Granada, Laguna de Apoyo & Masaya

We managed to stick it out at the Oasis Hostel and planned our journeys and tours from there. The Oasis did grow on us after a while and was a good base of operations in which to plan next steps, while spending hours on their abundant free Internet stations. It is really an Oasis, really tranquil and relaxing. Not sure if it deserves the ´best hostel in Central America´title that we have seen around, but certainly a very nice one.

The first trip we planned was to the Laguna de Apoyo, organised by Oasis. A mini bus took us from the hotel a hour up a bumpy road to the laguna at a place called The Craters Edge http://www.craters-edge.com/. A really nice setting with some nice facilities. The lake is a really huge crater which acts as a water reserve and really nice to swim in, although the water can get a little rough. Fortunately there were no bull sharks in there, unlike Lake of Nicaragua. Apparently, Lake of Nicaragua was once full of bull sharks migrated in there from the Carribean - then in the Somoza´s years they were almost run to extinction by overfishing for fins, so that these days they are very rarely spotted. The day trip to Laguna de Apoyo was really peaceful and tranquil and we enjoyed every minute - Gregory swimming for hours and working on his kayaking skills, while Flavia spent the whole day reading on the hammock.

The next day we booked a 5-in-1 trip with WOW Tours http://www.wowtoursnicaragua.com which included visiting the fortaleza Coyotepe, a fort originally built by the Spanish that Somoza turned into a political prison where many political opponents were tortured and killed. Then we drove up to Volcan Masaya followed by the Market in Masaya town, followed by the picturesque town of Catarina and San Juan del Oriente with their pottery and garden centres and splendid lagoon viewpoint.
The prison was a particularly gruesome place, modern and totally concrete, but still had the feeling of a 15th century chamber of torture linked more to the Torquemada than to anything modern. It is said that on the last days of the civil war with Contras and Sandinistas, by the time the Sandinistas got to the prison the guards had killed all the political prisoners in the jail.

Coyotepe prison

Volcan Masaya is an active volcano. At the craters edge, on the day we visited it seemed to be spurting out steam instead of the sulphuric and acidic mix of gas and vapour. The crater is accessible by car - you park right next to the active crater and can literally look down inside it, 200 m below. There are actually 5 craters around the site, but the rest are inactive. At the car park you are advised to to face your car in the right direction for a quick get away in case it erupts, while the leaflets they hand out at the visitor´s entrance also suggest to use the vehicles as shelter in case it starts blowing out big rocks...

Masaya market is the usual mix of artesan products and restaurants, though the bits on sale did not quite catch Flavia´s attention, for once!!! Especially good are the low cost good quality hammocks of all descriptions. The knitted ones are particularly good, but we decided not to buy any so not to have to carry them around all the way to Guatemala and Mexico. Hopefully we can buy a couple there.

The town of Catarina is really nice and seems to be where Nicaraguans frequent for a day out The road to Catarina is interesting because you see lots of children and adults with spades and tools who are busy filling in the pot holes in the road - then they stand aside and want you to pay them for fixing the road that the government has no money for. At the very top of the town you have a spectacular view of the Laguna de Apoyo >>>

S Juan del Oriente has really great pottery of all descriptions - very hard not to buy anything.

Today, after three nights here, we finally had the chance to walk around Granada itself and take a look at the beautiful architecture. We actually didn´t walk around a great deal, as we kept bumping into people and chatting for ages. We started the day at Kathy´s Waffle House, possibly the best place in town where to have breakfast. There we met a Canadian couple and stayed for ages. As we left, we then bumped into Aidey, a British-US chap who we met back in Canoa, Ecuador, at the fabulous Bambu hostal. In a nutshell, we walked very little and only saw the central area of Granada, but still managed to get a good few pics together >>>

This is the best hamburger we have ever eaten in our lives - it costs $5 and it can be ordered at Zoom Bar in Granada.

This evening we are moving on to Managua (only an hour away). Tomorrow morning we have a 6.30 am flight to Corn Islands, where we will stay till Friday. We are planning to go to Little Corn, which is the smaller island, nice and remote and with no internet access.
In Managua we will be staying at the Jardin de Italia hotel.