Day 3 - Granada

We woke up at about 9am to the sounds of a band playing outside. I looked out the balcony and there were two guys playing drums and another on the trumpet. It seemed like a weird place to be playing music on a quiet (well not so quiet now) side street at 9am on a Saturday.


While Kat was in the shower I was watching news on TV saw lots of people on the streets on Managua supporting the FSLN or PLC. There are 4 television stations in Managua and two were showing FSLN and the other two showing PLC supporters. Later all four stations were only showing FSLN supporters. Hmmmmmm.

After breakfast we walked over to the central mercado which was packed solid with locals selling everything imaginable on the street. After two blocks we were feeling somewhat claustrophobic so we bailed out and headed back towards the central park and to the Convento San Francisco museum where we paid $2 each and wandered around the museum where they had some nice art and a really cool diorama of the entire city. There are also a lot of pre Colombian statuary, and some exhibits on the native peoples on display as well.





Next stop was the Cathedral. There were some firemen using their portable firefighting ladder to get way up high and clean the ceilings 20 meters up.





Outside in the park there were buses and lots of FSLN supporters. We later learned that Ortega was busing in to Managua tens of thousands of supporters from all around the country to support his bid to change the constitution so he can run for another term. I forgot to mention that we saw FSLN signs on almost every electrical pole on the outskirts of the city.

Getting close to lunch time we stopped at the Roadhouse Bar which was nice and air conditioned. Had a few beers and some nachos. Lots of locals seemed to be hanging out there watching soccer on the big screen TV. Next we went to Zoom for some more beers and Cuba libres.



After a shower at the hotel we went to the Pan American for dinner (at the suggestion of Bill who we met the day before). It was nice to be off the off the touristified Calle Calzada. The food and drinks were excellent and we hung out with the owner who was a real interesting character entertaining us with war stories from Vietnam - ended up staying there until almost midnight and we couldn't drink any more. Stumbled back to the hotel and passed out

Day 2 - Granada

Day 2 - Granada

The next morning we woke up and found that the shower had no hot water - only tepid which took a little getting used to first but since it was generally so hot outside it felt kind of refreshing.

We went downstairs for breakfast (fresh fruit, juice, coffee and a huge croissant with butter and jam) and found that when paying for or beers the night before "seis" was our room number and since the beers were only $1 each the guard left our change with the owners. This was a good first impression on the honesty of the hotel employees.

Victor, the hotel owner, gave us a map of the city and pointed out some places that he thought we would enjoy along with where we were located, a quiet side street just off Calle Xalteva and 3 blocks from the central plaza and cathedral. We then set out towards the cathedral but took a wrong turn on Calle Xalteva and ended up going the opposite way. We stopped at a park across from Iglesia Xalteva to get our bearings and some school girls posed for our first photo.



We decided to keep walking and head to the Fortaleza La Polvora. According to the guide book it was built in 1748 to protect the city's gun power supply from Pirates. Later Somoza's National guard used it as a military post and jail. When we arrived the gate was locked but a man inside was doing some gardening and let us in. We walked around and climbed two of the guard towers for a great view of the city.


where they stored the gunpowder


view from the guard tower


We then made our way east towards the center of town, stopping to watch some kids play baseball in a park before going in the Inglesia de la Merced which was built in 1534. We walked around inside the church and then and paid $1 each to climb to the top of the bell tower for an even more incredible view of the city.


Kat in the Bell Tower



From there we walked to the central park where there were lots of people selling things and offering tours, horse carriage rides, etc. It was pretty hot but there was a nice breeze coming from the east over the lake - we definitely needed a beer so we made our way to the Zoom Bar that was recommended in the Lonely Planet guide. We had a few Victorias (our favorite) and met a few of the local ex-pats including Bill who was originally from Seattle by way of New York and is now living on an island in the Isletas in Lake Nicaragua. After a few beers we walked down to the lake and then back into town and got some really good Italian meat combo sandwiches at the Garden Cafe which is a pretty sweet spot for lunch. In the central park we saw La Gigantona - a Nicaraguan tradition where a giant lady is paraded down the street and dances with a big headed dwarf called El Cabezon the accompaniment of drummers. La Gigantona is supposed to be a tall Spanish lady, and El Cabezon represents the native Nicaraguan, shorter, but much more clever.



Since it was so hot out we needed some more liquid refreshments and headed back to Zoom to sample the Flor de Cana. We then met Cat and Tom from England who had been traveling the world.



After a few too many drinks we made our way back to the hotel for a short nap and shower before we headed out to find somewhere to eat dinner. The main street, Calle La Calzada, east of the park is blocked off to vehicles and restaurants set up tables in the street. We went to Nectar for a drink along with some chips and salsa. Nectar is a pretty sweet bar with some nice ambiamnce inside but we wanted to sit outside and enjoy some people watching. Lots of kids would walk by and try to sell us stuff - on past trips I would always tell them "yo ya tengo" which translates to "I already have one" and would then usually be left alone - some wouldn't take no for an answer. One kid made us a pretty neat grasshopper and a heart with an arrow going through it out of leaves - it was pretty cool so I gave him $1.

For dinner we ended up at El Zaguan, a steak house behind the cathedral, where we had some great fire grilled steaks, along with wine, bread, and salad for $40.


It was still pretty early so we went back to Zoom bar for some more beers - on the streets there was a live band and some kids break dancing which was kind of weird to see them do without any hip hop to accompany their moves. At Zoom we met one of the bartenders who used to live in the states but was enjoying his night off - he hooked us up with free beers and we had a good time watching the show outside. We finally stumbled back to our hotel at 11pm and hit the sack

Day 1 - Arrival in Managua and transfer to Granada

We flew out of San Francisco on time at 11am on Continental with an scheduled hour layover in Houston. Once in Houston, we wanted to get a quick drink at an airport restaurant that was right near our gate but the waitress was incompetent and it turned into a 40 minute ordeal as they switched my credit card with someone else's when it was time to pay the bill. Fortunately we got it worked out and then found that our flight was delayed for another hour due to an FAA computer glitch that was affecting flights all over the eastern US.

We finally arrived in Managua an hour late at about 10pm and made it through immigration and customs in about 10 minutes paying our $5/person entry tax. The driver from our hotel, El Terrasol, was there waiting and he had us at the hotel in about 45 minutes. Since it was late the night guard let us in and gave us the keys to the room. Our room was super tiny but had a comfortable bed, security box, cable tv, and a/c, along with a small balcony that looked over the street.

We were pretty thirsty from our trip so Kat went down and got some beers, two Victorias and two Tonas, from the guard. She dosent speak Spanish and the guard didn't speak English so when he said "seis" she thought that meant $6 and gave him the money.

We were pretty tired from the day of traveling so we watched some TV and then hit the sack.