAT TOUR!!!! The Bella del Mar boat tour is a tour of the islands (there are a bunch of islands off the coast of Granada in Lake Nicaragua) in a big, shaded boat with a bar/restaurant on board. It was so wonderfully relaxing. The tour lasted a handful of ours, and there were probably only about 10-15 guests on board a boat that could probably hold 100(??). It cruised around slowly, and we were able to sit in the shade and watch the view. So incredibly lovely.

Then, my personal favorite part, was when we anchored at the base of a volcano. The steam from the volcano made it so the water in the river running down was heated up, so where it poured into the lake (where we were) was super comfortably warm. There was a water slide off the second story of the back of the boat, places where you could jump off the second story, and a floating table to hold your beer. Is that the life, or what? We got to swim and slide and jump for about an hour, until it was time to get back on our shaded luxury boat and mosey back for an hour while eating chicken nachos. How much does an experience like this cost? Glad you asked. A whopping $15 each. Gosh, am I sad to be leaving this place.

After the tour, we spent a little bit of time in the hostel because during the boat tour, I stupidly had decided to go down the slide face first and somehow hurt my eardrums pretty badly (they’re feeling better now). So I wanted a little time to nurse my wounds before we headed off to the chocolate workshop in the afternoon.

The chocolate workshop ended up being especially cool, because we were the only ones!! As a result, we got a private workshop where we started with cocoa beans, and went through all the processes of grinding them and turning them into chocolate drinks and chocolate bars. Kenny and I were each able to design and make a chocolate bar. I did nibs & sea salt, he did cinnamon & chili pepper flakes. What a great experience! Thank you, Grammy, Poppy, & Sherri!!!

From there, we wandered in Parque Central for an hour while our chocolate set. During that time, Ken found a painting he really liked. It was $35 and unfortunately, we only had about $28 worth of cash left (in any currency). They couldn’t go below $35 and we didn’t want to pay the ATM fee to pull out more money when we were leaving the next day. So my  husband, genius that he is, offered up his $9 Amazon watch as compensation to cover the difference, and they accepted it in an instant! So now we have a really pretty blue painting of the Ometepe Island. You’ll have to come over and see it some time.

Then, back to El Camello for dinner again! This time, brisket (Ken) and satay chicken (Lila). Both life changing meals. It was SO GOOD. We hung out with Gerry and Leroy for a while and they lamented that other travelers weren’t as great as us. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not! Apparently we’re pretty enjoyable company. J

And that was how we ended our last night on the road! This morning was an early morning with coffee, Gerry’s pancakes, and then an easy ride to the airport. Now, we’re waiting to board our flight to Panama, where we’ll make the connection to SF. You can probably expect one more blog post from me (there are some wandering thoughts I want to string together), but for now – I’ll turn it over to my handsome husband.

Kenny’s Thoughts: The last full day was really a memorable one. It was wonderfully waking up slowly, and chatting with other members of the hotel, while the hotel owner – Gerry – made pancakes for all of us. The pancakes were awesome, and I’m a new convert to the English way of eating pancakes, with sugar and lemon juice, and nothing else on top. Except I also had bananas. When we eventually got out and onto the boat tour, that was a ton of fun. There were only about 12 other passengers, and it was a big double decker boat, that just slowly sprawled around the little islands in the northern part of Nicaraguan Lake. We enjoyed speculating about buying one of those little islands, because they apparently run from about $10,000 - $500,000. It was a lot of fun when we finally got to the warm water outlet from the side of the volcano. We really enjoyed jumping off the boat, splashing around, and drinking beers from our floating table out in the lake. I was really bummed for Lila when she hurt her ears, but I was happy to see her recovery over the rest of the day. It was neat seeing our first and only spider monkey of the trip, through binoculars. It was a small island, and the only resident is a single spider monkey, and he seems to have a fun life out there. And doing our big chocolate workshop later in the afternoon was a ton of fun. We enjoyed getting much more details on the history of chocolate, how other people consumed it in the past, and competing on chocolate bean grinding, while enthusiastically chanting the supposed old Mayan chant of “mate, mate, chocolate”. Pretty sure that chant was just for tourists, because nobody called it “chocolate” until the Spaniards in the 1600s, but it was still funny and enjoyable. I’m excited to try out or chocolate bars that we made. I also really enjoyed our last meal at the barbeque place. Really wish that restaurant was close to home – I’d eat there all the time. It really was an amazing trip, and I’m sad seeing it come to a close. I think that’s all my thoughts.