Granada, finally some competition for Antigua

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I knew I was going to love Granada when we pulled in.  Touristy yes, but with that came beautiful colonial buildings, nice cafes, and a well-maintained central square.  We of course headed to get our internets fix.  That night, we decided to camp out along the lake.  Scouting the area, we came across two Mercedes trucks (German travellers, of course).  We asked to crash next to them (safety in numbers and all that).  The next morning, we chatted with one of our neighbors (Sonja, Claus, and Mia).  They joined us for breakfast at one of the restaurants along a pedestrian street.  We then strolled around the city.  Did I mention Claus is also a kiter?  The men soon hashed out a plan to head for the nearest kite spot (oh gee).

Managua – not so capital

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After leaving the coast, we made a stop in the capital, Managua.  The city doesn’t exactly roll out the red carpet.  It didn’t help matters that it was excruciatingly hot.  We had a look around what would be a central square in any other city: large church (caving in and complete with bullet holes), museum, government building, park, and a fountain.  The church has been frozen in time.  It was condemned after the last major earthquake in the early 70s.  The building was shot up during a civil war. In any case, the place was deserted.  Time to go.

 

Party hostels to party beaches

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Well, after the Leon sleeping ordeal, we were set to head out of town to the beach.  What is that saying about trouble coming in threes (hostel #1, hostel #2, horrible noise coming from the breaks).  Something was terribly wrong.  G pulled over to try and inspect the brakes.  Like good little travellers, we threw up the safety triangles.  I gentleman noticed us, pulled over with family in tow and lead us around the city until we found a mechanic.  Keep in mind that this was a holiday weekend, so finding a mechanic was a blessing.  The gentleman was visiting Leon from Managua (capital of Nicaragua). Now, I have to admit up until this point, I hadn’t formed the bests of opinions about the people in Nicaragua.  I found some of the men to be disrespectful and the general population to be less than friendly.  This man gave me a new data point though.  It might be cultural to not be so friendly to strangers, who knows.  We did truly appreciate his help though.

I knew that we were going to be at the mechanics a while when he started hammering at shit.  I think if we could speak better Spanish, we could have just explained to him to inspect the brakes first.  They did do a fairly good job (we noticed how detailed oriented they were).  In the end, our brakes were replaced and it was pretty inexpensive considering we were there for the entire day.  We made it to the beach that night and camped out in the parking lot of a hostel/restaurant.  The place was packed and the beach was filthy.  People flee the city for the beach during Semana Santa.  We were back in Taj though, and that is all that mattered to us (first night after the bed bug wars).  We chilled for a few nights there, enjoying the surf.  Fresh water was inconsistent at best though, so we were definitely hankering for a shower.  We did see a beach cleanup crew go by on our last day (to late for us, but still nice to know that it’s done).  Walking through other people’s trash on the beach was a little infuriating.

 

Boarding down the side of a volcano (there is a reason to visit Leon!)

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Well, if it wasn’t clear by now, G is a bit of an adrenaline junkie.  He particularly loves things on a board where you move fast (kiting, snow boarding, etc.).  When he saw that you could board down the side of a volcano outside of Leon, he got that all too familiar look in his eye (he’s about to charm me into coming along).  There were two options, go down like you were snow boarding or like you were tobogganing (on your rump).  We both choose to utilize our backsides.

The day we chose was particularly hot and windy (carrying your board and gear up the side of a volcano and through the active crater wasn’t awesome).  In the end, we did make it to the top and were rewarded by some incredible views.  It was then go time, and we suited up. We were both keen and therefore close to the front of the line.  The boards were really just reinforced wood with a piece of laminate on the bottom to help with speed.  I noticed that a piece of laminate had broken off on one of the boards.  I new the jagged edge would catch and create drag.  I made sure G got the other board – knowing he would appreciate the speed more.  I was cursing that decision on the way down.  I barley get the board moving, f@$k that (okay – my form was probably not the best, but that board didn’t help).  G of course came piling down the hill after my having a grand old time.  Oh well, we were there to satisfy the adrenaline junkie.