Grenada: Historic City of Many Colours

Street scenes near the Oasis (market in the distance)

We have had a time of mixed blessings here in Grenada Nicaragua. People are very friendly and the city is a vividly colourful mix of tarted up old buildings combined with the human warmth of a socialist economy amid significant levels of poverty and hardship, by comparison for example with Costa Rica or the US style development of Panama.



Christine finds the 31 C 66% humidity something akin to heat stroke which is relatively speaking a little extreme as we have had similar temperatures in Japan and Asia sometimes with much higher humidities, nevertheless it is still bloody hot and somewhat stifling and we will be glad to get to higher country in Guatemala assuming our flight tomorrow from Managua comes off as it should.


We have taken a few walks to the Central Plaza and to the market and took a taxi down to Lake Nicaragua, to make a photo essay of the spirit of Granada, with an emphasis on including the people, as well as the architecture and scenery, to give a glint of human feeling to the experience, so without further ado, here it is, with only a few comments to locate the image stream ...

A young racing cyclist presses past last century's horse and carriage

Coming to the central plaza and park

Panorama of the plaza and church with a volcano in the background (click to enlarge)

Two women talking in a doorway

Around the city markets

Ruins of the Old Hospital

Merced church (you can climb the tower for a view)

Two destitute street people

Tourists buying fruit at a street stall

The street that runs to the lake in the distance

Ferry terminal with a long pier behind extending out into the lake.

What is this Shiva lingam-yoni doing here?

Panorama of the beach at the lake to the right of the Ferry Terminal (click to enlarge)

Tonight we have been watching Che Guevara's "The Motorcycle Diaries" which recapitulate many places we have been from San Martin de los Andes through Valparaiso, to the Peruvian and Amazonian cities of my 1999 trip from the Andes to the Amazon. In the middle of the night there was a humungous flash of thunder and lightning and for the rest of the night, the power, including the essential cooling fan in this little cubicle room, was off and on like a yo-yo.

Redemption on the Road to Nicaragua

Sunrise on the road from Monteverde

We started off today at 4.10 with the alarm for the 4,30 bus. By the time we had pulled our clothes on it was 4.17 so we made a bolt for the street corner nearly slipping on the dark as we left. There were other shadowy characters waiting and the bus pulled up within seconds of our arrival.

It was a large smooth bus riding an excessively steep, bumpy mountain road at seeds of around 15 kph, lurching all over the place as it went. At intervals people appeared out of the half dark and the bus stop for each one taking a tortuous amount of time to wind slowly down from the cloud forest.

The views were spectacular. It was almost impossible to photograph both because they were fleeting in the half-light between trees and embankments and because the bus continued to behave like a busking bronco, but here is a short photo journal of a few of the somewhat fuzzy impressionistic results ...

Houses in la Junta

The bus was nominally headed for la Junta, but ran on to the junction with the Pan American at la Irma bus stop. There we waited for our Transnica Nicaragua bus which we had paid $50 US for a reserved pair of seats on, to pick us up at 7, but at 6.45 a Transnica bus for Tegucigalpa (Honduras) which would also pass through Nicaragua came right past and refused to stop. We were left paralyzed in complete disbelief, trying to come to terms with having to take local buses and collectivos to the border and through, a slow messy business.

Just when our spirits were at their lowest ebb at around 7.10, along came another (Central Line) bus also heading for Managua which offered us a ride for $42 to Grenada, which we took like a shot, piled in and had a confortable air-conditioned ride in the front disabled seat with a toilet on hand at the back.

Pan American Costa Rica before the border

Before we knew it we had passed Liberia and suddenly we knew from the litter of stranded articulated trucks and large mobile homes that we were at the border. On the Costa Rican side there was a huge queue and a money tout kindly arranged for us to get right to the head as disabled preferential, but when we came out managed to scam us for half the value of the Costa Rican Colones we were trying to change into Nicaraguan Cordobas, making off with some $8 of our hard earned cash although their luck ran out when I knew the rate for $20 US.

Nicaraguan border control

Then when we got to the Nicaraguan side which was a bleak affair blowing with the dust of endless articulated lorries, the driver took all our passports and sent us to customs, where we faced a ragged confused inspection room, but a Customs man suddenly emerged and waved us through without a search.

Lake Nicaragua

Near Grenada

Then it was plain sailing to Rivas along Lago Nicaragua and then on to Granada, where we caught a taxi and drove to another hostel which was full before settling at the Oasis Hostel, a rambling warren with a small swimming pool and a genuine Oasis garden in the front courtyard.

Oasis Hostel Grenada Nicaragua

Panorama of the Oasis Oasis (click to enlarge)

The kitchen area

More about colourful Granada in the next blog,