A quick look at Granada

Sunset over the cathedral.















The main street leading to the market.



The market at sunrise.
















Early bird catches the worm. He was the first one to have his booth setup.

Homestay in Granada

Julito picked us up after our second day of Spanish school to take us to our new host family. As soon as we got in our cab he spun around and started talking a-mile-a-minute. He excitedly mumbles a colloquial spanish and if he wasn´t inclined to repeat himself three or four times, I´m not sure we could communicate. It took a few tries to get that he works for the host family. Memo, papá, owns a stall in the market where he works every day of the week. Lucila, mamá, is a lawyer, but we haven`t seen her go to work besides to sell her homemade sweets out of the front door. Maria Auxiliadora, who is named after her elementary school where she attends the second grade, walks around the house all day clutching her 5-week-old puppy.

The house chain of command is clear. When Memo is hungry or thirsty he says so and Lucila serves him. When Lucila needs something done, she calls for Julito. Maria Auxiliadora gets what she wants from whoever´s closest.

Whenever Lucila has something to tell us she prefers that Julito relay the message:
"Julito tell them they can eat these mangos after lunch"
"Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, okay." Julito then waits and, as if he has just thought of the perfect translation, begins- "Lucila says you can eat these mangos after lunch. Mahn-Go, Maahhhn-Goo, mangos. The mangos are sweet and delicious. Nicaraguan mangos, you can eat them after lunch. Sweet mangos. Mahn-Go. Maaahhhhn-Gooo Duul-Sayy. Mangos."

At one point I thought Julito had started to call me Mango, but then it sounded like Marlo. Maybe Marlo´s a local term for "buddy", I thought. Then Julito said Marlo Brandon and it clicked that Marlo is an attempt at Marlon Brando. Close enough.

The family is very sweet. Lucila is a great cook and, to our delight, serves fried plantanes with every meal. Sometimes in the afternoon we pull chairs out to the back patio to watch the personal zoo. They have a green parakeet, two talking green parrots (who can say mango), a big red macaw, a tucan and two whitefaced monkeys. Very entertaining if a little noisey.

Tomorrow we will rise with Memo at 5am to see how the market starts its day.....

Ometepe

After a tipsy ferry ride across the enormous Lago de Nicaragua and an hour bouncing along a dirt road in the back of a pick-up, we found ourselves at Hacienda Merida; camp for grown-ups! The beautiful refurbished hostel was once a vacation home and working coffee plantation of the Somoza family who ruled as dictators for three generations before being driven out by the Sandanista revolution in 1979. Now it sleeps about fifty, serves delicious buffet style meals and is comfortable enough to feel like home after a few days.

The grand Isla de Ometepe is home to two volcanos, Concepción and Maderas. Concepción is an active, steep, arid, perfect cone while Maderas gets steadily more lush the higher you go with monkeys and birds in the trees and a lagoon that fills the crater on top.



We relaxed and took in the sceneray for a couple of days and then made the ambitious decision to climb Maderas- five hours up, four down. We took to the mountain with a Norwegian couple, Paal and Ilene who hiked in sandals, an Aussy, El and a rediculous couple from Brooklyn and Connecticut. Tiffany is a self-proclaimed Yoga instructor who smokes like a chimney and sounds eerily like the Nanny and her boyfriend, Kai wears a knit cap in the 90 degree weather, even while hiking. Much to our disappointment, they turned around a couple hours into it. The hike was insane. We were up to our knees in mud, swinging from vines like a bunch of monkeys.

As we reached the top the scenery grew more and more beautiful. Moss coverd every surface and a dense cool cloud blew through as we climbed in and above the canopy. Reaching the crater lagoon was quite a feat and well worth every step. Afterwards we enjoyed Toñas (local beer) with Paal, Ilene and Rick from Canada who was pretty much a camp counselor by the time we left.

We left plenty to be explored on Ometepe and can´t wait to return. We will miss Paal, Ilene and Rick who were our travel companions for a week and can´t wait to see them again.

San Juan Del Sur

So far Nicaragua has been good to us. The food is tasty and cheap. It´s about $2.50 each for dinner and a beer. Lodging seems to run about $10 for a room. This is our trip up until now....

After a shockingly warm night in Managua we headed straight for the beach. We stayed a couple nights in San Juan del Sur, a sleepy little fishing village turned surfer getaway and then a couple nights in a little hostel right next to the main surfing beach, Maderas. We took a day of surfing lessons and can both see why people fall in love with the sport. This seems to be a great place for beginners and the more advanced.
The surfers come to Maderas in truckloads everday from San Juan del Sur. Neither of us have ever been to a place that needs another guest house more, but, having said that, we are not jumping to open one up here. We can´t figure out why there isn´t more business on this string of beaches, all beautiful and all fairly private. For now we´re going to sleep on it and go check out Ometepe, an island made up of two volcanos in Lago de Nicaragua.