5: Nicaragua

This week I went to Nicaragua so that I could renew my visa (UK nationals - and many others - are only allowed to stay in Costa Rica for 3 months at a time). Joanna, Johnny and I set off last Sunday at 6am and started on the 9 hour bus ride to Granada, which is on the Western side of Nicaragua. The capital of Nicaragua is Managua but we were told to avoid it and stick to the more interesting and picturesque Granada. On arrival in Granada we checked in at a hostel called The Bearded Monkey which turned out to be pretty cool, despite the grumpy receptionist. We also met a girl called Annefleur, from Holland, who ended up sharing our dormitory and joining us for the following couple of days.

We spent out first evening and full day exploring Granada, which looked something like this:

Granada from above

The town has a lovely feeling about it, it was full of tourists but it didn't really matter - the colourful buildings and the atmosphere of the place made it worthwhile. Horse and carts were trundling around the town carrying tourists and, seemingly, some locals too. Granada was originally founded by Spaniards and architecture is famously colonial, very different from anything I have seen in Costa Rica.

On our way to breakfast at "Kathy's Waffle House" - which was excellent, by the way - we realised that something interesting was going on... there seemed to be a film being made, with lots of people wearing red t-shirts and bearing flags running enthusiastically up the street. It turned out that an advert was being made for a presidential campaign for "El Gordo Presidente" (The Fat President). It seemed very fun and the latino music was blasting out of the speakers. I'm not sure a campaign like this would go down well in Britain!

Making of a TV ad for El Gordo Presidente

On our second day we made a day visit to Masaya, a town which is about 45 minutes away from Granada and famed for its craft market. We spent the day walking round and discovering the town, and made a few (cheap) purchases in the market. The town and surrounds were a lot "rougher" than Granada, perhaps more indicative of the "real" Nicaragua (unseen by tourists)... but we still had good day.

In the evening we went to a local Irish Pub (run by a genuine Irishman) and had the best fish & chips I've tasted for a while! It was a real taste of home, although slightly odd knowing that home was such a long way away.

We decided to leave Granada on day three (Wednesday) to head to Laguna de Apoyo, where we spent the night. The lake was lovely, and we spent a lot of time lounging around reading and using the facilities provided by the hostel (such as kayaks). Here's our view from the hostel:

Laguna de Apoyo

We went back to Granada on Thursday and then made an afternoon trip to a place called Coyotepe. This is an old fort that was used as a prison up until the 1980s. A volunteer from the Nicaraguan boy scouts took us round on a tour of the place, and told us about the gruesome history of the place. Some pretty chilling stories! It was principally used for prisoners of war during the Nicaraguan Civil War, and we were shown pitch black cells and torture cells where prisoners had had to endure some pretty horrific things. All in all an interesting but slightly chilling experience (and there were plenty of bats flying around above our heads too).

Sadly we headed back to San José on Friday, but having had a taste of Nicaragua I want to go back and see more! I just hope I have the time and the money to do so...

Check out the photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=280593&id=614663552&fbid=10150128491258553