Granada, Nicaragua

We have been here three days now in this lush, hot, and humid country, and are beginning to settle into our new Nicaraguan experience. As you may recall from our previous blog, we stayed the night in Houston, Texas after volunteering to be bumped from our flight. We spent a restful evening in the Hilton Garden Inn near the Houston Airport (compliments of Continental) and then flew out first-class the next day at 9:00 (also compliments of Continental). I’m not sure if it was while crossing my legs with ease in my large, leather chair, or eating a full breakfast with options, that I decided I have been missing out not flying first-class all the time.

Anyway, we landed in Managua with ease, and witnessed landscape from the airplane, which reminded us of Hawaii. Once on the ground, we took a cab directly to Granada, about a 45-minute drive from Managua. Along the way we viewed even more green foliage and surrounding volcanic mountains, but also caught out first glimpse to the Nicaraguan people. Our drive took us to mostly the outskirts of Managua, and a few other towns in between. Similar to what we read about Nicaragua prior to our trip, we knew that much of the nation lives in poverty, and this was apparent from many of the shacks and crumbling houses we saw along the way. The highway, though at time crowed with pedestrians, bikers, cars, and horses, was in fine condition and the cab ride was easy.

Arriving in Granada, we immediately saw its colonial Spanish architecture and brightly colored buildings lining the streets. The city is situated next to Lake Nicaragua, which looks like an ocean, as there is no way to see across its 233 km diameter. Securing a place to stay was initially difficult for us as many of the numerous hotels and hostels in Granada did not have websites, or were slow getting back to us. We arrived at one of the hotels we requested via email and hadn’t heard back form, and they were full. However, they directed us to another establishment, and even called to book us a room.

The hotel we next arrived at was a newer hotel called the Hotel con Corazon, and it was fantastic! The rooms were nicely decorated, there was a pool, breakfast was included, and all the profits went to help fund social programs in Granada. Trisha and I were planning on staying in a hotel only one night, as we were to begin our home-stay on Sunday. We had difficulty contacting the organization however, to begin our home-stay, so we decided to stay an extra night at Hotel con Corazon. We determined this was superb idea, as we really needed two days to relax and recoup from our travels, before we became truly immersed in Nicaragua.

We finally did make it to our Granada immersion on Monday. Our Spanish class began at Casa Xalteva, as did our home-stay in with a Granada family. The Spanish class was great the first day as our class only has two students - us. We definitely knew a lot more than our last first day in Madrid, so we must have learned something this year. After class, which is four hours long, we made our way to our host family. Being a bit nervous as to what to expect from living with an unfamiliar family, eating three meals a day there, and basically becoming a local for awhile, we pensively made our way to our new house.

Fortunately they turned out to be a most welcoming family. Their house is quite large, with an open-air courtyard full of rocking-chairs (very popular in Nicaragua), caged birds, knick-knacks, and various rooms for their family members. Our room is a separate from the house in the backyard, and is very cozy, with our own little shower, television, and bed. The meals have been simple, but tasty non-the-less. I’ll let Trisha give you more details on our next blog, as she more detail oriented.

In summary, we are feeling good about our time here in Granada, and are looking forward to all that is has to offer. We have already swam in our first volcanic lake on a Spanish class excursion, arranged to teach English classes to children through Casa Xalteva, attend three parades for the Virgin Mary, and found many cool local cafes and stores. Who knows what we will discover next?