Nicaragua Excursions

Trisha and I have had some fantastic excursion experiences from Granada during our first week. Although we are enjoying the town of Granada immensely, the schedule during our first week allowed more time for excursions. We did not begin teaching English until our second week. Two of our trips were with the group from our language school Casa Xalteva, while the other was on our own.

Laguna de Apoyo: This fresh-water volcanic crater was our first destination and only a half-hour drive from Granada. Trisha and I piled into a “microbus” (old-school Toyota mini-van with no seatbelts, one row of seats facing backward, and an engine that sounds like a lawnmower) on Monday with four other people from the program. Casa Xalteva arranged for the excursion and microbus, which quickly zipped us away from Granada up into a National Reserve. On our journey we passed nearby villages on streets scattered with men and women riding bicycles or walking to and from their work places. Sporadic horse and carts and piles of burning rubbish were also in our peripheries, but mostly we witnessed the dense forests and green vegetation throughout. When we finally crested the enormous hill after ten minutes of puttering from our micro-van we witnessed the immensity of the Laguna de Apoyo. This huge lake covered many miles and was crystal blue from our distance on the ridge. Our driver slowly made the descent down to the lake, where we were dropped off at beach/restaurant. Andres, a former Casa Xalteva youth, was our excursion coordinator and soon set the tone for group by finding a nice seat by the lake and relaxing for a few hours. We used this time to read, swim in the cool, clear waters, and chatted with some of the other students. The most interesting of the lot was a professor of hydrology from U.C. Davis on sabbatical for a year with his two children. All three had been taking Spanish class at Casa Xalteva for the past week and were to return to the small home they were building in Costa Rica the following week (the mother was still there entertaining friends). After a relaxing few hours, we headed back to Granada, and thus ended excursion number one.

Katarina: This cute little city required another ½ hour microbus trip through similar scenery as our previous excursion. Before I go on, microbuses and cars in general are so cool here in that they will pick up anyone in need of a lift, without charging them a thing. Our first microbus picked up a whole family on our way home and dropped them off their doorstep. Anyway, the destination was not a lake this time, but a lovely little village that specialized in creating artistic pottery. We were fortunate on this excursion to have only one other student in addition to Trisha and me, which allowed us more individual attention from the pottery artisans whose business we toured. Again led by Andres from Casa Xalteva, our visit gave us chance to watch the process of creating the pottery and I actually got a turn on the pottery wheel (very difficult as my results turned out to be “abstract” to say the least). After the pottery tour, we made a quick journey to another part of town, where we had a spectacular view of the Lago de Apoyo, the lake from the previous day. This higher elevation town also had numerous plant stores and small red taxis with three wheels and little joysticks for steering wheels. All this made for another enjoyable outing.

Posintepe: This first non-microbus outing was located at the base of the nearby volcano Mombacho, and only a bike ride away. And that is exactly what we used, although the bikes Casa Xalteva provided us were about two sizes too small and in need of some major tune-ups (I think mine had breaks?) This time our group was quite large with seven people, and we journeyed together through the local city streets. After biking near the perimeter of Lake Nicaragua, which borders Granada, our paved road soon turned to dirt and to my delight our journey became a mountain biking excursion too. The dirt road passed many of the poorer areas of Granada, with small dirt floor shacks and large families bursting through the seams. We finally made are way to a dirt path which was only passable by hiking. Our journey up led us our ultimate destination, Posintepe. It was an inspirational viewpoint with a giant cross, popular only with the locals. (Finding this place without Andres would have been very difficult). We learned that many funeral processions make their way to this point by walking the 2-3 miles from the cemetery for the final service. The view is of the entire city of Granada, a huge chunk of Lake Nicaragua, and the small inlets nearby. The most touching part of this excursion was our visit to Andre’s mother’s house, which was one of the many shacks that we passed. All members of the family came out to great us, including four little girls who did their best to find us all chairs. We enjoyed the hospitality greatly and discovered they were not ashamed of their home at all, but rather enjoyed having us there.


La Isla De Ometepe: This is a highlight of many travelers journey’s to Nicaragua. The Island of Ometepe is located near the center of Lake Nicaragua, has two giant volcanoes on either side of it, and is about 3 hours from Granada. Our host family recommended we spend at least 2 days there, as the journey there is a bit long. So on Saturday we walked a few blocks from our house to the “bus station,” which was a large dirt lot full of yellow school buses. A local directed us to our bus that would be heading to the town of Rivas. Rivas was about 2 hours away and a transition point to the boat that would take us to the island. Trisha and I chose our seats at around 8:40 a.m., awaiting our 9:00 departure. We quickly learned that buses usually don’t leave until they are full. So around 9:45, with standing room only, our yellow school bus headed out to Rivas. Along the way we stopped and dropped-off and picked-up at least 30 different people. Upon our arrival at Rivas we took a local taxi to the ferry, which would take us on an hour journey to the Island of Ometepe. The ferry ride was fairly easy, although the water was a bit rough due to high winds. By the way, I have to mention that all this transportation was super cheap (bus $1, taxi $1, ferry $3). I think back to London that charged 5 pounds ($9) per one-way subway ride!

Once on the island, we took another taxi (not as cheap) and headed to our hotel in an area called Santo Domingo. The hotel didn’t receive our reservation via email and was sold out, but did help us arrange for a nice little cabana next door. Trisha and I soon began taking in the beautiful scenery all around us. Two giant volcanoes, dark blue lake water, green jungle, huge trees, and fields full of plantain plants and rice patties. Many people go to the island to climb one or both of the volcanoes. We resolved ourselves to relax near the beach and mountain bike on the many dirt roads running close-by. There were only two restaurants on in Santo Domingo, but both were tasty and inexpensive. At the end of our trip, we decided that the relaxing option, rather than the trekking through the hot jungle up a volcano was a wise option. Besides, we witnessed plenty of howler monkeys on the trees across the street from our cabana, and had frequent tropical birds stop by wherever we were sitting.