Granada

On my last trip to Nicaragua, I was able to take a day-long tour visiting three locations. After a two-hour bus ride, we came to the first national park set aside in the country. It's the home of two volcanoes and five craters. The bus spiraled up and up and up and stopped in front of the largest crater next to one dormant volcano. Steam, carbon monoxide, and sulfuric acid rose from the center, so the photos didn't really come out—it just looks hazy.



Next we traveled to a market famous in the area for all that's available. It is housed in a beautiful old stone building without a roof or doors. Stalls and restaurants and even a stage fill up every space inside the stone walls, creating a tangled web of souvenirs and local food. Here's a photo of a hammock stall.





Next we drove to Granada, the oldest colonial settlement on the continental Americas. We stopped for lunch at a luxurious hotel where the buffet was set up in an open air courtyard. One of the displays as you walked in was this table with three old sewing machines!



After our bellies were wonderfully full, we began a walking tour of the city. Here is one of the few remaining buildings pre-1800s. An American solider named William Walker from the Confederacy was paid by one city to lead a charge against a neighboring city to become the capital and center of government. He won and eventually became president of Nicaragua, also becoming a violent dictator. When the people finally drove him out of Granada, he burned 80% of the city down as he went. The blackened part of this church is the only part of that building that survived.



As we walked, we came upon a performance of folk dancing native to the area and some cool architecture.





I'll put up more photos of the trip soon. There was so much to see!