Granada the Beautiful

Well we made it to Granada and back without any major catastrophes. Day 1 (Sunday) started with a bang. We were told to be at the bus station at 4 and had every intention of being on time, actually the plan was to be early, HA! So we get to the bus station and come to find out we were supposed to be at another hotel that this particular bus stopped at, so we roll in there at 4:01 and the bus had left 10-15 minutes earlier...oops!!! Gifford drove us the extra hour + to the border where we met up with our bus and jumped on after quickly getting our passports stamped out of the country. Aaron did get in a slight argument with the bus guy who tried telling him since we missed the bus and someone sat in his assigned seat, that he needed to stand...HA! Needless to say she found another seat. We arrived in Granada unscathed two hours later.

Here are some pics from our hotel:

After getting settled in the hotel we ordered delivery pizza (a rarity where I live so it was a treat)!! The next morning was time to hit the streets! We started with a horse carriage tour around town which invigorated Aaron's allergies so he had a blast!


Granada is the oldest city in Nicaragua and we saw a lot of history, beautiful old buildings and countless churches. Here are some photos from on top of a look out we had to climb up a steep steep ladder.





In the midst of our carriage ride we stopped at Lake Nicaragua for an hour boat ride to see the 365 islas (islands) which was amazing.



People actually have their own private islands. Now most of these islands are a stones throw away from the next but they are there nonetheless. Some are empty, some are home to Monkey families as their sole inhabitants, some beautiful multi-million dollar homes, hotels, rentals, etc... So if anyone wants to come visit we can literally rent an island...how fun! Jax complained a bit about the boat and how "this isn't very fun" during some big waves getting to the islands and I thought he was going to barf, luckily he didn't at that point, save that for day 2!

The next day after our fantastic hotel breakfast we jumped in a cab and drove about 30 minutes to a town called Masaya in search of a hammock. We went to the market which was stuffed full of touristy stuff and played our part! After purchasing a skirt one lady gave me my change in a $5 bill, when I went to use it at another store they wouldn't take it, after a closer look Aaron determined it to be FAKE, it was a terrible photo copy. Luckily we were able to return it to the store that gave it to me for real money. Three hammocks and some random junk later we went down a windy road to Lake Nicaragua outside of Masaya, it was beautiful!!!



Unfortunately Jaxon's motion sickness took hold and after Aaron said, "I think he is going to barf" and after Jax turned down a piece of candy from Grandma, he did. All over the cab, yuck. Poor thing. The cabbie was quite good about it, took off the seat cover and we were off again. The next morning we had to wake up at 5:30 as our bus left at 7, miraculously we managed to get there early and made it on the bus!! Granada was a charming little town and the people were very friendly. I will definitely go back some day. Here are just some more random pics.

Jax eating ice cream...

Lime Kisses

Okay I had more but the internet isn't cooperating so I better end the post for today... as if it isn't long enough already!!! So thats it, that was Granada, it was great, come visit and I will take you there!