Granada Trip

This post is all about our recent trip to Granada, Nicaragua.

Every 3 months we have to leave the country for at least 72 hours in order to renew our visas. For our first "visa run" we decided on Granada, Nicarauga. It is a beautiful colonial city about 2 hours across the border.

The trip started with a late night expedition to San Jose. Our bus left at 6 am, so we needed to stay in San Jose the night before. That day we were planning to go to the hostel, book our room, and find the bus terminal while it was light out. However, this plan did not take flight. That morning Jordan got very sick (the projectory kind) and so we didn't make our pre-trip to San Jose. That evening he was feeling better so we decided to go anyway.

Jordan came to my school at 9pm and we headed to find a taxi. We had to make one crucial stop first- the pharmacy. Not for Jordan, but for me. I had developed pink eye! Great timing! So we go my medicine and found a taxi.



We went to the hostel in San Jose and hung out in our room until we were tired enough to sleep. The bed was not so comfortable. It sunk in in the middle so I kept rolling into Jordan. It was not fun, but we were only there for 5 hours anyway.

We got up and headed to the bus stop at 5am. The bus ride took about 4 hours to the border. At the border we got off and stood in line to get our passports stamped. This part took about an hour and then we got on the bus again. "That was really easy," we were thinking. Not so much... That was just the Costa Rican side. The stamps we got were to say we left Costa Rica. We then rode the bus the Nicaraugan side and they collected our passports. We got off the bus with all our luggage and played "red light-green light". You press the button- if you get green you are good to go, if you get red they search your bag. Of course I got red! I was the only one in our little group. So I went into the building and the official looking guy looked at me, touched the side of my bag and said, "Have a nice day." Man! I should have brought some illegal stuff if that's their idea of security!

We made it to Granada at about 1 pm and found our hostel. Two teachers from my school, Tausha and Jodi, were also doing the same border run. We ate (breakfast in the middle of the afternoon) and then explored around the city a bit. It has beautifully restored colonial buildings. The colors and details are lovely.



The next day we spent the day exploring the city. We found a really nice convent-turned- museum and explored around there for a while. It had an amazing courtyard that let a nice breeze come through. We sat in some rocking chairs and enjoyed that for a while because it was so hot. There were a lot of pre-Hispanic artifacts, like huge statues with strange faces.



On Saturday we went to Laguna de Apoyo. It was the highlight of the trip! Our hostel had a shuttle that took us to the hostel on the laguna. Its in the middle of no where. The lake was created in the crater of an old volcano. It was so beautiful! The rain forest came right down to the water. We got to swim in the lake, eat lunch, take out kayaks and have massages from a blind man. It was so amazing! We wish we would have stayed overnight, which we might do next time! The lake was a perfect temperature and the staff was very helpful. And the hammocks! There were hammocks at Laguna and our hostel in Granada. Jordan and I spent so much time enjoying the hammocks and good books!





On Sunday we went on a guided tour to Volcan Mombacho. We took a car to the national park then a huge old army vehicle to the top of the volcano. We stopped at a coffee plantation and had an amazing view of most of Nicaragua. We then hiked through the rain forest and saw the crater. The crater has been inactive for a long time so all the vegetation has grown over it. We also stopped at a viewpoint that allowed us to see both lakes in Nicaragua, Laguna de Apoyo and a lot of the countryside. It was so amazing!







On Monday we headed home the same way we came. It's very weird to be seperated from your passport and then see the guy walking to the bus with 40 or so passports and no protection. It made me wonder how much my passport is worth on the black market. Hmm...

This trip had a longer buffer time and I didn't have to go back to work until Tuesday, which was nice. The bus on the way home didn't have air conditioning so we were sticky and stinky and hungry.

We haven't decided where we will go next. Maybe the beach in Nicaragua or Panama.