The last weekend in February, I spent the weekend traveling to the North of Costa Rica, to a famous city called Granada in Nicaragua. There are many famous things about Granada, for example, it's brightly colored colonial styles buildings. EVERYWHERE! Granada is Nicaragua's 6th most populated city, and is historically the most important. Granada was founded in 1524 by Fransisco Hernandez de Cordoba ostensibly the first European city in mainland America. This was by far one of my favorite weekends abroad. It wasn't a beach, it was completely a cultural experience and I loved every moment of it! I went with a smaller group, around 18 of us. We left San Jose, Costa Rica around 11 am on Friday. We took short bus ride to the bus station where our group piled into a large coach style bus that would take us all the way to Granada, Nicaragua. The bus ride was supposed to last around 6 hours. Our bus left the station at 12:30 pm, meaning we should arrive in Granada around 6:30. Unfortunately, the bus ride took a little long than expected because of a street riot that was happening in Guanacaste. We stood still in traffic without movement, for 3 hours. Thankfully, I was able to sleep through the entire thing, and was only informed of our standstill when we reached the boarder (way behind schedule).
Something interesting that would rarely ever happen in the United States would be to exchange money with people on the streets. At the boarder, we were bombarded with men who told us to exchange their money with them, and we did (only because our tour guide, Luis, said that we should).
After immigration and customs, we hopped back on the bus and drove another 2 hours to Granada. Here, we took another private bus to our hotel. We finally made it to the hotel around 11 pm. This was 12 hours of traveling, you could only imagine how tiring that was.
The next day we left early in the morning for a quick tour around the city. We went to an abandoned hospital that has been falling apart for centuries. It was one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen! After that, we packed ourselves in our bus and headed to the Masaya volcano. Here we took a quick tour of museum and then headed out on a journey of a lifetime! We walked several kilometers to an underground bat cave! It was a little freaky at first, but I quickly adjusted! Our tour guide pointed out that there is a skeleton looking object projecting out of the wall. [ It looked like a dinosaur! ] They've taken DNA samples several times over, but have never found any matches for any kind of animal, so they aren't technically allowed to say that it is a dinosaur skeleton... but between you and I, we are all pretty sure it is!
After that, we took a hike up the volcano to see the inside of the crater, and man oh many I've never seen such beautiful sights. So much nature! Luis thought that it would be a good idea to race me up the side of the volcano, lets just say I won by... a little bit!
Granada is a city on the shore of one of the largest lakes in all of Central/South America. We later had lunch on the side of a mountain over looking said lake. Following lunch we set out to the home of an artesian where we watched him make clay pots! One of our groupies got to try it and she actually did really well! Before the market closed, we headed to the artesian market of Granada where I found great deals on a couple of really cute shirts! Time to start checking off my gifts for friends and family!
The next day we gathered for breakfast in the hotel and soon after headed to a boat tour around the lake! Here we saw all sorts of interesting buildings and a few monkeys! One of the girls in our group even got to feed him some bread! This was a really interesting and informative experience where we learned all about Granada's amazing history. After the boat tour we got to take horse and buggy rides around the city where we learned even more about the city!
If any one ever has a chance now, or in their lifetime to travel to Granada, it is HIGHLY recommended. It is a beautiful and safe city that you're sure to enjoy! The locals are some of the most friendly people I've met so far!
